Ricetta per i Biscotti

For all our friends who are cooks/bakers back home, here is a recipe you must try! We arrived yesterday afternoon in Parrano, a small Italian town perched on a hill. Giovanna, our wonderful WWOOFing host for the next three weeks, made this fabulous and tasy (tasty = "molto buono" in Italian) Biscotti recipe for us.

Last winter was very unusual in Parrano - the snow was a meter and a half thick! Almost 4'! Giovanna ran out of eggs, and as she lives outside of Parrano (20 minutes walking), she wasn't able to get to the village for supplies. A nearby friend taught her this minimal biscuit recipe (recipe = "ricetta" in Italian), which requires only a few ingredients: flour, white wine, olive oil, and sugar.

Biscotti con olio et vino Ricetta
"Biscotti with olive oil and wine Recipe"

1. Use equal proportions of flour, olive oil, white wine, and sugar. For this recipe, use about 1/2 cup of each, and mix together. 
2. Add flour to the wet mix until saturated - the dough should not feel sticky, and you should be able to roll a small piece into a ball without pieces sticking to your hand.
3. Take a ping-pong ball sized piece, roll it into a short snake, roughly 4" long
4. Shape the piece as desired - we shaped them into little ribbons, and pressed the tail of one end over the other. Then place on a plate dusted in white sugar.
5. Bake at roughly 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Please note that I don't know the correct oven temperature - this is my best guess. :) 

Optional ingredients & changes:

• Use brown sugar instead of white in the main recipe
• Substitute whole wheat flours or other flours, in equal proportions with the white
• Giovanna added chopped ginger (pretty large-sized cubes of ginger) to the recipe, which added a fantastic flavor.
• Use other spices as desired - cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, etc