"Mastazzola" of Enna

Biscuit

The Mastazzolo, Mustazzolo, Mostacciolo, or even Nzudde is an unleavened and baked biscuit typical of the Sicilian tradition. In Enna the Mastazzolo is traditionally distributed to the "nudes", that is, the brothers of the Madonna della Visitazione at the end of the traditional procession of July 2nd. This ancient tradition seems to date back, as reported in a text of the seventeenth century, to the will of the Prior Grimaldi Petroso to reward the "naked" with 350 liters of wine and a 250-gram mastazzolo, as long as they wore the Madonna in less skimpy clothes. . Today, to the "nudes", as it is written in the statute of the brotherhood, only the mastazzolo and a glass of wine are offered.