Food - Drink

Italian 'Beans Of The Dead' Are The Fall Cookie You Probably Haven't Heard Of

By RYAN CASHMAN

When it comes to Halloween, there are plenty of countries outside ours that have their own spooky traditions. Usually associated with holidays like Christmas and Easter, Italians also celebrate Halloween through the delicious “beans of the dead,” and interestingly, it has nothing to do with beans.

Fave dei morti — beans of the dead in Italian — are small, soft, almond cookies, not typically found outside Italy, that are eaten from mid-October to All Saints Day, when Italians commemorate and celebrate the departed. Umbria is likely the ancestral home of these cookies owing to the discovery of an Etruscan tomb where remains of this dessert were found.

There are several fave dei morti versions made throughout Italy specifically for this time of year, each differing in size, shape, and ingredients according to the region. Trieste, for example, has cookies made in a tricolor pastel of white, mocha, and pink, while in Marches, they are more like small, round, crispy, and rum-infused biscotti.

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