The maritozzo is a brioche apostrophe between the words: more cream! An irresistible and voluptuous declaration of love to life and pleasure eating that points straight to the (creamy) heart and its arteries.
If we are talking about maritozzi, we are therefore talking about real feelings with a sweet taste, not only because of an alarmingly underestimated glycaemic tendency in our blood values, but also and above all in consideration of the legend that is linked to the origin of this emblem of the Roman pastry tradition.
According to some research, in fact, as early as the 18th century, the maritozzo was already well represented in the culinary and love life of the Romans. At the end of their courtship during Lent, men would make daring marriage proposals to their girlfriends by hiding a ring inside the whipped cream filling.
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Today, after more than two hundred years, this sinful dessert still holds a prominent place on the counters of Rome's best pastry shops and in the forbidden dreams of every sweet tooth.
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What is the Maritozzo?
But for the unfortunate few who still don't know, what is a maritozzo really?
It is called maritozzo: a traditional Roman sweet developed during the Renaissance, especially as a dish during the Lenten period. It is a sweet bun overflowing with cream and originally flavoured with sultanas and orange zest.
According to the purist recipe, the dough is made by slowly rising a mixture of water, flour, yeast, butter, sugar and a pinch of salt. Once it has risen, it is filled with generous amounts of whipped cream in which to dip one's jaws without shyness.
Today, alongside the traditional version, maritozzo is offered in countless variations experimented over the years to keep up with people's new eating habits.
Thus ice-cream fillings, chocolate, creams of various kinds and, last but not least, a vast and succulent series of savoury-based combinations that emancipate maritozzo from the simple role of dessert or breakfast cake.
To get our bearings in this ocean of taste, we took a tour of Rome, the mother city of maritozzo, to try to offer you what will inevitably remain an incomplete, biased, forgetful and unobjective list, the child of our unbridgeable lack of affection, of our die-hard prejudices and of a natural refusal to the concept of objective measurement of feelings.
"e il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare".
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Best maritozzi in Rome
Having said that, here is our wrong and not in meritocratic order of the best maritozzi in Rome, divided into sweet and savoury:
Best sweet maritozzi:
The classics:
Pasticceria Regoli - via dello Statuto 60- Esquilino
Il Maritozzaro - via Ettore Rolli 50 - Porta Portese
Romoli - viale Eriterea 140/144 - African quarter
Panificio Mosca near San Pietro - via Candia 16 - Prati
Pasticceria Cinque Lune - corso Rinascimento 89 - Centro
Pasticceria Andreotti - via Ostiense 54/56 - Ostiense
Luca Montersino at Eataly - Air Terminal Ostiense - Piazza XII ottobre 1492. Ostiense
Cristalli di Zucchero - via Valtellina 114 Monteverde
Bonci Bakery - via Trionfale 34/36 Trionfale
The New Classics
The Friends' Bakery - via Firenze 51 Trastevere
Gunther Gelato Italiano, via dei Pettinari 43. Trastevere
Otaleg, via di Santa Prassede 1A. Trastevere
Bar Baffo Caffè Vergnano, viale di Trastevere 343. Trastevere
Gelateria Giuffré, viale di Trastevere 255. Trastevere .
Pane e Tempesta. Via Giovanni del Calvi 23. Monteverde
Trevisol. Via di Valtellina 66. Monteverde
La bottega delle tre zucche. Via G. Mengarini 49. Portuense
Caffè Merenda. Via Luigi Magrini 6.
Marconi .
Linari since 1971. Via Nicola Zabaglia 9. Testaccio
Le sicilianedde c/o Eataly, Piazza XII ottobre 1492. Ostiense
Nero Vaniglia. C.ne Ostiense 201. Ostiense .
Queencakes. Via Carlo Citerni 25. Garbatella
Bonci at the Central Market. Via Giovanni Giolitti 36. Termini
Gelato San Lorenzo 100% Natural. Via Tiburtina 6. San Lorenzo
Dolce Cuò. PIazza dell'Alberone 25. Furio Camillo
Archicaketure. Via del Velodromo 61-69. Appio Tuscolano.
Cantiani. Via Cola di Rienzo 234. Prati .
Marè Bakery. Viale Angelico 88. Meadows
New Food Gluten Free. Via Riano 52. Flaminio
La Fornarina since 1989. Piazza Oderico da Pordenone 4. San Paolo
Lazzeri. Via Vedana 26. San paolo
Lievito Pizza Pane. 339 Viale Europa. Eur
Valentini. Via Conca D'Oro 288. Salario
Insieme al Pane. Via Arturo Graf 35. Monte Sacro
MiTiroSu. Via Angiolo Cabrini 14B. Tufello
Pane e Tempesta 2. Via della Pisana 167. Pisana .
E5 Stars Pastry Shop. Via della casetta Mattei 149. Casetta Mattei
Gourmet savouries
Maritozzo Rosso, vicolo del Cedro 26. Trastevere
Exquisitaly, Piazza San Bernardo 99. Centro
Far'Farina. Via Alessandro Solivetti 14. Torrevecchia
Hotel Art by the spanish steps, via Margutta 56. Centre
Up Sunset Bar, via del Tritone 61. Barberini
De Santis Santa Croce. Via Santa Croce in Gerusalemme 19. Esquilino
Elettroforno Frontoni. Via Ostiense 387. Ostiense
Pizzeria Mauro and Co. Via Mario Musco 20. Top: Pizzaritozzo with burrata, fresh salmon and honey-glazed onion
Sorelle Giordano. Viale Giulio Agricola 121. Tuscolano .
Santo Palato. Piazza Tarquinia 4A.
Pasticceria Bompiani. Largo B. Bompiani 8. Ardeatino .
Pastry shop Rotondi. Viale Beata Vergine del Carmelo 175. Torrino
Marì, via Urbana 31. Monti
Roman Bakery and Pastry Shop, via della Lungaretta 31. Trastevere
Maritozzo Day
Like any self-respecting saint, the maritozzo has an official day of celebration: maritozzo day, now in its third edition.
Some of the best pastry shops throughout Italy and many of those in Rome mentioned above join forces at the beginning of December for this symposium of taste for charity in favour of the Fatebenefratelli hospital.
Creating your own personal itinerary, you will be able to taste the best representatives of the category and unique gourmet creations, specially designed for the event.
In total there will be around 70 participants from pastry shops and around fifteen restaurants, with over 200 different varieties of maritozzi all to taste and around 20,000 pieces available while stocks last.
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