Bostrengo – No Ordinary Little Rice Cake from Le Marche

Bostrengo is a winter rice cake that is scrumptious served as a sweet pick-me-up when you wake to a cold damp squib of a day, or as a moreish little cube to accompany a large glass of fruity red wine on a howling night when you don’t want to leave the house. It’s a rice cake that bustles & bursts with a procession of apples, figs, raisins, lemon and orange peel, coffee, cocoa and honey.

A famous one-pot cake bostrengo takes unextraordinary leftovers and sweeps them into a masterpiece which Italian traditional cooking does so sublimely. This version of Bostrengo is from Le Marche’s northerly province of Pesaro, whose famous inhabitants include composer Rossini and art benefactor Duke Federico da Montefeltro, and dates back to the 13th century and the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, although a variant is mentioned by Pliny as being consumed by the Romans who called it panis picentinus.

The cake is known in Le Marche’s other provinces as fristingo or frustenga and there are 22 different types recorded. There is something reminiscent of Tuscany’s Panforte in its taste, but it’s fresher, softer, less sweet, inviting that “dangerous oh just one more little bit” more readily. I made mine with brown basmati rice to ease the pain!

Recipe Type: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

Author: Santa Marta School for Tourism and Catering

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 20 mins

Serves: 12

Bostrengo is a winter rice cake that is scrumptious served as a sweet pick-me-up when you wake to a cold damp squib of a day

Ingredients

250 g Rice (cooked)
150 g Honey
1.5 Eggs
Zest from ½ Orange & ½ Lemon
150 g Fresh Breadcrumbs soaked in milk
100 g Raisins
1.5 liqueur glasses of Dark Rum
3 espresso-sized cups of Coffee
75 g Dried Figs, finely chopped
75 g Polenta
75 g Plain Flour
100 g Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
500 g Apples or Pears cut into cubes or slices

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170 C.
In a large saucepan on a low heat make a paste from the honey, eggs, orange and lemon zest, breadcrumbs, raisins, rum, coffee, chopped dried figs, polenta, flour, cocoa powder, olive oil, apples and pears cut into cubes or slices.
Add the cooked rice to the mixture (that you have previously cooked in water or milk or have as a leftover) and mix thoroughly.
If the mixture is too thick, add a little warm milk to dilute everything.
Grease 2 sponge pans and divide mixture evenly and bake at a moderate heat (170 C) for about an hour.
Once cool sprinkle with icing sugar and serve skinny slices or on cubes with cocktail sticks

Author: Sam Dunham

Sam is a very lucky midlife 'mamma' to A who is 13 and juggles her working as a freelance SEO copywriter & teaches IGCSEs at Istituo Cristo Re in Rome. She is the founder of the Life In Abruzzo Cultural Association, co-founder of Let's Blog Abruzzo and 'English in the Woods' initiative.