For four centuries its day has been the 30th of August, when Saint Rose is celebrated. The Saint to whom the Conservatory of Saint Rose of Lima is named founded in Conca dei Marini in 1681 and seat of a monastery of Dominican nuns until the beginning of the last century.
It was after having cooked the lunch that one of the nuns working in the kitchen, having some semolina left over, decided to add milk, sugar and dried fruit with a little lemon liqueur, obtaining a creamy filling. She enclosed it between two layers of short pastry made of common bread dough, enriched with lard, sugar and wine. She gave the shape of a monk’s hood to that cake and then she baked it in the wood oven. When it was cooked, she garnished it with cream and candied black cherries. The innovation was very much appreciated by the sisters and therefore, they prepared others, so that the families of Conca and the surrounding areas could try them. The reputation of that dessert was quickly spread and since it was born in the convent of Saint Rose, they called it with that name. And because the saint was celebrated on 30th of August, on that date, every year, the “Santa Rosa” sweet is prepared.
Even today, on that day, there is a festival in Conca dei Marini dedicated to the highly appreciated sweet, now among the typical Campania pastry. Over time, the recipe has a bit changed and the mixture is now made up of semolina, ricotta cheese, candied fruit, eggs, cinnamon and sugar. For the shell, a long-kneaded dough is used, made with water flour and salt. And the cream topping and cherries in syrup garnish cannot be missing.
If on the Coast and in Salerno area the recipe has been improved over time and remained for centuries the secret heritage of Conca convent, in Naples the most famous sweet of the city has been derived: the sfogliatella riccia ( meaning : “curly little sheets”). The credit of the new version belongs to the pastry chef Pasquale Pintauro, who in the early nineteenth century modified the original recipe obtained maybe from a nun aunt. To the “riccia”, the “frolla” was added: the same filling enclosed, in the first case, in the classic “pocket” with a monk’s hood shape formed of very thin layers of pastry and, in the second, between two discs of shortcrust. Both born from the delicious and ancient “Santa Rosa”.
