Our Story

Meet the artisan bakers, Marie Lucia, Rino and Lauren

The art of baking delicious biscotti, cakes and breads has always been a part of my family’s Italian tradition.  After baking for so many friends and family weddings, birthdays and events, my mom and I decided to turn our gift of artisan baking into Piccolo Dolce, little sweets.

Delicious biscotti, cakes and grissini, bread sticks, are baked almost every day in our kitchen.  At nearly two years old, I was already mixing, rolling and baking alongside my Nonna Philomena and mom, Marie Lucia. Reminiscing about days in my nonna’s kitchen bring back heartfelt memories and the scent of her vanilla and lemon foot-tall sponge cakes layered with cooked-yellow cream and garnished with swirls of fresh whipped cream and fresh strawberries or peaches.

Nonna and mom always started their work in the early morning – prepping, organizing, then baking.  When all of the beautiful cookies were baked, they’d assemble the different varieties on trays, decorate with confetti, Italian almond candies, then wrap them with festive cello paper and curly ribbons.  Our kitchen was like a bake shop with taralli, southern Italian snacks made sweet or savory, spiked with fennel or coated in icy sugar, along with pizza cooked in our outdoor wood-burning oven and focaccia made in big square pans.

In the kitchen, the baking process was always fun.  Time passed quickly while we counted the days to weddings, birthday parties and family events.  We baked endlessly – almond, anise, pepper and chocolate biscotti. raspberry filled cookies, date bars, butter balls, fig-filled cookies and Italian sponge cake – using my great-grandmother Lucia’s recipes from the little town of Prata Sannita, in Casserta, Italy where my mom’s side of the family is from. 

 The name of my family’s little town is Prata Sannita

Prata Sannita is renowned for ancient biscotti because of the churches, Saint Pancrazio and Saint Maria della Grazie, and the  and monastery of Saint Francesco.  This story dates back to the 14th century, maybe earlier, of the monks and nuns who inhabited the churches and monastery and who baked for the noble families of this small village.  The more they baked, the more commissions they received and this kept their churches and monastery solvent.  The monks and nuns reputedly created the best pastries and liqueurs in all of Italy at this time.  Today, like the monks and nuns of times passed, we are baking for you!