Golden almond biscotti sliced on the diagonal, showing whole unpeeled almonds in a pale crumb, on a worn wooden board beside a small glass of amber vin santo

Antonio Mattei and the Blue Bag from Prato

The almond biscotti in Antonio Mattei's blue paper bag are made without butter, honey or leavening, and those absences keep a biscuit baked in Prato since 1858 outside the rules Tuscany later wrote for its protected cantucci. The bakery is in Prato, a textile city a short train ride northwest of Florence, and the fourth generation of a family that was not Mattei's runs it today. Its biscotti won prizes in Florence, London and Paris in the 1860s, and Pellegrino Artusi wrote about Mattei in La scienza in cucina, the landmark Italian cookbook of the nineteenth century.

Who Antonio Mattei was

Antonio Mattei died in 1885; the bakery gives his birth year as 1818. According to the bakery's own history, he began in Prato making bread and pasta, and drew on the tradition of the bozza, Prato's local bread, in creating his almond biscotti and anise-scented cantucci. The biscotti took awards at the exhibitions in Florence in 1861, London in 1862 and Paris in 1867. The bakery and shop stand on Via Ricasoli, in the historic center of Prato.

Mattei was a friend of Artusi, whose La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene first appeared in 1891. Artusi called him a worthy man who had a genius for his craft and was honest and industrious. The book ties Mattei to three recipes: the Pasta Margherita that Mattei refined and later sold as Pasta Regina, a stiacciata unta, and the Torta Mantovana.

The Pandolfini century

After Mattei's death his son Emilio ran the business until 1904, when it passed to Egisto Ciampolini and Tommaso Pandolfini. Italia Piccioli Ciampolini, of the Ciampolini family, is credited with the recipe for the Brutti Buoni, the almond meringue cookies the bakery still bakes daily. Ernesto Pandolfini, who lived from 1893 to 1961, brought in the first machinery, narrowed the business to pastry alone and was named a Cavaliere del Lavoro in 1958. His son Paolo followed, and the four siblings of the current generation, Francesco, Marcella, Elisabetta and Letizia, run it now. The exact quantities in the Biscotti di Prato recipe are, by the bakery's own account, a family secret.

Five ingredients, and no added fat

The label on the 250 gram bag lists soft wheat flour, all Italian, then sugar, almonds at 20 percent, free-range eggs and pine nuts. The producer says the biscotti contain no preservatives and no added animal or vegetable fats. The list has no butter, oil or leavening. That is the defining fact about these biscotti, and it shapes the texture: with no butter to shorten the crumb, the biscuit is hard and dry rather than crumbly, studded with whole unpeeled almonds and pine nuts. It also puts them at the far end of the shelf from the butter cookie.

The bakery publishes a home version of the method, without quantities. Sugar and eggs are mixed first, the flour is added slowly, and the almonds and pine nuts follow, for a very soft dough. The dough is laid out in thin, long strips on parchment, rested five minutes, brushed with egg and water, and baked at 180 to 190°C, about 356 to 374°F, for 20 to 25 minutes. The strips are then cut crosswise into pieces 2 to 2.5 centimeters wide. The importer Manicaretti describes the bakery's own process: the dough shaped by hand, and the loaves sliced while still hot.

Biscotti di Prato and Cantucci Toscani IGP, side by side

In 2016 the European Union registered Cantuccini Toscani, or Cantucci Toscani, as a Protected Geographical Indication. Its specification is strict about ingredients, and it describes a different biscuit from Mattei's.

Mattei Biscotti di Prato, per its label Cantucci Toscani IGP, per the EU specification
Flour Soft wheat flour, 100 percent Italian Wheat flour
Almonds 20 percent Whole unpeeled sweet almonds, at least 17 percent of the dough and at least 20 percent of the finished biscuit; no sliced, chopped or ground almonds
Sugar Listed second 20 to 40 percent
Eggs Free-range eggs Pasteurized hen's eggs and yolk, at least 3 percent yolk; no powdered egg
Fat None added Butter, at least 1.5 percent, the only fat permitted
Honey None Wildflower honey, 0.3 to 1.5 percent, in addition to sugar
Leavening None listed Leavening agents required
Pine nuts Yes Not permitted; no ingredients beyond the listed required and optional ones
Size Cut 2 to 2.5 cm wide in the home method No more than 15 g, 10 cm long, 3 cm high and 2.8 cm wide
Where made Prato Anywhere in Tuscany, with packing also in the region

Read together, the two documents show that the Mattei recipe, with pine nuts and without butter, honey or leavening, does not match the IGP rules. The specification explains its choice of butter: it says the sweet almonds and butter as the only fat give the protected cantucci their fragrance and porosity, and that the butter and leavening make them keep well enough to export. The Mattei biscuit is the harder, leaner idea. Our biscotti guide covers the rest of the label.

The blue bag

The biscotti go into the bakery's blue paper bag, tied by hand with colored string, which the importer says has always been the packing. In 2019 the bakery registered that blue as a single-color trademark. The bag is also part of the keeping instructions. The producer says that once opened, the biscotti should stay closed in the original packaging in a cool, dry place, and that they hold their quality for three months from production, with the date and batch printed on the bottom of the bag. Dry biscuits draw moisture from the air, a point the IGP specification makes too when it requires packing inside Tuscany. The IGP recipe counts on butter and leavening for keeping, and the Mattei biscuit counts on the bag. More on staleness and storage is in the biscotti guide.

How to eat them

The producer suggests the traditional pairing: after dinner with vin santo, the amber dessert wine of Tuscany, or as a snack with coffee or cappuccino. A biscuit this hard, with no added fat, is made to soften in liquid. The IGP specification names dipping in vin santo, to soften the biscuit, as the use cantucci are best known for.

The Antonio Mattei Biscotti di Prato in the 250 gram bag (shop Antonio Mattei Biscotti di Prato) ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.

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