Large quantities of figs were once grown in the countryside of the Marche region. The Fig Roll was a way of preserving this September fruit well into the Autumn.

The Fig Roll is a traditional peasant sweet made of figs, grape extract, anise, walnuts and almonds wrapped in fig leaves to form a loaf approximately 20 cm long and 6 cm in circumference.

Homemade treat prepared from nothing but fruit, with its discrete but distinctive taste encompassing a full range of intense autumn flavours. It can be eaten as a fruit course or to top off a meal, together with pieces of pecorino or parmesan cheese.

The great poet Leopardi found it delicious, writing to his father in Recanati:

“Dearest Father …here our figs and olive oil, as well as our cheeses, are much praised, and though it was not my wont to eat many figs back home, now for some reason, I find that their taste is exquisite, and I have taken care to set some aside for myself …”

(Of course, fresh figs were certainly not what Giacomo Leopardi was hoping to obtain from his father, Count Monaldo, on 20 February 1826.)