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Food Categories
Traditional Christmas Cakes and Sweets
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Heavy, tasty and above all rich, that's Christmas sweets for you. And to think you could really do without them at the end of those long dinners laden with endless gastronomical "delicacies," but without them Christmas wouldn't be complete. They create good cheer and fill the house with enticing and spicy smells.
Every Itlian region has a tradition of its own with regard to Christmas swets and up to 30 years ago or so, they were scrupulously observed. In Liguria you ate "pandolce," in Tuscan "panforte," in Naples "struffoli." But since the '50s, "panettone" has appeared more and more frequently at every Christmas meal.
How do you explain that on December 25th this Milanese cake, rather like bread, appears on all tables, north and south? The fact is that "panettone" has now become a product of industry and advertising, a product that involves large-scale manufacturing, nationwide publicity and widespread distribution.
As to the origins of "panettone," there are few historical documents and lots of legends. It is said to have been invented in Milan at the end of the 19th century by accident (as is usually the case with big inventions). A certain baker, Toni, had fallen for a girl, Lucia, who came every morning from the country to sell him eggs. Toni thought of baking a special cake as a present for her, with eggs, butter and candied fruit. Love made his hand tremble when he added the yeast and he didn't realize he had poured in a whole pack. And so it was that "panettone" (Pan de Toni or Toni's bread) was invented and Toni and Lucia got married and made lots of money with the new cake. But that's pure legend.
Panettone was never made at home, but always by bakers, pastry-cooks and established shops because it is a cake that requires various leavenings and in its apparent simplicity a highly professional approach. But it was born nearly flat. Originally it resembled a sort of large pie turned out on the table. Already early in the century it was being shipped all over Italy and even abroad. It was expensive. In 1890 a 4-pound "panettone" cost 6 lire and 75 centesimi and a workman earned one lire a day. The great turning-point took place in 1919 when Angelo Motta opened the Bottiglieria Motta on Via della Chiusa and next to the front door stuck up an advertisement for "panettone". (It was still flat like the others). In 1921 Motta got a brilliant idea: he changed the leavening, improved the packaging and created that mushroom-shaped cake everyone knows today. Making it taller involved longer, more complicated processing, more manpower, and bigger ovens. The substantial increases in production costs gave rise to the need for advertising the product. The fact is that Motta called in the best-known graphic artists to design his advertisements and had them appear in all the important newspapers of the time.
Then the war broke out and because of restrictions "panettone" had to get along without raisins. But by then everybody was buying it, especially in the northern districts. After the war, the cake enjoyed a veritable boom and it was even offered as a prize to the winners of the "Giro d'Italia" bicycle race. So "panettone" turned into a big business, also because southern workers who had found jobs in the northern factories got into the habit of carrying one home at Christmas time, thus helping to make it popular and well-known in even the most remote outposts of the country.
In the '50s Motta's absolute monarchy was breached by the advent of Alemagna, then a few years ago a number of smaller producers entered the market. How can you tell what's a good "panettone"? Its ingredients are not controlled by law, but practice has led the big companies to follow a rather constant recipe: 0 or 00-quality wheat four which amounts to around 50% ot the net weight of the finished product, sugar 8-10%, candied fruit and raisins 20-25%, fresh or frozen egg yoks 12%, natural yeast 7%. Indications of quality are, naturally, the flavor, the softness, and plenty of raisins. Also indicative is the color, which should be yellow. And the leavening: the cake should bulge out generously over the edge of the paper containers. Before eating, it's a good idea to heat the cake for a few minutes in a lukewarm oven or on the radiator in order to soften it. It is best to preserve it in the bag it comes in so it won't dry out.
It's good to eat just as it is, washed down by a good glass of Moscato d'Asti or "spumante." Another excellent combination is with Tuscan "vin santo." But the old authentic Milanese tradition consists in serving "panettone" already sliced with hot or cold saboyan sauce. And left-over "panettone"? No problem, spread some custard or jam on the slices, or a healthy batch of beaten, eggs, then into the oven for a few minutes. Once that was the way of dressing it up. But industry has also remedied that: by now "panettone" comes filled and covered with chocolate and other tasty ingredients, and real gourmets no longer recognize it.
Let's take a look at some of the best-known regional sweets that are made to be eaten over the Christmas holidays.
In LIGURIA, "pandolce," compared to the soft spongy Milanese "panettone", seems like a piece of lead. Practically unleavened, it is endowed with a very high specific gravity. Among other things, it contains chopped-up dried fruit and loads of pine nuts. In recompense, it's delicious in taste.
In TUSCANY, "panforte di Siena". This characteristic sweet has many virtues, among them the fact that it's easy to make and keeps for days. The origins of "panforte" date back to the 12th century, when Niccolo` Salimbeni returned from one of his journeys to the East with several "honey and pepper" loaves, scented with cloves, which are to be considered the direct forebears of this famous and mouth-watering Sienese specialty.
In ROME, "pangiallo." Since it's not yellow (giallo) but a very dark color, it was said to have been given that name because in olden times saffron wasone of the ingredients. When saffron went out of fashion, the sweet lost its color but not its name. It could also be, since it was a Christmas goody, that it was iced with gilded purpurin. Today it is iced with chocolate. To find it ready-made, all you have to do is to go to Piazza Navona which, during Christmas, becomes one big marketplace of all traditional Christmas things. The cake and candy stands overflow with tasty and colorful delicacies, including "pangiallo", and endless varieties of nougat candy bars and almond sweetmeats, to the joy of young and old alike.
NAPLES had special sweets for every feast day. Women used to prepare "sanguinaccio" (blood pudding) for Carnival, "quaresimali" (hard almond cookies) for Lent, "pastiera" (whole grain and ricotta pie) for Easter and the arrival of Christmas would set off a veritable fireworks of goodies with such exotic names as "pasta di mandorla" (marzipan), "roccocco`", "sosanelli" and "sapienza" for Christmas Eve and for Christmas Day, "struffoli", tiny fried pieces of soft, porous egg pastry, formed into balls with honey and sprinkled with bright and colorful candied sugar and pieces of candied fruit peel.
That leaves "croccanti" (brittle caramel and almond candy) which, molded into various shapes, tower triumphantly at the center of the table to end the New Year's dinner with a flourish. More than the work of a versatile housewife or a seasoned pastry cook, the concoction looks like the work of some whimsical architect who has reveled in building a daring and wondrous structure to revive the spirits and whet the appetites of table-companions dazed by too many toasts and too much wine. Awesome contrivances are the result: "croccanti" in the form of a sumptuous fountain gushing with jets of "struffoli", a fabulous castle, dwelling-place of fairies, or a racing chariot filled with candied fruit. Images that tease the imagination and excite unanimous applause. No one dares touch such an ingenious and elaborate work of art, but respect of this kind is not harbored in the gluttonous souls of the little ones. Slowly but surely, in the days that follow, that ornate composition, the work of such great creative skill, is picked to pieces, with wary but equally destructive skill, by greedy little fingers and heartily crunched by sturdy little teeth up until Twelfth Night.
SICILY also has its Christmas goodies. Among them, "cuccidatu," a sort of ring-shaped cake, prepared in different ways from place to place, but stuffed with the same ingredients everywhere: dried figs, almonds, walnuts, pistacchios, candied squash, chocolate, cloves and cinnamon. Christmas is by definition a family affair and in Sicily, where family ties are deeply felt, the women of the house set to work for days on end preparing the sweets typical of the occasion, including "sfincle," fritters of Saracen origin, seasoned with honey.
Amalita Pacelli
Text copyright © 1996 by Amalita Pacelli
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