Salame di Borno

The Salame di Borno is a traditional Italian dessert, particularly from the Borno area in Lombardy. This dessert resembles the look of salami but is completely meat-free. Here’s the traditional recipe with a touch of Italian flair:

Ingredients

• 250 grams of dry biscuits
• 100 grams of butter
• 150 grams of powdered sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 100 grams of unsweetened cocoa powder
• A pinch of salt
• Rum or another alcoholic beverage to taste (about 2 tablespoons)
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Preparation

1. Start by breaking the dry biscuits into small pieces and place them in a large bowl.
2. Melt the butter in a small pot over low heat or in the microwave and let it cool slightly.
3. In a bowl, blend the egg yolks with the powdered sugar until you have a creamy and homogeneous mixture.
4. Add the unsweetened cocoa powder to the mixture of egg yolks and sugar, and mix well.
5. Pour the melted butter into the mixture and add a pinch of salt and the rum, stirring until you obtain a uniform dough.
6. Combine the crushed biscuits with the rest of the dough and work everything with your hands until the biscuits are completely coated with the cocoa cream.
7. Pour the resulting mixture onto a sheet of parchment paper and shape it into a salami, then wrap it in the parchment paper, tightening the ends as if it were a candy.
8. Let the chocolate salami rest in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, ideally overnight, so that it solidifies properly.
9. Before serving, dust the chocolate salami with a layer of powdered sugar to simulate the classic “mold” of salami.

Curiosity

The Salame di Borno is a simple dessert, born from a tradition of using leftovers, as was common in the past in many regions of Italy, where nothing was thrown away. The dry biscuits (perhaps leftover and hardened) thus found new life in this delicious and richly flavored sweet.