It wasn’t that dessert trolleys were banned in Italy during Covid, but guidelines from the Instituto Superiore di Sanità (national institute of health) were so (necessarily) rigorous around these “potential vehicles of the virus” that most places banished them to storerooms. Happily, many restaurants have since retrieved them from their long stay, so they glide or rattle between tables once more, or sit parked in an admirable position. This isn’t my first time mentioning the dessert trolley at La Torricella here in Testaccio, having written about its fabulous puff pastry and cream millefoglie in the past. But another dessert that might catch your eye as you enter the restaurant and look right at the cloth-covered trolley parked under the bar is what owner Augusto refers to as torta medievale, because of its spiced almond and dried fruit filling. It’s an unassuming but extremely good thing.
The torta medievale also reminds me of a favourite among favourites: treacle tart, which is, of course, made with golden syrup, whose story began in 1881 when the Scottish businessman Abram Lyle set up a sugar refinery in London. The process involved extracting juice from sugar cane, then boiling down this juice and moulding it into sugar loaves, which could then be grated as required. One of the byproducts of this process was a bitter, molasses-brown treacle, which was initially sold as animal feed, but later, thanks to the work of the chemist, further refined into a viscous, sweet syrup nicknamed “Goldie”, which was stored in barrels and distributed to staff and friends. Over time, though, seeing its popularity, the partially inverted refined syrup was given the name golden syrup and packaged in tins that remain so familiar: dark green with a dead gold lion swarmed by bees. It’s an image from Samson’s Riddle in the book of Judges, in which Samson, returning to the lion he has killed, finds that bees have created a honeycomb in the carcass, which also gives rise to the words on the tin, “out of the strong came forth sweetness”, and reminds one of Lyle’s strong faith.
