Flour, honey, and three breasts (yes, you read that correctly) – the basics of the Pupazza Frascatana, a cookie hailing from Frascati in the Castelli Romani, a town also famous for its wines. Over the years this delightful, voluptuous woman has become an especially representative product of this town that overlooks Rome. Indeed, the Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Policies has recognized the folkloric value of this sweet by adding it to the list of Traditional Lazio Food Products. Some local artisans have even created metal or pottery versions for visitors to take home as a souvenir or gift.
The recipe's origins are murky, so numerous stories abound, each claiming provenance. Some bakeries use a particular spice in the dough, others make it with cocoa, and still others use cinnamon or nutmeg – some even use candied fruit, black cherries, barley kernels, or coffee beans to give her facial features. The Pupazza, which in Roman dialect means doll, is traditionally 10 inches tall, though taller versions can be found around the holidays.
The legend
Legend says that the Pupazza Frascatana was born as a Christmas sweet, but today it’s produced year-round to meet the high demand, which also comes from abroad. In fact, even though the simple recipe is similar to other traditional Italian sweets, the sweet honey doll's buxom attributes have warranted a slot in most guidebooks. No one truly knows why the doll has three breasts. The most reliable legend says that she represents a mammana, a wet nurse who cared for the children of women who worked the grape harvest – it's said the mammana would use a fake breast to nurse fussy children with some good local wine.
Though another source tells a different story. “I know the true story because I was born in 1926 and was there when she was invented,” says Nonna Rosanna. She claims that a group of women gathered at a bakery to knead the leftover scrapes into cookies for the children. Flour, water, and honey, nothing else.
“A bit of dough was leftover,” continues Nonna Rosanna, “and the women thought let’s make breasts. Then there was still a little dough leftover and one of the women suggested making the third breast, claiming that two are for milk, and the other is for wine.” Frascati is famous for its wine after all.
The 93-year-old Nonna Rosanna still makes the cookies. And she still dances waltzes and foxtrots, and every day she wakes up at 6:00 a.m. to go to the family bakery in Piazza Bambocci. It was purchased in 1920 for 1,200 lire and has stayed in the family for four generations.
The last wood-fired oven in Frascati
Piazza Bambocci has always had a wood-fired oven, and it’s the last one left in Frascati and one of the few remaining in the Castelli Romani towns. It’s certainly the largest, with a 13- by 13-foot cooking space. The vault's bricks are cleaned and changed every four years, the cast iron door that covers the oven's mouth is an antique piece that is stamped with the number "2", which represents the production lot of the manufacturer who has long since disappeared. The number “1”, which the Ceralli bakery also owned, has been lost, which ups the value of the former.
Test the temperature with the elbow
Nonna Rosanna tests the temperature with her elbow. She’s more accurate than a laser thermometer and knows when the temperature is right for baking the cookies. Various biscotti like white and red wine ciambelline, serpette, and, of course, the beloved Pupazza Frascatana. She personally prepares these every day together with her team of relatives and workers, whom she has trained and still bosses around – they call her “the general.” Quick and precise, she makes a pan of serpette in an instant in front of our admiring eyes. As her grandson recounts, “when pastry chefs come to get some experience with her, Nonna is always two pans ahead of them.”