Crumbly savoury ring biscuits from Naples, made by working plenty of lard (sugna, or 'nzogna in dialect) and coarsely ground black pepper into a bread dough, studding it with toasted almonds, then braiding two strands into a ring and baking until deep and friable. A bakery-born street snack, crisp and keeping for days.
The taralli 'nzogna e pepe were born of thrift in Naples' bakeries, where fornai reused the scraps of leftover bread dough rather than waste them, enriching the trimmings with cheap lard and a heavy hand of black pepper and braiding them into rings. Toasted almonds were folded in later, in the 1800s, and the biscuit became a fixture of the city, recognised today among Campania's traditional agri-food products. They are still sold from friggitorie and bakeries and eaten as a street snack, often with a glass of beer or wine.
Hard and crisp, they snap cleanly and crumble into a rich, savoury shortbread rubble on the tongue. The lard makes them melt-rich, the black pepper builds a slow warmth at the back of the throat, and the toasted almonds give sudden sweet, oily crunch.
Lard is a shortening fat: worked into the flour it coats the proteins and physically blocks them from linking into gluten, so the baked ring turns friable and crumbly rather than chewy. Unlike Pugliese taralli, these are not boiled first; they go straight into the oven, where a long bake first at about 200°C then dropped to 180°C drives off moisture and lets the almonds and the fat's surface brown through the Maillard reaction, leaving a dense, dry, keeping biscuit.
Variations
Some bakers add a splash of white wine to the dough for extra friability, or a pinch of sugar to balance the pepper. Almond-free versions exist for a plainer pepper biscuit, and the amount of pepper varies from gentle to fierce.
On the Palate
Where Taralli 'Nzogna e Pepe sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 25 min
- 18 min
Toast 100g whole almonds in a dry oven until fragrant, then chop coarsely.
- 24 min
In a bowl combine 500g flour, 150g soft lard, 1 heaped tbsp coarsely ground black pepper and 8g salt.
- 36 min
Work in about 150ml water (or half water, half white wine) to a firm, smooth dough, then knead in the almonds.
Watch outWork the lard in until the dough is firm and smooth — the fat coating the flour is what keeps these crumbly, not chewy; overworked, they bake up tough.
- 430 min
Let the dough rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
- 520 min
Divide into small pieces, roll each into a thin rope, fold in two and twist the strands together, then join the ends into a ring.
- 64 min
Arrange the rings on lined trays.
- 755 min
Bake at 200°C for 20-25 minutes, then lower to 180°C for another 30 minutes until deep golden and dry.
Watch outBake until deep golden and dry right through — any residual moisture and they won't crisp up on cooling, so hold the bake until fully dry.
- 810 min
Cool completely on a rack so they crisp, then store in a tin.
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