Torrone, A Timeless Recipe
Torrone is one of the best and oldest Italian sweets with its origins shrouded in global culinary history. Traces of the ancestor to the Torrone recipe can be found in India, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe in different forms, but with many similarities. Torrone flourishes wherever fresh almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios and pine nuts are harvested, and utilized in local cooking, especially desserts.
Easy to find throughout Italy, Torrone, varies in each individual region, with specific names and production procedures. These Italian sweets go by the name of cupeta, copeta, copata, cubbaita and coppetta, and are similar to the croccante, meaning “crunchy”, made from toasted seeds stuck together with caramelized sugar.
Despite the numerous regional variations, there are two basic types of Torrone recipe: hard or soft. The difference between the two depends on diverse factors, most importantly how long the paste is cooked. For the former it is up to 12 hours, while the latter cooks for just 2. Another type calls for the addition of almond or hazelnut, giving rise to the Torrone mandorlato and nocciolato.
There are also new Torrone recipes to satisfy the indulgent sweet tooth, in which the paper used to cover it is substituted with dark, white or aromatic chocolate. The Torrone is scrumptious!
