Legend has it that when Ferdinand of Bourbon tasted for the first time this crispy pastry, prepared by Sister Matilde of the
convent of San Gregorio Armeno, he realized he had found the key to access all the courts of Europe: how many of those crowned heads would resist to that "Machiavellian" temptation? But the monarch was forced to withdraw from his project, as he knew well that the pastry had to be eaten fresh and crisp, and religious nuns could never interrupt their seclusion to follow him on his political and diplomatic travels.