Mostaccioli

The word 'mostaccioli' comes from the Latin 'mustaceum', meaning 'made with must'. Mostaccioli are a typical sweet of southern Italy, particularly of the Campania region, which is prepared with grape must, flour, honey, nuts, spices and various flavourings. The shape of mostaccioli varies according to local tradition, but they are generally hard, crunchy biscuits, often diamond- or rhombus-shaped. The word 'mostaccioli' was therefore chosen as the name for this cake because grape must is one of the main ingredients used in its preparation.

Cato already mentions a recipe for small sweet buns called mustacei made of flour, must and aniseed, and many other Roman authors speak of them, saying, among other things, that they are sweets that aid digestion. In the late Middle Ages, one already encounters mostazoli, biscuits made with cooked must, whose suffix -olo suggests that from the larger shape of the Roman schiacce, they had already moved on to sweets with a smaller diameter. The Neapolitan version of this biscuit, however, seems to have been made without must, thus departing from its very etymology. In the 16th century, two recipes for mostaccioli are mentioned by Bartolomeo Scappi, cook in the Vatican kitchens under Pope Pius IV and Pope Pius V, in one of his works. Scappi calls them small dry pastries and states that they can also be served at the opening of particularly rich lunches.