Come ogni estate si attende con impazienza l’arrivo sulle coste Abruzzesi della Nave Goletta Palinuro, uno dei fiori all’occhiello della Marina Militare Italia dove ogni anno gli allievi sottufficiali, che … “FAVENTIBUS VENTIS”. La Goletta PALINURO
Christmas is coming, so are Christmas cakes. Some of them can be savored only during the Holiday Season: just think of Pandoro and Panettone.
Nobody has either one of them before December or after January… … Letter “M” :: Mostaccioli
On a lazy September Sunday morn…
Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends
“Canzoni belle e appassionate/ che Roma mia m’ha ricordate,/ cantate solo pe’ dispetto,/ ma co ‘na smania drent’ar petto;/ io nun ve canto a voce piena,/ ma tutta l’anima è serena;/ e quanno er cèlo se scolora/ de me nessuna se ‘nnamora…” :: “Tanto Pe’ Cantà” ~ Ettore Petrolini – Alberto Simeoni
“Cicero smiled at us. ‘The art of life is to deal with problems as they arise, rather than destory one’s spirit by worrying about them too far in advance. Especially tonight.” ~ Robert Harris
In Italy, the holiday season brings – along with the huge amount of to-dos everybody knows – the Hamletic doubt: panettone or pandoro. Italians, from icy Alto Adige to warm Sicily, split into two parties: Panettone supporters and Pandoro fans.
The only thing both parties agree on is that both cakes are meant to be offered during Christmas time. No other time is allowed. Soon after January 6th they become outdated. Everything else is open to an endless declination of variants.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe name Panettone is the corruption of the phrase Pan de Toni (Toni’s bread). Toni was a scullion at Ludovico Maria Sforza’s palace. Legend says that on Christmas night the duke of Milan invited the most important patricians of the town. His cook had been given the task to create a new cake that was meant to leave his guests astonished. He actually made it, but he forgot it in the oven and the cake got burnt. The humble scullion suggested to make another cake with the things they had available in the pantry. The cake was a success and when the Duke asked for the name, the cook simply said: “è il pan de Toni” (it’s Toni’s bread). So the legend goes. Panettone, in its standard and traditional recipe, includes, besides flour, eggs and raisins, candied citron and lemon peels in the dough.
Embed from Getty ImagesPandoro (literally, “golden bread”) is typical of Verona. It features its unmistakable 8-pointed-star shape – while panettone has a round shape topped by a dome. It is simpler than panettone (no raisins, no candied fruits), just a generous dusting of powdered sugar (zucchero a velo) on top of it just before serving. Some say it is the new version of the XII century Verona cake “Nadalin”. Others say that the name refers to the habit of Venetian Republic well-off people of offering food covered with a golden foil, in order to show off wealth and power. A cake with a conic shape – pan de oro – is said to be offered at rich merchants’ table. These are just theories, but pandoro, actually, can boast a date of birth: October 14, 1884, when Domenico Melegatti, pastry chef in Verona, patented the first pandoro as we know it today.
Embed from Getty ImagesThis is what the tradition says: but today the manufacturers’ imagination have added so many variants that – sometimes – it is hardly impossible to recognize the original cake. Chocolate, egg cream, liquor, everything-you-can-think-of. Every year there is a new fad (I remember with horror the 90’s fashion of stuffing panettone with heavy and questionable liquor-scented creams or custards…)
Supporters of each cake are equally divided, each of them brings forth their reasons to catch new adepts to their cause. Appetibilis suggestion is simple: try both of them (just a slice, they are calorie bombs) and have a glass of “bollicine” with them. It is mandatory 😉
And let’s get the party started!
“It is already difficult to express a scent, a taste, a sensation with the words of one’s own language, let alone transporting the baroque and imaginative descriptions, which the authors do not skimp on, with the strict German precision or with the sharp English simplicity … it is a thankless task. As the authors Fruttero and Lucentini say, he [the translator] is asked to consider as his greatest triumph that the reader does not even notice him.”
It is a wine story, where words become flavors and adjectives turn into scents … [Read more (in Italian) :: Il sapore delle parole via Verba Volant]
