The Fave dei Morti are delicious almond paste sweets sold in the best confectioneries in Genoa. Typical of October, especially for All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day, these sweets are available only in some historic pastry shops in the city center. The Genoese Fave dei Morti are made with simple or flavored almond paste and are shaped like a bean or a chestnut. They have different colors and flavors and have a distant origin. The beans are linked to the cult of the dead since ancient times throughout Italy, including Liguria, while the chestnuts remind us of the baletti, boiled chestnuts with bay leaves or wild fennel, with which grandmothers prepared edible necklaces for children for the night of the dead: the reste.
The refined sweets from Romanengo and Profumo confectioneries in Genoa remind us of our ancient traditions. Today we learn how to prepare them at home.
Below you will find:
• Ingredients
• Necessary Tools
• Preparation
• The Queen’s Secrets
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Day
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Portions: 8
- Cooking methods: No Cooking
- Cuisine: Regional Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn
Ingredients
- 17.6 oz almond paste
- 1 coffee cup coffee
- 3 g ground cinnamon
- 3 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3.5 oz 60% dark chocolate
- 1 tsp rum
- food coloring (green)
Tools
To prepare the almond paste, you need a powerful mixer with a good motor. For the chestnuts, I used a Sicilian plaster mold for ‘frutta martorana’.
Plaster molds are easily found on Amazon, but molds of any other type will also work: steel, silicone, or polycarbonate. Always remember to line them with cling film to prevent the almond paste from sticking.
How to Prepare the Fave dei Morti
The fundamental ingredient is almond paste, which I prepare at home and will be simple for everyone following my basic recipe.
Let’s start from there, and once ready, divide our block of almond paste into three. To the first part, add just a sip of strong coffee to flavor and slightly color the paste, with which we’ll model the chestnuts. Line the plaster mold with cling film, press well with the paste to fill it completely, remove the excess, and unmold the first chestnut. With my mold, I made four. Finally, complete the work by soaking the almond paste chestnuts in chocolate melted in a bain-marie with a tablespoon of rum. We will not cover them completely, but only partially, to remind us of real chestnuts.
Color the rest of the almond paste: one part with green coloring until you get a bright hue. The other part with very little coloring, still green, a generous pinch of cinnamon, and one of cocoa, to get a dark color, much more similar to dry beans. With kindness, patience, and no mold, we will prepare many small beans, with a central dimple obtained with the thumb. Then barely score the beans with a knife to give them a natural appearance. We can fill the slit with a light brushstroke of melted chocolate.
The game is done: I’m sure it was fun!
First of all, make sure that the almond paste is not too soft. A good technique is always to add a little water at a time. In this case, if you wish, you could knead directly with coffee, replacing it with water. To model with plaster molds and obtain a firm dough, I used packaged powdered sugar, which often contains a small amount of cornstarch, and added a heaping teaspoon of glucose to make the almond paste more pliable. Glucose is easily found in well-stocked spice shops. It’s important to remember to line the plaster molds with cling film: the almond paste won’t stick, and the mold won’t get dirty. This way, we avoid washing the plaster molds, which can mold easily.
If you like almond paste, read:
• Easter Lamb Cookies – Almond Paste Biscuits
• Rose Amaretti – Ligurian Recipe with Almond Flour and Rose Syrup
• Genoese Quaresimali – Almond Paste Cookies
If you live in Genoa and are looking for various kitchen tools, even the most unusual ones, arm yourself with a lot of patience and visit Morchio, in Piazza Banchi. You’ll find plenty of things at honest prices.
If you’re looking for the most beautiful spice shop in the world, to buy glucose, food colorings, top-quality almonds, and essences of all kinds, then contact Drogheria Torielli, in via San Bernardo in Genoa. You can also find ready-made almond paste, really good. Torielli ships and delivers everywhere. Call in my name.
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