Specialties

Protected Traditional Agri-food Products (PAT)

Over the years Brusa has diversified its range of products, experimenting new flavors every day, without giving up the regional Piedmont tradition.

Brusa offers a complete range of products, sweet and savory, which satisfies all tastes and whose processing methods have been consolidated over time according to traditional rules handed down for over twenty-five years.

 

The traditional Piedmont products of our confectionery production are Krumiri, Baci di dama (Lady’s Kisses), Paste di Meliga and Amaretti; also including the local Biella specialties of Torcetti and Canestrej (Luxury wafers).

Biella’s Canestrej,
the taste of tradition

The Canestrelli Brusa, whose recipe still retains the artisan method, are composed of 70% of the finest extra dark chocolate enclosed between two crumbly wafers, flavored with almond oil and finest cocoa. The chocolate used for the filling is of the highest quality and does not contain vegetable fats: just cocoa butter.

The recipe of the Canestrej Bieleis dates back to biblical times and it seems that the rustic waffles, called “miasce”, were also appreciated by the Romans. In the ancient recipe, white flour and fioretto (fine sifted corn flour), sugar, soft butter and the grated peel of a lemon were mixed.

Incorporating the milk, a fairly firm mixture was obtained which was cooked between two hot stone plates. Later, the use of steel plates took place, on which noble families began to engrave their Family crest, customizing their own Canestrej.

In the 1805 manuscript “Notice sur l’arrondissement de Biella, departement de la Sesia”, kept in the royal library of Turin, Canestrej Bieleis are mentioned as a typical Biella product.

The Breadstick
Piedmontese goodness

The ghersìn, or small ghersa: a crunchy Piedmont delicacy that takes its name from the elongated bread once consumed in the Turin area and called, or indeed, ghersa. The origin of the breadstick is noble and curious: it seems that little Vittorio Amedeo di Savoia, future king of Italy, was inappetent from birth and had growth problems because he was unable to digest the breadcrumbs.

Antonio Brunero, a court baker, had the intuition to take the bread dough, stretch it into long sticks and cook it until it becomes crisp and waterless. This toasted bread, light and digestible, not only favored the growth of Vittorio Amedeo, but was so appreciated that it became part of the eating habits of the House of Savoy and quickly spread throughout the region. Not even Napoleon was able to give up the “petites batons de Turin” (small Sticks of Turin), that he wanted them to be delivered every day from the Piedmont capital with an express mail service.

Since 1974 Brusa has been carrying on the tradition of the Piedmontese breadstick, one of the specialties of its production. Prepared every day with simple and genuine raw materials and enriched with Mediterranean spices and ingredients such as Olives, Chili, Onion, Sesame, Rosemary, Walnuts, Extra Virgin Olive oil and many more, Brusa breadsticks are ideal to accompany appetizers and meals or as a every hour delicious snack.

Different recipes and formats are offered: made according to the ancient traditional regional recipe, to artisan breadsticks, hand-stretched after a slow leavening process which gives them perfect crispness and makes them light and tasty.