One of Italy's great food combinations is sweet, sweet 'Vin Santo' with rock hard, break your fillings, cantucci biscuits.

Consumed separately you need a certain amount of masochism, but when the cantucci have been dipped in the wine for a few seconds, the taste sensation is wonderful.

We recommend a Vin Santo from the western tip of Sicily at Marsala or even further into the Mediterranean from Pantelleria.

ingredients

400gr flour, 250gr sugar, 2 whole eggs, 1 egg yolk, 100gr whole almonds, 2 spoons milk, 3gr bicarbonate soda

making it

Sieve the flour and bicarbonate of soda together and form a small mound on a clean surface.

Pour on the sugar, eggs and almonds.

Mix to form a pastry adding the milk (or even water).

Start to make the biscuit shapes by forming 3cm wide rows from the pastry. ie long rows not the individual biscuits.

Place on a floured and buttered cooking dish. Cook in an oven at 180°c for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cook the rows as quickly as possible diagonally every 2 cm. Replace into the oven.

Cook until the biscuits are dry. Lave them to cool and harden for a few days.

Test on elderly relatives and children before opening the Vin Santo for yourself.