Susamielli

01 / ABOUT THE DISH

About the dish

Susamielli are traditional Neapolitan Christmas cookies. They're made with a combination of flour, sugar, butter, honey, and spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. The dough is shaped into sticks which are then twisted into the letter S before being baked until golden. These cookies are often sold along with mustaccioli, rococo, and struffoli at street stands during the festive Christmas season. It's recommended to dunk susamielli in coffee or a glass of sweet dessert wine. In the past, susamielli were called sesamielli and they were covered with sesame seeds. Nowadays, they're also called sapienze since they were also prepared by the nuns of the Monastero della Sapienza, and in their version the cookies were dotted with whole almonds. These cookies taste great, but eating them takes work since they're quite hard, and interestingly, the Neapolitans will also call a serious or antisocial person a susamiello .