Since Pietro Romanengo fu Stefano is a confectioner, it does not produce the sweets traditionally associated with the pastry-maker. What it does make is a wide range of special goods which are sent daily to Romanengo stores. They have become so famous that they are simply known as "i dolci di Romanengo" (Romanengo's sweets). Our dainty sweets and desserts are made with chocolate, almond paste, nougat, candied fruit and marrons glacés.

All Saints' cakes

 

antique marzipan mould caramelising fruit

The desserts encapsulate Romanengo's entire range and long history, seeing as they are inspired by products made in other sections of the company workshop. They include: chocolate cream meringues and truffles, made with Romanengo's "family" chocolate to give the cream its unmistakable aroma; caramelised fruit, made with our own candied fruit and almond paste, another of Romanengo's specialities; marrons glacés, nazarolla (a variety of Ligurian apple, virtually unknown today) and chestnut-shaped petit-fours; nougat and pistachio desserts; almond paste and angel cake desserts. We celebrate religious festivals and mark the passing seasons with very special sweets.

 

Around All Saints' Day in Autumn we produce a distinctive type of almond paste which we shape into broad beans ("bacilli") and chestnuts. The sweets are then toasted over charcoal to make them look as if they are freshly roasted. At Christmas we make a special type of soft nougat with almonds and another soft variety with pistachio nuts, following a recipe given to the company by Queen Elena of Montenegro. It is known as "torrone della regina" ("Queen's nougat"). This Christmas we will be offering customers a new speciality: pandolce, the traditional Genoese Christmas cake, made to an original recipe discovered among the papers left behind by Antonio Maria Romanengo, the company founder who lived in Genoa in the second half of the 18thcentury. We have used exactly the same ingredients as he did, including crescente, the centuries-old forerunner to yeast. Its exquisite, exceptionally harmonious flavour captures oft-neglected aromas: aniseed, Ligurian pine nuts, raisins, pistachios and the candied fruit and orange flower water typical to Genoa. To celebrate the Epiphany we make traditional children's shoes from sugar, chocolate and nut brittle. Around the time of Mardi Gras there are chocolate pots and ravioli shaped from almond paste. Our quaresimali biscuits (marzipan, canestrellini and mostaccioli) are a must at Lent and Easter. A speciality which dates back to the early 1800s, Romanengo's Lenten Biscuits are made from almonds and sugar but no animal fat, in keeping with the strict traditions of Lent. It was said in a 1868 edition of Popolo d'Italia that «During Lent Pietro Romanengo's workshop is stretched to the limit by its sales of marzipan biscuits, for which Romanengo need never fear no rival; every good Catholic may eat his fill without fear of the demon greed...».

Pietro Romanengo fu Stefano produces:

• Specialità "quaresimali" di pasta di mandorle: marzapani, canestrellini e
• "Quaresimali", almond paste sweets for Lent: marzipan, "canestrellini" and "mostaccioli" (at Lent and Easter only)
• Glazed petits fours, caramelised fruit, chocolate cream truffles, meringues, nougat fancies, marzipan fancies, marron glacé fancies, chocolate rum fancies, Kirsch cherries
• "Bacilli e rostite" - marzipan All Saints' cakes (in October and around All Saints' Day)
• Soft nougat (fondant)
• "Queen's nougat" with pistachios
• Chocolate hazelnut nougat with whole hazelnuts
• Traditional Genoese Pandolce (Christmas cake)