Grissini, also known as Italian breadsticks, is a staple of Italian Antipasto platter. These long thin sticks are made of bread dough, then stretched by hand and generously dusted with semolina flour.

All this gives them their rustic look and a deliciously crunchy texture.

Because of how thin the dough is stretched, as a final result you essentially get crust-only, seasoned with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flaxseeds and even sunflower seeds.

Grissini play a big role on Italian tables and are a must in restaurants, where they’re served either packaged or elegantly placed in a basket.

They’re usually served as a bread along with antipasto and they also pair well with any kind of main course.

But honestly, no one really resists and they are usually gone in a flash!

grissini breadsticks with appetizer platter

5 Reasons You’ll Love Italian Breadsticks

Very little work for crunchy, thin and utterly delicious breadsticks.
All simple ingredients you already have in the pantry.
Once you make the dough, you will start baking grissini in just 1 hour!
Perfect appetizer, snack and overall favorite food of everyone.
Can be made plain or with various seasoning.
If you have little helpers they’ll be happily involved 😉

How To Make Grissini – Step By Step

Step 1: Prepare the dough

In a big bowl add flour, honey and yeast. Slowly pour in the water. Stir with the fork, add salt.
Add extra virgin olive oil and about 3 tbsp sesame seeds (optional). Mix until the dough comes together in a bowl.
Knead for a few minutes by hand or with a stand mixer with a dough hook.

Step 2: Season the dough

Form a thick log, cover with a linen towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
Roll the dough into 18-20 inch (45-50 cm) long and 5 inch (12 cm) wide sheet. It should be a little less than ½ inch (1 cm) thick.
Brush with olive oil, generously dust with semolina flour.
Flip the dough and brush the other side with extra virgin olive oil mixed with water. Dust generously with remaining sesame seeds (if using) or and/poppy seeds. I did half and half.
Generously dust with more semolina flour.
Cover with a plastic wrap and a linen towel and let rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

Step 3: Cut, stretch and twist grissini.

Past that time preheat oven to 395F (200C).
Using a dough cutter cut ½ inch thick pieces of dough.
Hold each piece on the sides, stretching and twisting it until you get a thin breadstick.

Step 4: Bake grissini.

Bake grissini in a preheated oven for 15 minutes, but check on the 10 minute mark and adjust time if needed.

Top Tips For Success

You can use 00 flour instead of all purpose.
You can make breadstick plain if you don’t like sesameseeds.
As an alternative to sesame seeds you can use gomasio (Japeness sesame salt). In this case make sure to reduce salt quantity.
Another great seasoning is rosemary or origano.
Reduce salt to 1 tsp or 1 ½ tsp if you plant to serve breadsticks with salty cured-meats like prosciutto crudo that already have plenty of salt.
Don’t skip semolina flour if you can! It give that nice rustic look and extra crunch to the breadsticks.
Try to make them all of the same thickness to bake evenly in the oven. If some breadsticks start to get too dark, remove them first but bake the remaining for a few more minutes.
Grissini can be stored for days if not weeks but they’ve hardly ever lasted for more than 1 day.
Always store grissini in an airtight container or they’ll loose their crunchiness.
For this reason when shaping grissini you might need to cut the strip in 2 parts to make sure baked grissini fit in the airtight container you have handy. If you don’t have a tall container and made extra long grissini you can also wrap them in a few layers of a plastic wrap.

a bread basket full of grissini breadsticks

Other Types Of Grissini

Traditionally, grissini are divided into two main categories: grissini stirati, (hand-stretched and a bit crumblier) and grissini rubatà (hand-rolled and thicker).

Besides the classic, plain version, there are a lot of variations. For example, they can be seasoned with herbs and spices, sprinkled with sesame seeds, or even made alla pizzaiola – just like the famous Chicken Alla Pizzaiola – with tomato sauce and oregano.

You can also make grissini with puff pastry and stuff them with cheese or salami, but in this case the name represents the elongated shape of the snack bread but the texture is absolutely different.

Though mostly salty, in some Piedmontese pastry shops you can get grissini covered in dark chocolate, a true delicacy!

Full Recipe

Grissini also make a great bread for brunch or even for breakfast.

Try dunking them into a liquid egg yolk. Yum!

Where do Grissini come from?

Grissini come from Piedmont, but the details of their origin are a bit hazy.

Many believe they were invented by a baker for Vittorio Amedeo II, the young Duke of Savoy, who had trouble digesting and needed bread without crumb.

Others say they were invented in the 14th century in Turin where bread was taxed not by weight, but by shape, and local bakers started to shrink the traditional elongated loaf of bread (“grissia”), which gradually became lighter and thinner until it was called “grissino” (small grissia).

No matter who invented them first, breadsticks became an instant hit. Over the centuries, fans included Napoleon, who got grissini delivered daily from Turin to Paris, and King Carlo Felice, who snacked on them at the theater.

And rumor has it that the Sun King used to yell furiously at his cooks in Versailles for being unable to replicate the Piedmontese delicacy.

Nowadays, grissini are an iconic Italian food, and no matter where you go in Italy, you’re bound to find a basket of these crunchy beauties on the table.

But now, you know how you can easily make them at home!

Buon Appetito!

Grissini {Italian Breadsticks}