Baking for Books

Made my best SFRATTI yet, yesterday, ready for my three approaching book talks, next week. To read about sfratti see: P91 in my 2nd novel Not in our Hands. Sfratti are rolls of pastry, baked, once filled with boiled honey and nuts, flavoured with orange peel and cinnamon. The recipe has been passed down from the 16th Century, devised by Jews living in the ghetto of PITIGLIANO (often called ‘Piccola Gerusalemme – Little Jerusalem). Sfratti means ‘evicted’. Why? Because the Jews of Rome were evicted by Papal representatives who banged on the homes of Jewish homes with wooden sticks, to tell them to leave their homes whence they were sent to live in ghettos like Pitigliano. This sweet pastry imitates a wooden stick and is often eaten at Rosh Hashanah, when sweet food is traditionally eaten.So from tragic to joyful. I was so so lucky to find them, freshly baked, in 2014, in  a shop in Pitigliano where the shopkeeper knew all about their origins.I found the recipe on a website. So I brought a 500 yr old recipe, back to life.Yum!