Spelt Flour Biscuits
A confectionery specialty produced in Decima Malafede Nature Reserve (RomaNatura) is represented by the biscuits prepared with spelt flour, a very suitable cereal for organic farming, since it grows well in poor soils and well resists to cold, water shortage, and infesting plants. Moreover, it does not need support by fertilizers and chemical parasiticides.
Spelt has been an essential product for all the ancient people from the Near East and North Africa; the ancient Romans used it to prepare the so-called puls, the most common and famous dish and, since they considered it particularly energetic and nutritious, it was used as an essential ingredient of the diet of the army. All the countryside Gods, in particular Demeter, were offered salt and spelt grains. Toasting spelt soon became a daily practice for the ancient inhabitants of the Peninsula; however, during the Middle Ages, this cereal was replaced by wheat, since the latter was easier to cultivate and had better yelds. Spelt flour, like these tasty biscuits deriving from it, is very dark since it contains a great quantity of fibers. As a matter of fact, during the processing it is difficult to separate the seed from its covering, which is very clinging.
Its richness in fibers, magnesium (very important to maintain tonic muscles and to burn fat between cells), as well as vegetal proteins, vitamins (Bl, B2, D, E, K, in particular PP, preventing pellagra, and provitamin A), fibers and mineral salts (calcium and iron) has given the opportunity to reappraise it and include it again in the diet.
