Venetian Bones of the Dead -- Ossa da Morto: There are many versions of the Bones of the Dead, cookies Italians make for the Day of the Dead, November 2. With respect to those of the other parts of Italy, the Bones of the Dead in the Veneto region are quite different: they're made from corn meal rather than wheat flour.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 pound (500 g) cornmeal
- Wheat flour
Preparation:
Start out with 2 quarts of water at a brisk boil and a pound of corn meal. Slowly sift in the corn meal, stirring all the while, and stop adding it when the polenta reaches the consistency of very soft mashed potatoes -- in this case you don't want a firm polenta. Cook it, stirring energetically (see instructions if need be; the full cooking time will probably not be necessary here), and once it is done let it rest in the pot for a couple of hours.
Whip it up again, seasoning it with salt and a good pinch of pepper, work a hand full of wheat flour into it to give it consistency, and remove the dough from the pot. Make it into bread sticks, giving them a shape known as pane trandoto, loaves that are spindle-shaped with wider middles and pinched ends. Bake the sticks on a lightly floured baking tin until the skins harden with a fine network of cracks. My Italian recipe doesn't give a temperature; I'd figure 360 F (180 C) and keep an eye on them.
These are the traditional Day of the Dead specialty in Verona. Around Treviso the bones of the dead are instead made from risen bread dough, to which some butter and oil are added, together with sugar and anise seed; sometimes honey is used too. The dough is shaped into 4-6 inch-long sticks that broaden bonily at the extremities, baked in a moderate (360 F, 180 C) oven for 10-15 minutes, and then baked a second time when cool. At this point they will keep quite well.
Whip it up again, seasoning it with salt and a good pinch of pepper, work a hand full of wheat flour into it to give it consistency, and remove the dough from the pot. Make it into bread sticks, giving them a shape known as pane trandoto, loaves that are spindle-shaped with wider middles and pinched ends. Bake the sticks on a lightly floured baking tin until the skins harden with a fine network of cracks. My Italian recipe doesn't give a temperature; I'd figure 360 F (180 C) and keep an eye on them.
These are the traditional Day of the Dead specialty in Verona. Around Treviso the bones of the dead are instead made from risen bread dough, to which some butter and oil are added, together with sugar and anise seed; sometimes honey is used too. The dough is shaped into 4-6 inch-long sticks that broaden bonily at the extremities, baked in a moderate (360 F, 180 C) oven for 10-15 minutes, and then baked a second time when cool. At this point they will keep quite well.
