Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks, 120g
Put these on a table when people arrive and you have not cooked anything, and you will look as though you planned it. That is the job here, and it is not the job a cracker does. A grissino is bread rather than biscuit and it tastes like it: wheat and salt, with a faint toasted bitterness at the tips where the stick caught the most heat. That is the whole flavour, and it is enough, because a breadstick is never the main thing on the plate. There is no flat surface to load either, which settles the question of toppings. It is a handle. Wrap one in a slice of cured ham, drag it through something soft, or hold it in the hand that is not holding a glass. A long thin stick in a box travels badly, so a share of every pack arrives broken, which is the format rather than a fault, and the short ends go into soup or get crushed over a salad. And they are dry, so put water on the table as well. It is a wheat product, and the current pack settles anything else.
Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks, in brief.
Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks is a 120g pack of grissini, the thin dry breadsticks Italy puts on a table before anything else arrives, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the antipasti item on our cracker shelf.
A grissino is dried right through rather than baked on the outside, which is why it snaps cleanly end to end and keeps for months.
A grissino is a dough that has been rolled or stretched thin and then dried right through rather than simply baked on the outside. That distinction is the whole product. A baguette has a crisp crust and a soft interior, and the two go their separate ways within hours; a breadstick has no interior to speak of, so there is nothing left to go stale in the usual sense. What you get instead is bread flavour concentrated into something with the density of a pencil and the snap of a twig, and a shelf life measured in months rather than in the morning.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. Torinesi means of Turin and describes the style rather than this pack's bakery. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Storage and serving are in the Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Crosta & Mollica
Crosta e mollica is Italian for crust and crumb, which is a plain-speaking name for a bakery range and a fair description of what a breadstick is arguing about. The brand is the Italian range most British shoppers will recognise from the bakery and chilled aisles, and it sits at the deli end of the shelf rather than the everyday end. That is positioning. It is not a statement about which bakery produced this pack, what flour went into it or where the sticks were dried, none of which we know.
The ingredient list, the allergen advice, any certification marks and the country of origin must all be read off the current UK pack rather than taken from this page.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Weight: one hundred and twenty grams.
- Why the weight looks small: a grissino is mostly air by volume, so 120g is a far taller pile than 120g of any other cracker on this shelf. Judge this one by the jar it fills rather than by the number.
- Where it sits: the deli end of this part of our range, and the one that is doing a different job from the rest.
- What it is not: not a cracker for cheese, not a biscuit for tea and not a snack to eat from the pack in front of the television. It is a table item, and it works best when something is wrapped round it or sitting under it.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Do not dunk them in tea: a breadstick takes up liquid the whole way through rather than just at the tip, and there is no good stage between crisp and limp.
- Storage: airtight, dry and upright. Grissini go soft rather than stale, and a pack left open in a steamy kitchen loses its snap within days.
- Refresh them: four or five minutes in a low oven brings a soft pack back, and they must be cooled flat and fully before they crisp up again.
- Crush them: a bag of broken sticks makes a better crumb coating than breadcrumbs do, because the pieces are already dry and will not steam in the pan.
- Best with: something cured, something soft and something to drink that is not hot. That is the whole brief.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks, 120g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Crosta & Mollica
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
Grissini are a savoury table item, so the honest answer is that they belong with wine, charcuterie and antipasti rather than with a hot drink. That said, they take a drink better than most savoury bakes, because there is no fat coating the palate and no strong seasoning to argue with the cup.
The Tea Break
The Aperitivo Hour
Made with this tea
Prosciutto Wrapped Grissini
How to make Prosciutto Wrapped Grissini with Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks.
- 12 Crosta & Mollica breadsticks
- 6 slices prosciutto or air-dried ham
- Olive oil
- Black pepper
- Tear each slice of ham in half lengthways rather than cutting it. A torn edge clings; a cut edge slides off.
- Wrap the ham round the top third only, leaving the rest of the stick clean to hold.
- Grind pepper over the ham and add a few drops of olive oil at the last moment.
- Serve standing in a glass, and wrap them no more than twenty minutes before they are eaten.
What you'll end up with: The reason grissini exist. The restraint of the stick is what lets the ham read clearly, and leaving two thirds bare keeps your hands out of the fat.
The Antipasti Jar
How to make The Antipasti Jar with Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks.
- 1 pack Crosta & Mollica breadsticks
- Good olive oil in a shallow bowl
- A soft cheese and a hard cheese
- Sun-dried tomatoes and olives
- Flaky salt and cracked pepper
- Stand the sticks upright in a tall glass or jar in the middle of the board. Flat on a plate they snap under each other.
- Pour the olive oil into a shallow bowl and season it heavily with salt and pepper.
- Arrange everything wet in its own bowl rather than spooned over the sticks.
- Keep the pack sealed until the moment the board goes out.
What you'll end up with: A board that stays crisp for an hour instead of twenty minutes. Separating wet from dry is the entire trick, and the jar keeps the sticks whole.
