Here in our home, one of our Christmas traditions is making gingerbread cookies and one gingerbread house each year. (CLICK to see what we built last year.) I often wondered if there is something similar in Italy and in fact, I discovered something very similar to gingerbread in Calabria... the Mostaccioli, a shaped, honey and spiced, unleavened hard cookie. Some recipes even contain red wine.

With it's roots deep in Italian history, perhaps from the time of the Romans when they were placed on temple alters as offerings to the Roman gods, the tradition of Mostaccioli was continued by 15th century Dominican monks. These shaped, edible works of art are very hard and longlasting--just like gingerbread! (We have a gingerbread ornament that Lucas made in pre-school that we hang on the tree each year... still smelling nice and spicy.)

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Source: http://grandvoyageitaly.weebly.com/