Confections

The following recipes for simple confections are mostly of the type that would be prepared in the home. Italians are great lovers of all kinds of candies and little sweets, though nowadays the simple homemade and artisanal varieties are being replaced rapidly by industrially prepared candies. Most of these sweets date from the time when white sugar was still considered a rare and precious commodity, and they may seem primitive to those of us accustomed to fancy French chocolates. The most outstanding characteristic of these confections is their emphasis on flavor and texture over sweetness. Though they are not low in sugar, the sugar is secondary to the intrinsic flavor that it accompanies.