Sise delle monache (Guardiagrele cream cakes)

History and origin

Sise delle monache are a speciality tied only to Guardiagrele, a village in the province of Chieti within the Majella park. According to the tradition recorded by Slow Food's Ark of Taste, the recipe comes from the Poor Clare nuns of the village monastery, who made this cake for the feast of Saint Agatha. At the end of the nineteenth century the nuns are said to have passed the secret to Filippo Palmerio, ancestor of a local family of pastry makers.

There are different readings of the name. One links it to the three peaks of the Majella, which the cake recalls with its three points; another, more playful, to the nuns' bosom. Out of modesty the cake is also called tre monti, three mountains, the name under which it appears on the list of traditional products.

The sise are indeed on the list of traditional food products of Abruzzo, in the pastry section, and the 2026 national revision confirms them.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Arca del Gusto, Sise delle monache di Guardiagrele · I Borghi più belli d'Italia — Guardiagrele · Regione Abruzzo — Elenco dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali dell'Abruzzo, aggiornamento 2023 · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)

Area and method of production

The ingredients are few and carefully chosen. The sponge needs sugar, flour and fresh eggs; the pastry cream fresh milk, eggs, lemon zest and flour.

The proportions, however, are not revealed: the recipe is a secret handed down from generation to generation in the village's pastry shops, where the cake is still made by hand.

Production remains tied to the place. The open atlas of authentic Abruzzo produce, published by the Region, places the sise in Guardiagrele, and the Ark of Taste notes that two pastry shops in the village make them.

The Ark of Taste describes it as a speciality that belongs to Guardiagrele alone: to know it you have to go there.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Arca del Gusto, Sise delle monache di Guardiagrele · Regione Abruzzo — Atlante aperto delle produzioni autentiche d'Abruzzo, elenco sintetico

How to recognise it

They are recognised at once by their shape: a sponge cake with three bumps side by side, dusted with icing sugar, recalling three small peaks.

The sponge is filled with a delicate pastry cream made with milk, eggs and lemon zest. They are soft, fresh pastries in which the cream matters as much as the sponge.

Because they are made with fresh milk and eggs, they must be eaten very fresh: this is not a cake that keeps or travels, which explains why it has stayed so closely tied to its village.

The name tre monti, also used in the Most Beautiful Villages of Italy profile, describes this shape well.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Arca del Gusto, Sise delle monache di Guardiagrele · I Borghi più belli d'Italia — Guardiagrele

Where to taste it

To taste them you have to go to Guardiagrele, because sise are eaten freshly made. The village, at almost 600 metres on the slopes of the Majella, is home to the headquarters of the Majella National Park and is one of the Most Beautiful Villages of Italy.

Pastry is an important part of the village's identity: alongside the sise there are nougats, amaretti and marzipan. Guardiagrele is also the city of stone described by Gabriele d'Annunzio and a historic centre of craftsmanship, especially goldsmithing, linked to the name of Nicola da Guardiagrele.

A visit thus brings together the cake, the medieval village, its churches and the trails climbing towards the Majella.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Arca del Gusto, Sise delle monache di Guardiagrele · I Borghi più belli d'Italia — Guardiagrele · Italia.it — Guardiagrele

Protection

• Traditional agri-food product (PAT) — Abruzzo, n. 120, 26th revision (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026) · Regione Abruzzo — Elenco dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali dell'Abruzzo, aggiornamento 2023)

When

• The sources consulted give no months.

Where

Abruzzo

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