Minni di VirginiNipples of the Virgin
The French may talk the most about sex and baking, but the Italians have the best renditions.
The bread called copiette is made to resemble a couple having sex, an apparent reference to the ancient custom of a couple having sex in the wheat field to ensure its fertility. There's a vagina shaped pastry called prucitanu, once given by the wife to her husband at Christmas. Contrariwise, she might give him the cream-filled phallus/biscuit called viscotta di san martinu, named after the patron saint of the cuckolded husband. The best tale relates to the xuccarati, a hard circular pastry with a hole in the middle that well endowed grooms use to calm fearful brides. You put seven on your penis and remove one for each night you're together.
The most common of these erotic mouthfuls is the minni di virgini, or Nipples of the Virgin, a custards filled pastry shaped like a woman's breast and topped with an aroused cherry nipple. Alsosold-sans niple-as genovesi. The story behind this delicious pastry, however is less than appetizing.: the pastry commemorated the martrydom of St. Agatha, who had her breasts cut off by Roman pagans for refusing to renounce Christ. This story, however, is thought to be simply a Christianiztion of of an ancient Egyptian rite in which priests carried about a golden breast-supposedly of Osiris-and poured milk libations for the devout. Agatha is now the patron sain tof breast cancer victims and is traditionally portrayed offering her breasts on a serving platter. She's also associated with the bell ringer's guild, a tasteless pun if 'eer there was one.
Seventeenth-century mural showing St. Agatha offering her breasts on a serving platter. Church of St. Nicolas, Belgium .
This is based on the recipe followed by the Monastery of the Virgins of Palermo, as described by writer June di Schino in her article "The Waning of Sexually Allusive Monastic Confectionery in Southern Italy" in Petit Propos Culinaire. Makes eight. Best enjoyed warm.
Three cups basic pastry dough.
� cup Basic Pastry cream,
Candied pumpkin (succatta)
or filling of your choice
Powdered Sugar and candied cherries cut in half.
Preheat oven to 425F (220C). Divide the dough into seven pieces and roll them into rectangles about 6x 4 x 1/4. Place two tablespoons of the filling made up on pastry cream on one half of the rectangle and sprinkled with chopped candied pumpkin and/or chocolate. Fold the other half over it. Seal it well and then cut out a circular shape about three inches round with a glass of pastry cutter. Put the halved candied cherry in the middle and bake for 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and serve.
Basic Pastry Dough
Crema Pasticciera3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Half tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
14 tablespoons butter cut into pieces
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup cold water, more or less as needed
Mix the all-purpose flour, salt and sugar and pulse in a processor briefly to mix. Add the butter and process until crumbly. Add the yolks, one at a time, pulsing to mix each individually. Leave the processor running and add just enough water to the dough pull away from the side of the bowl. Be careful not to add too much. Turn onto a floured surface and form a ball. Wrap in wax or plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
(Basic Pastry cream)
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
2 cups milk
Grated zest of 1/2 orange
Pinch of saffron (if desired)
Whisk together yolks and sugar in a heavy saucepan or double boiler. Dissolve the cornstarch in half-a-cup of milk and then gradually add rest of milk and mix well. Slowly pour mixture into yolks, whisking until well blended. Place over lower heat and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly until shiny and thick like a pudding (20 to 25 minutes in a double boiler). Add orange zest. Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap DIRECTLY on cream. Cool. Refrigerate up to three days.
Note: The French village of Savoie near Saint-Pierre-d'Abigny. The village specialty is a brioche shaped like the hand St. Agatha apparently lost while fending off her molesters. It is usually flavored with saffron or anise.
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