{"id":42189,"date":"2024-10-20T16:58:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T14:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tortelliniandco.com\/?p=42189"},"modified":"2024-10-24T17:37:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T15:37:59","slug":"ricciola-brioche-from-imola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tortelliniandco.com\/en\/ricciola-brioche-from-imola\/","title":{"rendered":"Ricciola brioche from Imola, the savory rosemary bread roll"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ricciola brioche from Imola is a leavened savory roll halfway between bread and brioche that smells of rosemary. And it was one of the breakfasts and snacks of my childhood.<\/p>\n

Since 2023, it has been one of the products recognized as Bologna’s De.Co, the list of agri-food products and traditional activities of Bologna and its metropolitan area, including Imola.<\/p>\n

Moved by curiosity to know its history and the desire to share this recipe among the blog pages, on a cold March afternoon, I drive in the direction of Imola, a small town nestled along the Via Emilia where I was born and raised.<\/p>\n

Despite being located in the province of Bologna, the town founded by the Romans is about culture, gastronomy, and the Romagnolo dialect. To confirm this, I am about to meet master baker Ermes Ricci, known as Pasticcio (an Italian word that means mess and pie).<\/p>\n

In Romagna, many people have a nickname, sometimes even a little uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ricciola<\/p>\n

The story of the Ricciola brioche from Imola is beautiful because it sounds ordinary.<\/span><\/h4>\n

So begins Ermes Ricci, son of the master baker who created this rosemary-scented savory puff pastry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using the adjective ordinary, the master means that his father would leave at dawn to go to work. One day, he had the intuition to knead that rosemary savory puff pastry, giving it the snail shape from which it got its name.<\/p>\n

We are chatting in the kitchen, the most appropriate room for listening to a recipe’s story, when we are joined by another master, Michelin-starred chef Valentino Marcattilii, who is connected to the Ricci family and the history of ricciola di Imola.<\/p>\n

After World War II’s end, industrial processes’ development made many artisanal crafts obsolete.<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n

Angelo Ricci, the creator of the brioche, went from being an artisan who worked hemp to becoming a pastry and baker Maestro. He started work as an apprentice at the Flamigni artisan pastry shop in Forl\u00ec, founded in 1930.<\/p>\n

The master recalls that his father, Angelo, created the first ricciola brioche at the end of the Forties of the last century working in Forl\u00ec.<\/p>\n

After learning the bakery art, Angelo Ricci went to Rimini for the summer season. In fact, the end of World War II coincided with the beginning of the tourist season that made the Riviera Romagnola famous starting in the 1950s. Tourism gave wings to reconstruction and economic recovery. New hotels, restaurants, and bars were built or renewed. Furthermore, the tourism economy needed cooks, pastry chefs, bakers, etc.<\/p>\n

Ermes Ricci remembers that they rented part of the oven in Tripoli Square in Rimini and slept in a top-floor apartment whose bombed roof had yet to be rebuilt. He smiles at this memory; those were good times, even without a roof over their heads.<\/p>\n

There is so much pride in this man’s telling that he sees himself again as a child helping his father with his brother.<\/h5>\n

In Rimini, Angelo Ricci kneads and bakes the products he sells to hotels.<\/p>\n

He baked bread every day. It was different for cakes, which he made only on Thursdays and Sundays.
\nIn those days, dessert was the exception rather than the rule in Rimini’s family-run small hotels.<\/p>\n

And then, of course, he made a lot of ricciola brioches. They were sold into local bakeries and on the beach by hawkers, along with custard-filled bombolone. Ermes remembers that in those days, there was no fresh coconut sold in pieces or candied fruit stuck on sticks that you still buy on the beach between Rimini and Riccione.<\/p>\n

At that time, the vendors did not come from the south of Italy or abroad; they were seasonal workers of Tuscan descent who, on foot, then as now, beat the beach to the cry of “ricciola, bomboloni.”<\/h5>\n

In the 1950s, Angelo Ricci returned to his native Imola and started to run the Bar dei Giardini, a historic venue overlooking the gardens of the San Domenico complex. The Bar dei Giardini is right in front of the building that has housed the San Domenico-starred restaurant since the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Between Angelo Ricci and Valentino Marcattilii, future starred chef at San Domenico in Imola, runs a thin thread held together by the ricciola you can find in the restaurant’s bread basket. It is a tribute of love for a typical local product and friendship to Angelo and Ermes.<\/p>\n

You can read the full story of the meeting in Fritto Misto in my newsletter, Food Notes from Bologna<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"From
From left, master Ermes Ricci and, at the side, master Valentino Marcattilii<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some notes on the recipe<\/h4>\n

I brought home the interview and Maestro’s recipe, which, I admit, is a tricky test. You’ll bake something delicious, for sure, even if the outcome does not necessarily taste like the original.<\/p>\n

I have made it several times, but only once have I exclaimed, “Here it is.” My advice is to try it and then go to Imola to taste the original.<\/p>\n

At least, I leave you with the words Valentino greeted me that day: you know it, having a recipe means nothing, so I tell you what I also told my grandson, who wanted to learn how to make it. Go home and start testing. After some experiments, you’ll begin making ricciola from Imola.<\/p>\n

Before cooking:<\/h5>\n