CHIAVARI,
Italy - In Italy it’s hard to tell who looks forward to the holidays more, the
kids or their grandparents, for different reasons of course. Kids may want games and toys but their
grandparents know that the real Christmas treats have always been the dolce, the sweet cakes and pastries.That's what made their holidays special.
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| Cova, Via Montenapoleone, Milano |
I
remember my father waxing poetically about the oranges he found in his
Christmas stocking the year before the family immigrated to America. His joy at
finding that special treat lasted his lifetime. And if you think about it, it
was rather amazing for the time for who knows how far and how long that orange had
to travel before reaching the hilltop village of Piansano in northern Lazio and
my father’s Christmas stocking.
In
spite of the commercialized ideas of what we can’t live without these days, those
gifts, now shiny and new, will soon be forgotten but the memory of the holiday
sweets will stay with us forever. In every town, big and small, from the
mountains of Trentino Alto Adige to sunny Sicily, you will find local Christmas
specialties that bring a smile and a nod, and a warm remembrance of Christmases
past. Here are a few of them.
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| Alto Adige'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. From Milan we
get panettone, probably the most popular Christmas cake in Italy today.
A close second in popularity is pandoro, a specialty of Verona. It’s a
tall yellow Christmas cake with the texture of pound cake.
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| Torrone - Not a Cake But It's Christmasy |
As
far back as the 15th century the bakers of Cremona, in Lombardy,
were busy making torrone, a nougat candy made of honey, sugar, egg
whites and hazelnuts. Torrone is actually older than that though, as it
was listed as being served at a banquet in Milan hosted by Duke Gian Galeazzo
Visconti in 1395. You find torrone all through Italy these days. In some
regions they make it with hazelnuts, in others they use pistachios or almonds,
it all depends on what is available locally.
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| Siena's Panforte |
Siena’s
contribution to Christmas is panforte, an ancient sweet bread of
raisins, nuts, white pepper and candied fruit. It’s called panforte –
strong bread – because the dough is very stiff and difficult to work with. Sienna
is also known for ricciarelli, almond shaped cookies that are
traditionally served on the feast day of the Annunciation, although they make
them for Christmas as well.
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| Genova'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 |
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| Pugliese 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 alla Grande |
Have
I left any out? What’s that you say? How
about panettone? Oh my! How could I forget panettone. It’s probably the best
known, and most popular of all the Christmas cakes. Apart
from panettone being a large cake, back in the rough and tumble days of 17th
century Milan when gruel was the food of the masses and eggs and flour and bits
of candied fruits and raisins were beyond the reach of most, panettone was
considered a ‘pane di tono,’ a luxury cake enjoyed only by the rich. Thank
goodness those days are long gone.
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