History

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.

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Common allergens: Nuts, Gluten

Make it at home

Yield Serves 6Hands-on 20 minTotal 4 hrDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 500ml unsweetened almond milk
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 50g cornflour
  • Peel of 1 unwaxed lemon, in wide strips
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • A pinch of salt
  • Ground cinnamon to finish

Method

  1. Warm 400ml of the almond milk with the lemon peel and cinnamon stick to just below a simmer, then leave to infuse for 20 minutes.
  2. Whisk the cornflour into the remaining cold almond milk until completely smooth.
  3. Strain the infused milk back into the pan, add the sugar and salt and bring to a bare simmer.
  4. Pour in the cornflour slurry in a thin stream, whisking hard, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until it thickens and loses any raw starch taste.
  5. Pour into moulds or small glasses, press cling film onto the surface and chill for at least 3 hours.
  6. Turn out or serve in the glass, dusted with ground cinnamon.

Tip from the editors. Use unsweetened almond milk with a high almond content. Sweetened supermarket drinks will not set cleanly and taste flat.

Where to eat menjar blanc

Menjar blanc in Alghero

Bon Bons ★ 4.6

€ BakerySant'agostino

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 goThe family still bakes the Catalan sweets of Alghero from recipes written in Alguerès, not in Italian.

Directions

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