Car RentalsMushrooms For Dessert?
Piazza del Popolo
Funghetti di Offida
While Italian mushrooms like porcini and cardoncelli garner acclaim for their distinct characteristics, the hill town of Offida has another variety of mushroom that satisfies the sweet tooth rather than the savory palate. Funghetti (little mushrooms) are sugary white mushroom-shaped treats traditional to this hilltop hamlet in Le Marche.
The puffy anise-scented sweets are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. They are created from simple ingredients: flour, sugar, egg white and anise seed (or locally-produced anisette liqueur) mixed into a paste then formed into balls and left to dry for a few days. They are crowded into a cast-iron pan and baked. While they cook, they puff up on top and remain white, like button mushroom caps. The bottoms, all huddled up in the pan, stay slimmer and take on a brownish hue from the iron. When removed to a plate, they look like a spread of forest mushrooms just sprouted from the earth.
Photo courtesy MuseiPiceni.it
Tradition says the history of these localized sweets dates back to the late 1400s, about the time the town’s guardian fortezza and crenellated Palazzo Comunale were constructed. Funghetti were born of the cucina povera (peasant cuisine). Once found only in private kitchens, they are now sold in pastry shops and at the weekly markets around the area. There is not a festa or holiday that is celebrated without them. They are usually served with a healthy shot of anisetta or mistra’, a regional anise-flavored moonshine. The anise seeds for both the liqueurs and the funghetti come from farms just outside the village.
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