One of Grom’s signature flavors is “crema di Grom”, an egg custard gelato with pieces of ‘pasta di meliga’ – cornmeal cookies. Grom’s website describes this as including chocolate, but the variety sold at the NY store contained none.

Omage grabbed from Grom's website: http://www.grom.it/ita/prodotto.php?ID_cat=1&SUB_cat=6&gusto=Crema%20di%20GROM

In my small scoop, I got only one bite of the cookie. Pazienza! Curious to learn more, I bought a bag of them, from a baker in Battifollo, a small town in provincia di Cuneo. Made with stone ground corn meal, butter, egg yolks, honey, yeast and vanilla, they’re a perfect combination of texture and flavor.

According to the Sapori del Piemonte website, these cookies have been around since about 1850, before Italy was unified into one state. Passed down through generations of family recipes, these cookies used to be made only in people’s homes, typically for chrisstening celebrations. In piemontese, they’re called le “batiaje”.

These days, bakeries across the region make paste di meliga, with local varieties of stone ground corn. Though recognized by Slow Food, I wonder if and when the native corn varieties will disappear, and whether these would retain their characteristic flavor with the GM varieties we find in the States. Lots of recipes for these exist online. Perhaps I’ll try making some when cooking season returns in the fall?