Pasticceria Mignon: Italian Mini Pastries by the Tray

In much of Italy, if you are invited to someone's home for Sunday lunch, you do not arrive empty-handed, and for generations the standard gift has been a tray of small pastries from a bakery you trust. It waits on the side until the meal is done, then goes to the center of the table to be shared. In Naples the tray even has its own name, the guantiera; in Rome the little pastries are pastarelle.

The mignon format exists for that moment. Nobody wants a full sfogliatella after three courses, but everyone has room for one bite of four different things. The pieces are small enough to eat standing up, so the same tray works at a reception as well as at a seated lunch.

• Sfogliatelle. The Neapolitan shell pastry with a ricotta filling, scaled down to a mouthful.
• Cannoli. The Sicilian crisp tube with a creamy filling.
• Babà. The soaked, springy little cake that Naples adopted as its own.
• Mini bignè. Small cream puffs, the choux member of the tray.

Ask for a mixed selection, or for pieces one by one. Because it is made only on request, ask us ahead rather than expecting a tray in the case on the day.

It depends on where the tray falls in the day. After a full meal, guests take fewer than you would guess. When the tray is the dessert, or when it is an afternoon gathering with coffee and nothing else, plan on more. Mixing all four types matters more than the total count, because it gives everyone something they recognize and something to try.

For an office, a meeting or a party, start with our catering page, and for the arithmetic of feeding a room in the morning, our post on how much breakfast to order for an office does the sums. If the occasion also needs something to cut and share, pair the tray with one of our whole Italian cakes.