Meet Stefania Innocenti: Owner of Rome’s Legendary Biscottificio Innocenti Bakery
Ask anyone where to buy Biscotti. Innocenti is it.
Bakeries abound in Rome, from local favorites to destination joints known for their specialties. Romoli e Regoli are the city’s go-to spots for cream-stuffed brioche, Maritozzi. Pompi is the place for tiramisu. Antico Forno Roscioli, Forno Campo de’ Fiori, and Bonci reign for meter-long pizza bianca (Rome’s signature focaccia). Bonci makes legendary pizza by-the-slice as well.
But ask anyone about biscotti and Biscottificio Innocenti it is.
Biscotti is Italian for cookies in general, not just the oblong, nut-studded ones we think of in English.
Read on Tastefully: Baked to the Gods: A Treatise on Holiday Baking
Biscottificio: Italian for cookie factory
The suffix ficio comes from the Latin; ficium, a derivative of facĕre: “to do or make.” These days the word is used more widely to describe a venue, for example Vinificio, a hip little natural wine bar in Rome’s Testaccio neighborhood.
Biscottificio Innocenti lives up to its original definition.
Today they produce all kinds of savory and sweet treats, but they made their name with biscotti and earned themselves the reputation as the Rome essential supplier.
The bakery is located on Via della Luce, a quiet street in Rome’s Trastevere, neighborhood. Trastevere has grown increasingly popular in recent decades (read: inundated by English-speakers, touristy, and raucous by night), yet picturesque and postcard-worthy areas remain.
Scent Memory Lane
23 years ago, when I first moved to Rome, I lived one minute away from Innocenti. I could smell the place before I ever found it, and my jaw still drops when I round the corner today.
The trees are taller and bougainvillea rampant. But it’s the walk down scent-memory lane, that sends my thoughts ricocheting to my early twenties, in a new city, in a new language. In love, and always hungry.
Originally opened by Sesto Innocenti in 1940, the bakery has been family-owned and operated ever since. At the height of holiday season I was lucky enough to wander in and catch his granddaughter Stefania, in a rare moment of calm.
The calm is fleeting, and Stefania’s eyes dart between a steady stream of panettone loaves, and the clock. Her son is running late, but she’s happy to answer my questions, and apologizes for turning her back to me sometimes.
An Oven of Epic Proportions
In 1960, Sesto’s son Enzo and his wife, Anna, invested in massive new tunnel oven, 14 meters long with a built-in conveyer belt. As Stefania tells it, her mother, Anna, who married into the family, had a brain for the bakery business.
She was the one who convinced the family to invest in the five-million lire monstrosity that had to be shipped in parts from the factory in Milan and assembled inside the shop.
Their neighbors referred the oven as the Il Mastodonte Giallo (The Yellow Mastodon). They worried it might break down and wondered how the family would pay it off.
To that regard, Innocenti signed promissory notes “by the meter” to cover the costs. It is more than paid off.
Check out this short video featuring the oven, the historic space and Stefania (in Italian).
Sora Anna, La Biscottara
A hybrid of signora (ma’am) and sister (as in nun, seeing as the city is crawling with them), sora is an affectionately Roman way of describing a woman. “La biscottara” with biscotti at its root, is a distinctively roman way of describing someone based on their trade or expertise.
Stefania describes her mother’s passion and vision for the bakery.
Anna took risks, starting with the oven. The conveyor belt system works on a timer. In the kitchen, bakers insert trays of cookies, tarts, or cakes. They use a mechanic’s light to peer down the tunnel and check the status.
Confections roll through at precisely calculated temperature and exit on the other side of the wall, warm and ready to be served to the public.
The public-facing space of the bakery has 1970s vintage vibes and is dominated by the butter yellow oven. Faded photos with upturned corners line the walls. They offer glimpses of loyal clientele and their dogs (Innocenti is pet-friendly), alongside news clippings, packaging and signage from decades ago.
Stefania deftly captures cakes and cookies as they reach the end of the belt and moves them first to cooling racks and finally the displace cases in the front window.
Her father, Enzo, served as a naval officer. He handled ordering and administration expertly, and they referred to him as the “captain of the oven.”
But she is emphatic about her mom.
Sora Anna believed they could do more than basic tea biscuits and butter cookies. She expanded their repertoire to include more complicated delicacies lie pizzette (mini pizzas), rustici (stuffed little savory tarts), and more classics from the Italian cookie cannon.
Biscotti Bestsellers
Today, Innocenti turns out 70+ products.
Sweets include plain, fruit, and chocolate-filled butter cookies, puff pastries, almond biscotti (the crunchy ones we know), baci di dama (lady kisses) tiny sandwich cookies stuffed with pistachio, almond meringues topped with cherry, flat and crunchy lingue di gatto (cat’s tongues), miniature crostatas, and perhaps their most famous creation: brutti ma buoni, which translates to ugly but tasty.
The slightly misshapen little mouthfuls of meringue, laced with roasted local hazelnut have a cult following. For a recipe, click here.
They also produce savory tarts and crackers, and seasonal essentials like panettone at Christmas, and frappe, an Easter sweet made from strands of dough, baked or fried to a curly crisp and doused in powdered sugar.
Like Mother, Like Daughter
While Stefania credits her mother with most of Innocenti’s innovation, she has taken steps in new directions.
She’s experimented with mother yeast starters and ancient, indigenous grains as well as swapped out margarine and oil for butter in a few recipes. She says her clients are grateful for the lactose-free options.
For now, her challenge is getting through the holidays.
With no son in sight, and the sunlight slipping away, I wrap up my questions with an impossible one: which biscotti most genuinely represents Innocenti as an establishment?
Stefania laughs and lists of at least ten of them. She fills a small paper sack and tells me to decide for myself.
In exchange, I offer her a bag of my own homemade cookies, orange-scented and heart-shaped with a vanilla glaze. She plans to put them under the tree, but I’m wary they’ll stay fresh for another week. Stefania takes one look and promises me they will.
This is a developing story. We have plans to expand the interview after the holiday rush. Stay tuned.
Biscottificio Innocenti
Via della Luce, 21 00153 Rome
TEL +39 39 06 580 3926
@biscottificioinnocenti
https://biscottificioartigianoinnocenti.wordpress.com/