Behind the historic pastry shop in Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, the main site of the Scaturchio pastry, there is the large laboratory where every day the delicacies are produced by hand, which are then put on display, in neat rows, in the shop counters. We went to see the pastry chefs at work, along with Giacomo Cautiello, head of the laboratory.
The secret of success is the completely artisanal processing: we see short-handled "mountains" of pastry, small biscuits cut out one by one in an immense sheet of dough. Behind the pastry chef there is a machine, but it is only a larger format than a dough sheeter: it is used exclusively to spread the dough. We move a few steps and see the processing of the babas.

The baba

"The baba is one of our strengths: all the babas rest for a day after they have been cooked; then we start with a double wetsuit. First they dip in a mixture of syrup and aromas, where they stand for about twenty minutes, then they must be removed and pressed and put in the refrigerator. Then, we move on to the second wet, the "alcohol": the recipe is secret, we have been doing so for almost a century. "

The sfogliatella

Not far from the "line" babà, there is Roberto, pastry chef "sfogliatista" and chocolatier specialized in the famous Ministerial of Scaturchio, who is working the dough and filling the desserts.
«For the sfogliatella only Roman ricotta is used, while for the pastiera other types of ricotta are also added. In addition to the Roman ricotta, in the sfogliatella, there is the semolina and the sugar: the quantity of sugar is very important, because if it is too much the dough is softened, if it is little the ricotta in contact with the lard of the pasta loses quality. You need the right dose to make a product that stays balanced. In any case, these sweets are consumed within a day ".