CHIAVARI, Italy – I’m no
expert but I think it would be safe to say that panettone is the most famous
Christmas cake in Italy. No matter the region, north or south, it just wouldn’t
be Christmas without a panettone on the table. But there are other Italian
Christmas cakes too. Good ones. Delicious ones. And Siena’s classic Christmas
cake, the dense, dark and spicy panforte, would certainly be at the top of the
delicious list.
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| Christmas Morning, Siena, Italy |
It may seem odd to start
talking about a Christmas cake by talking about a horse race, but this is
planet Italy and everything here is connected one way or another. In this case
the horse race is the Palio di Siena, and the connection you ask? There are
sixteen ingredients in Panforte and sixteen neighborhoods, or contrade in
Siena, that since 1675, have participated in the Palio. Okay it’s a stretch,
but it’s only part of the history of this Christmas cake, and the most recent
part at that.
The story really begins
somewhere between the years 1096 and 1270, which is when the Crusaders, after
having invaded the Middle East, saw cinnamon, coriander, cloves, nutmeg and
black pepper for the first time. They brought the spices back to Italy and
since the Crusades were religious wars, it is not surprising that the first
mention of panforte was found in a document dated 1205 in the Convent of
Montecelso, on the outskirts of Siena.
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| Siena's Panforte |
The monks discovered that
by substituting the spices for the apples the original recipe called for, the
cake remained edible for a longer period of time. And when the Senesi military
was fighting off the Florentines in 1555, panforte became their “emergency food
rations”. But alas and alack, even with
panforte to sustain them, the Senesi lost the war and Siena became part of the
Republic of Florence.
Today panforte is made
with bits of candied oranges and citron (a green citrus fruit that looks like a
lemon), almonds and honey and a mix of spices including: cinnamon, coriander,
nutmeg, star anise and black pepper. If you want to make your own, you can buy
the spice mix in specialty shops during the holidays under the name Droga
Panforte, but you should know that it’s not called panforte – strong
bread – for no reason. It’s because the dough is very stiff and difficult to
work with. Proceed at your own risk.
In spite of the
commercialized ideas of what we think we can’t live without these days, all
those gifts we’ll soon find under the Christmas tree will soon be forgotten,
but the memory of the holiday sweets will stay with us forever. You will find
local Christmas specialties that bring a smile and a nod, and a warm
remembrance of Christmases past in every town, big and small, from the
mountains of Trentino Alto Adige to sunny Sicily. Here are a few more of them.
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| Trentino's Zelten |
Starting in the northern
region of Trentino Alto Adige you’ll find zelten, a dried fruit and
candied fruit cake that gets its name from the German word selten, (rarely),
which gives you an idea of how special it is. While Milan’s panettone
is probably the most popular Christmas cake in Italy today, a close second
has to be pandoro, a specialty of Verona. It’s tall and yellow, and tastes a
lot like pound cake.
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| Genoa's Pandolce |
In Genoa you’ll find pandolce,
a dome shaped fruit cake similar to panettone, but more dense. It is
made with pine nuts, fruits and spices, most of which originally came through
the busy Medieval port of Genoa before making the journey to waiting pastry
chefs throughout Italy. Pandolce also contains Zibibbo, a local
wine that tastes like oranges and peaches and gives the cake a slightly
different flavor than other similar breads. Traditionally, the first cut in the
cake is made by the youngest member of the family.
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| Ferrara's Panpepato |
Panpepato, or pepper bread, is a
specialty that comes down to us from the cloistered nuns of Ferrara who
developed the recipe sometime around the 15th century. On the
Mediterranean side of Italy, in Lucania, an ancient region between Puglia and
Calabria, it isn’t Christmas until the trays of cuscinetti, small,
fried pillows filled with chocolate or a sweetened chickpea cream are in the
shop windows.
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| Abruzzo's Parrozzo |
Heading over to Abruzzo
you’ll find parrozzo, a dome shaped almond cake covered with
chocolate icing. It gets its name from pan rozzo, or rough cake. At
Christmas, the most famous creation in Naples is struffoli, a confectionary
wonder of tiny balls of fried pastry dough covered in honey and sprinkled with
tiny colored confetti called ‘diavolilli’.
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| Puglia's Mandorlaccio |
In Puglia you start to see
the Arab influence on the cuisine of the south starting with the heavy use of
almonds and almond paste. Puglia’s mandorlaccio a almond and
honey cake that dates back to pre-Roman times. It fell out of favor a few years
ago but it was recently brought back by a local baker. Since
then, Mandorlaccio has gone on to win several major culinary awards
and is now considered an important product typical of Puglia.
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| Puglia's Carteddate |
Another typical Pugliese
treat are those crispy fried delights known as carteddate or cartellate.
They are probably the oldest pastry around, having been found depicted in cave
paintings from the sixth century BC. They were linked to the pagan cult of
Demeter, the Roman goddess of the earth. The name comes from the Greek word for
basket as pastry strips are cut and tied to form a type of basket and fried and
then basted with vincotto. Vincotto is a southern specialty wine made
from the must of the grapes and flavored with cinnamon, dried orange peel,
cloves, grated lemon rind and bay leaves. In other words, total deliciousness.
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| Sicily's Buccellato |
Like many Italian
pastries, the origin of Sicily’s buccellato is unclear. What
is certain is that the Sicilian version of buccellato is a cornucopia
of the island’s bounty, a combination of figs, raisins, dates, nuts
(usually almonds) and candied citrus like fruits. The filling is wrapped in a
large round pastry shell or made into small pastry wrapped cookies.
There was a time when the
richness of the buccellato represented good fortune and prosperity,
and it was used to celebrate special family occasions such as baptisms and
weddings. Today buccellato is most often seen at Christmas, but
unlike its northern neighbors who crank out their
Christmas panettone by the thousands, buccellato is still
made by hand, one at a time, and for some reason I think that is a whole lot
better, don’t you?
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| Milan's Panettone |
And last, but certainly not least, Milan's panettone. Happy holidays!
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