Thanks to its crunchiness and mild taste, sesame is used to decorate cakes and baked products, such as biscuits, bread and breadsticks. Sesame seeds are ground and mixed with salt to make gomasio, which is an alternative seasoning to salt. Sesame oil is used to produce tahini, which is used to make hummus.
Native to India, sesame is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the Pedaliaceae family. It is widely cultivated in southern Italy, particularly in Sicily. Its seeds are flat and oblong.