Gobeletti (Ligurian pastries)

Gobeletti in the tradition Gobeletti are the flagship of Italian Riviera sweets. Both East and West Riviera claim its paternity. In the East Italian Riviera, in the Tigullio Gulf, people call them “cubeletti”, in the West, close to Finale “gobeletti”. Either way, they are small tartlets with a cup shape (the traditional molds – which I couldn’t find in my pantry, grunt! – have a corolla shape) sealed on top with a “hat” of dough (and this is probably the reason the name: “cappello” is hat in Italian, and “cappelletti” means small hats). Inside, the filling is usually jam. The traditional eastern recipes provides for quince jam. In the west gobeletti are filledwith chinotto jam (chinotto is an ancient local variety of bitter orange, you can discover more on my post on Chinotto of Savona). Old cookbook authors suggest also to fill them with custard. Nowadays you can find Gobeletti all year round in most bakeries and pastry shops (usually filled with apricot jam). In the past they were the typical pastry for the day of Sant’Agata, on the 5th of February.