Sweet Flavourings

When it comes to the necessary ingredients for making sweet things, the cook needs to keep in stock candied fruit, honey, cooking chocolate, cocoa powder, orange blossom water and icing/confectioners’ sugar, which is called zucchero vanigliato, because it is flavoured with vanilla. Wild fruits such as berries can be preserved in grappa or other alcoholic liquids. Finally, there will be a selection of sticky liqueurs to give cakes, cookies and desserts their distinctive flavour.

Piedmont, particularly the city of Turin, is the base for chocolate making in the northern regions. This chocolate is eaten just as it is, but it can also be used in all sorts of delicious desserts, such as chocolate pudding blended with coffee and amaretti, or in a dark rich cake, or combined with chestnut purée and meringues in a confection known as Il Montebianco, or the white mountain.