GRISSINI - The Hard Italian Bread Stick

Who remembers eating grissini when you were a kid? I sure do? When my brothers and I would go down with our dad to Genova Delicatessen  in Oakland on Saturday (sadly its closed) to shop we would always walk in and go to the bin and grab a grissini to munch on while we were getting our cheeses, meats, ravioli, etc. Domenic would always give us another if we finished our first quickly. And, we were never charged for our grissini. It was something kids always got as a treat (probably to keep us quiet too), but Italians, whether in the US or Italy, are always good to kids. Italian's love children! 

As a kid I always wondered, what is a grissini and why do they make them? They're bread, I think, but not really bread!? What the heck? 

Well L' Italo-Americano Magazine, the #1 source of all things Italian since 1908 tells us these very crunchy “bread sticks” were invented in Turin in 1679, by the Savoias’ personal baker, who created them specifically for King Vittorio Amedeo II, who couldn’t digest regular bread very well.   

Their dough is the same as bread but, as they are very thin, they dry while baking so remain very crunchy. Grissini were an immediate success because they were not only good to eat and easy to digest, but also lasted longer than regular bread; they were so famous that they became “les petits bâtons de Turin,” as Napoleon would call them (one of his favorites), turned into a local speciality.

Those first grissini - called “robatà,” between 10 and 15 inches in length, irregular in shape and rolled by
hand -  are today a 'prodotto agroalimentare Italiano protetto' (Italian agri-food protected product).
Later, the grissini 'stirati' were invented, the mechanical production of which started as early as the
18th century.  

Today, we can enjoy herbs grissini, spice grissini, olive oil grissini, all of which should be enjoyed with local cold cuts, prosciutto and soft cheeses.

I still like munching on them, but plain, just for the crunch . . . it also brings back some very sweet memories. And oh by-the-way after leaving Genova's we'd walk across the street to Buon Gusto bakery (an Italian bakery, also sadly long gone) and we'd get free cookies from the ladies working the counter. It was good being a Italian kid back then!! Buon appetito!