Burrata, Tomato and Snapped Grissini
How to make Burrata, Tomato and Snapped Grissini with Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks.
- 8 Crosta & Mollica breadsticks
- 1 burrata or a ball of fresh mozzarella
- 250g ripe tomatoes
- Basil
- Olive oil and flaky salt
- Salt the chopped tomatoes ten minutes ahead and drain off what they give up, or the plate will be a puddle.
- Tear the burrata over the tomatoes rather than slicing it, and dress with oil and salt.
- Snap the breadsticks into rough lengths and push them into the plate at the last second.
- Eat straight away, while the sticks still have their snap.
What you'll end up with: The crunch a soft starter normally lacks. Draining the tomatoes is not optional here, because a wet plate takes the sticks down in about a minute.
Grissini Crumb Coating
How to make Grissini Crumb Coating with Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks.
- 60g Crosta & Mollica breadsticks, the broken ones
- 1 egg, beaten
- 4 chicken escalopes, fish fillets or aubergine slices
- 1 lemon
- Olive oil for frying
- Crush the sticks to a coarse rubble in a bag with a rolling pin. Coarse is better than fine here.
- Dip each piece in beaten egg and press the crumb on firmly on both sides.
- Fry in a shallow layer of hot olive oil, three or four minutes a side, until deep gold.
- Drain on a rack rather than on paper, and finish with salt and a squeeze of lemon.
What you'll end up with: A better crust than breadcrumbs give you. The pieces are already dry, so they brown rather than steam, and the coating stays crisp on the plate.
Bread Soup, the Tuscan Way
How to make Bread Soup, the Tuscan Way with Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks.
- 80g Crosta & Mollica breadsticks, broken small
- 400g tinned tomatoes
- 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic
- Basil and a bay leaf
- Olive oil, salt and pepper
- Soften the onion and garlic slowly in olive oil, then add the tomatoes, the bay and 400ml of water.
- Simmer for fifteen minutes, then stir in the broken breadsticks and take the pan off the heat.
- Stand for ten minutes so the bread swells and thickens the soup to a porridge.
- Beat it smooth with a spoon, season hard, and finish each bowl with basil and a thread of raw oil.
What you'll end up with: A thick peasant soup that costs almost nothing, built on the principle that dry bread is an ingredient rather than a leftover.
The Five Minute Revival
How to make The Five Minute Revival with Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks.
- Any breadsticks that have gone bendy
- An oven at 150C
- Four to five minutes
- Lay them in a single layer on a tray, not touching and not overlapping.
- Heat at 150C for four to five minutes. You are driving off moisture, not colouring them further.
- Cool them completely and flat. A warm stick is still pliable and sets to whatever curve you leave it in.
- Store the rest airtight and upright, away from the steam of a kettle or a pan.
What you'll end up with: The snap back. Grissini go soft rather than stale, which means the fault is moisture and moisture is reversible.
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Typical values per 100g, as published | Per 100g |
|---|---|
| Energy | 402 kcal |
| Fat | 6.5g |
| of which saturates | 0.4g |
| Carbohydrate | 75g |
| of which sugars | 1.1g |
| Fibre | 0.5g |
| Protein | 9.8g |
| Salt | 2.1g |
Ingredients and allergens. Per the published ingredient list for this barcode it contains wheat and barley (gluten). Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this barcode: Wheat Flour, Extra Virgin Olive Oil (7%), Malted Barley Flour, Salt, Yeast.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Thin dried dough | the body | The whole product. A dough rolled or stretched thin and dried right through rather than baked crisp on the outside, which is why the snap is identical at the middle and at the end and why the shelf life runs to months. |
| Toasted crust character | the flavour | A stick this thin is very nearly all crust, so the browned surface supplies most of what you taste. It is a stronger bread flavour than a soft loaf gives you, concentrated rather than added. |
| Salt | restrained | Our reading is that the seasoning is deliberately held back, which is correct for something designed to be wrapped in cured ham or dipped in oil. The stick is not meant to win the plate. |
Pack: Best before the date printed on the pack, and best kept airtight and upright once opened.
Characterising components shown; the full ingredient declaration, the nutrition panel, the stick count, the inner packaging arrangement and any certification marks are printed on the current UK pack.
Sourcing & blend. Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks, 120g sits at the deli end of our cracker shelf rather than the everyday end, and it is doing a different job from everything around it: this is a table item for a board, not a biscuit for a tin. Crosta e mollica is Italian for crust and crumb, which is a plain-speaking name for a bakery range and a fair description of what a breadstick is arguing about. That is positioning and translation rather than a claim about which bakery produced this pack or where the sticks were dried. The pack you receive is the current UK retail pack.
What is in Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks, 120g, and what is not:
- In: thin dry breadsticks in the Turin style, 120g to the sealed pack, dried through rather than baked hard on the outside.
- No origin claim: Torinesi names the style and its association with Turin. Where this pack was baked is printed on it and is not asserted here.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Crosta & Mollica Classic Torinesi Breadsticks, 120g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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