frustingo

Especially popular at Christmas, this classic thick and rich cake is one of the oldest recipes in Italy, one that was made by the ancient Etruscan and Picene tribes in Le Marche. The Romans adopted it and called panis Picentinus.

Since then, the recipe has been tweaked to add chocolate, cocoa, orange zest, whisky, coffee and other goodies that the ancients never had: basic ingredients include black figs, raisins, nuts, vincotto, olive oil, flour, sugar or honey, candied fruit and spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon.

Other names are fristingo frëštìnghë, frustingu and in Pesaro, bostrengo.