Ricciola from Imola

Microhistory of a local gastronomic product and the bread basket of a starred restaurant

The savory brioche typical of Imola, the ricciola, is a leavened dough between bread and brioche. In its dough, there is also the flavor of the microhistory of a product that, with a handful of other recipes and ingredients, defines the identity of Imola, a piece of Romagna someone has forgotten in Emilia.

In fact, despite being located in the province of Bologna, the city founded by the Romans with the name Forum Cornelii, for culture, gastronomy, and dialect, belongs to the Romagna. Nestling along the Via Emilia is also the city where I was born and raised.

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I told you about the areas of Romagna outside its borders. There is the Romagna Marchigiana, the Romagna Toscana and Imola. I will tell you more about the last one in a special issue dedicated to Emilia-Romagna.

Romagna Marchigiana

Via Emilia: hamlets and castles of Romagna

Romagna Toscana

Via Emilia: Romagna Toscana, volcanello e bartolaccio

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Since 2023, it has been one of the products recognized as Bologna's De.Co, the list of agri-food products and traditional activities of Bologna and its metropolitan area, including Imola.

For me, it was one of the breakfasts and snacks of my childhood.

When I decided to share the recipe on my blog, Tortellini&CO, a cooking project dedicated to the flavors of Emilia-Romagna, I thought of asking a protagonist to tell me the story of the brioche. And thanks to the intercession of Valentino Marcattilii, on a cold March afternoon this year, I drove in the direction of Imola to meet master baker Ermes Ricci, aka Pasticcio (an Italian word that means mess and pie). In case you don't know, in Romagna, many people have a nickname, sometimes even a bit uncomfortable to carry.

I am in the master's kitchen, listening to his tale when Valentino arrives. Between the Ricci family and Valentino Marcattilii, chef at San Domenico in Imola (he got 3 stars at San Domenico in New York), runs a thin thread held together by the ricciola of Imola.

On the left, Maestro Ermes Ricci. On his right Chef Valentino Marcattilii

The history of a local product

After World War II's end, industrial processes' development made many artisanal crafts obsolete.

Angelo Ricci, the creator of the brioche and father of Ermes, went from being an artisan who worked hemp to becoming a pastry and baker Maestro. In the Forties, he started work as an apprentice at the Flamigni artisan pastry shop in Forlì, founded in 1930 and still existing. There, he created the first ricciola.

After learning the bakery art, Angelo Ricci went to Rimini for the summer season. In fact, the end of World War II coincided with the beginning of the tourist season that made the Riviera Romagnola famous starting in the 1950s. Tourism gave wings to reconstruction and economic recovery: hotels, restaurants, and bars were built or renewed. Furthermore, the tourism economy needed cooks, pastry chefs, bakers, etc.

Ermes Ricci remembers that they rented part of the oven in Tripoli Square in Rimini and slept in a top-floor apartment whose bombed roof had yet to be rebuilt.

He smiles at this memory; those were good times, even without a roof over their heads.

In Rimini, Angelo Ricci kneads and bakes the products he sells to hotels.
He baked bread every day. It was different for cakes, which he made only on Thursdays and Sundays. In those days, dessert was the exception rather than the rule in Rimini's family-run small hotels.

And then, of course, he made a lot of ricciole. They were sold into local bakeries and on the beach by hawkers, along with custard-filled bombolone. Note about the bombolone: don't confuse it with krapfen. Bombolone is a typical recipe from Emilia-Romagna.

Ermes remembers that in those days, there was no fresh coconut sold in pieces or candied fruit stuck on sticks you still buy on the beach between Rimini and Riccione.

At that time, the vendors did not come from the south of Italy or abroad; they were seasonal workers of Tuscan descent who, on foot, then as now, beat the beach shouting "ricciola, bomboloni."

Angelo returns home

In the 1950s, Angelo Ricci returned to his native Imola. He started to run the Bar dei Giardini, a historic venue overlooking the gardens of the San Domenico complex. The Bar dei Giardini is located in front of the building that has housed the San Domenico-starred restaurant since the 1970s.

The son of Angelo worked there. Among the apprentices was a very young Valentino Marcattilii who, even after becoming a famous and starred chef, did not forget the humble beginning of a starred career.

That explains why Valentino comes to Ermes' kitchen one afternoon in March. The story of the ricciola from Imola belongs even to him. As he says, it is a recipe that, after the Rimini exploit, remained confined to the city's territory but that, in an Italy deeply tied to an idea of sweet breakfast, especially between the 1950s and 1960s, represented a great innovation.

Chef Marcattilii celebrated the brioche by including it in the San Domenico bread basket. This was a tribute to a typical Imola product and a gesture of friendship toward Ermes Ricci. Ermes brought the art of the ricciola to the Imola restaurant's star-studded kitchen, transferring it to the restaurant's pastry chef.

The recipe

That day, I brought home the interview and Maestro's recipe, which, I admit, is tricky.

The recipe works well and I'm sure you'll definitely bake something delicious. The point is that it couldn't be the ricciola from Imola. It could have a different taste and crunchiness.

I have made it several times, but only once I have exclaimed, "Here it is."

Try it, and then go to Imola to taste the original.

I leave you with the words Valentino greeted me that day:

Now you have the recipe. But you don't need me to tell you. Having the recipe means nothing. So go home and start trying once, two, three times. I told the same to my grandson, who wanted me to teach him how to make it. Practice.

If you are wondering what is missing when you have the recipe, the answer is simple: the gestures behind the words. They concern knowledge and practice. Regarding the method, the two masters are somewhat lacking. I suspect both see exercise as a prelude to revelation.

I am less severe; on the blog, you will find everything I have figured out through trials and mistakes.

Ricciola from Imola: the recipe

Recipes and typical products of Imola

• Shallot of Imola

• Torta Vera (the story and recipe are on the blog)

• Spoja lorda (stuffed eggs pasta)

• Garganelli al pettine (eggs pasta)

• Cappelletti imolesi (stuffed eggs pasta)

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I will be back in your email box next week with a Via Emilia special.

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