Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Bustrengo
San Marino's dense rustic cake of cornmeal, bread, apple and dried fruit sweetened with honey, a Christmas classic.
Sammarinese · easy · serves 10
prep 20 min · cook 60 min
~305 cal · 8g protein · 59g carbs · 5g fat · 4g fiber · 23g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Bustrengo is the peasant dessert par excellence of San Marino, a dense, rustic pudding-cake built from the humblest of ingredients: cornmeal, wheat flour and stale bread, bound with eggs and milk and sweetened with honey. Apples, dried figs, raisins and citrus zest run all through it.
Eaten year-round but especially loved at Christmas, it is a cake of thrift, a way to use up stale bread and the last of the autumn fruit, baked slowly until firm and deeply golden. It is cut into thick chunks and shares its heritage with the neighbouring Emilia-Romagna countryside.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 10
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups fine breadcrumbs
3 eggs
2 cups milk
5 tbsp honey
1 lb apples, peeled and diced
3 oz dried figs, diced
3 oz raisins
3 tbsp olive oil
1 each orange and lemon zest
1 tsp salt
Instructions
1
Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, breadcrumbs and salt.
2
Beat in the eggs and olive oil, then stir in the milk and honey to a loose batter.
3
Fold in the diced apple, figs, raisins and the orange and lemon zest.
✎ Chef’s note
Toss the dried fruit in a little of the flour first so it stays suspended rather than sinking.
4
Pour into a greased baking dish and bake at 325F for 50 to 60 minutes, until deep golden and a skewer comes out clean.
5
Cool, then cut into thick chunks to serve.
San Marino peasant tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
City of San Marino. The Sammarinese piadina is its own thing, thicker than the Rimini version, made with flour, water, lard and salt and cooked on a terracotta testo. Torta tre monti, layers of crisp wafer with cocoa and hazelnut cream under dark chocolate, is named for the three peaks of Monte Titano and dates from after the Second World War.
🗺️
San Marino. San Marino calls itself the world's oldest republic, dating itself to 301 AD, though that date was only fixed by decree in 1941 and historians put its actual institutions in the 13th century. The tiny mountain republic within Italy cooks Emilia-Romagna-style, filled pasta, roasts, and the layered dessert torta tre monti. Piadina flatbread and Italian tradition define its table.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from San Marino
Nido di RondineSan Marino's "swallow's nest": pasta rolls filled with ham and cheese, sliced, and baked in tomato and béchamel.
PiadinaA thin griddled flatbread folded around soft cheese with ham, or with jam, the daily bread of the region.
Cappelletti in BrodoLittle hat-shaped filled pasta floating in a clear, rich broth, the festive first course of San Marino.
Browse all San Marino recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Whisk.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a San Marino meal
Fagioli con le CoticheDinner
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Bustrengo?
San Marino's dense rustic cake of cornmeal, bread, apple and dried fruit sweetened with honey, a Christmas classic.
Where does Bustrengo come from?
Bustrengo is a Sammarinese dish from City of San Marino, San Marino.
Can Bustrengo be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Bustrengo recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Bustrengo safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Bustrengo take to make?
About 80 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 10.
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