Alghero's Catalan blancmange, a set almond cream scented with lemon and cinnamon, spooned into pastry cases or served plain. The recipe survives in Alguerès rather than Italian.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
Menjar blanc, literally white food, is a medieval Catalan preparation that crossed to Alghero with the Aragonese resettlement of 1354 and stayed. Made from almond milk thickened with starch and perfumed with lemon peel and cinnamon, it belongs to the same family as the blancmanges of medieval Europe, but Alghero kept it as a feast dessert while the Italian mainland largely forgot it. The town's pastry families still hold the recipes, and in some households the working notes are written in Alguerès rather than Italian. It shows up filled into small tarts and as a filling for the Alghero Easter and Christmas sweets.
Common allergens: Nuts, Gluten
Tip from the editors. Use unsweetened almond milk with a high almond content. Sweetened supermarket drinks will not set cleanly and taste flat.
The Bon Bons laboratory on Via Einaudi in Alghero sells mornings only, with a second counter in the old town on Via Mazzini that also opens late afternoon.
Why locals love it: The family still bakes the Catalan sweets of Alghero from recipes written in Alguerès, not in Italian.
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