Many countries have holiday fruit breads and cakes, and these typically end-of-year specialties filled with assorted combos of raisins, nuts and dried fruits, have been produced in Europe at least since the Middle Ages. Panettone, of course, is one of the best-known of the variants, and is now available throughout the world in November and December. As with all things concerning food in Italy, holiday breads and cakes differ among regions. Here are nine amazing ones to try ranging from Italy’s north to south.
LIGURIA
Pandolce Genovese. While available year-round, neatly wrapped and stylishly beribboned in the pasticcerias of Liguria, pandolce is a mainstay on holiday tables in the region during the Christmas season. There are two types of pandolce: alto (high) and basso (low) and both are typically studded with raisins, pine nuts and candied citrus. The former, made with yeast, is the older of the two recipes, originating in the 1500s according to lore from a competition staged by Andrea Doria, the powerful Genoa admiral, for local bakers to produce a cake that would show off the city’s culinary savvybut also be something that its sailors could take to sea and be edible over long periods of time. The basso version is of more recent vintage, probably the 19th century, and uses baking powder rather than yeast as the leavening agent. Canepa 1862, an historic pasticceria in Rapallo on the Italian Riviera, produces the two sublimely addictive versions. Ingredients are carefully selected, says Giovanni Garbarini, co-owner of the bakery with pastry chef Andrea Zino, and include Smyrna (once a colony of Genoa) sultanas, candied citron made from Calabrian fruit and Sicilian lemons. Canepa 1862, which also just won the Tenzone del Panettone, a prestigious competition among artisan bakers for best panettone, ships its products internationally.
FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA
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Putizza. With roots in Slovenia, this spiral cake gained renown after a court presentation to a Hapsburg archduke during the 19th century in Trieste. (Pope Francis apparently is a fan of the cake.) The dense filling’s makeup can vary, but usually includes raisins, nuts, candied fruits and even chocolate, grappa, or rum.
Gubana. Served at Christmas like putizza, gubana originated in the Valli del Natisone, an area in Friuli Venezia Giulia that reaches into Slovenia. Fillings, which must make up 40% of the cake’s uncooked weight, are comparable to those of putizza (chocolate isn’t always in the mix) and include raisins, sometimes soaked in grappa, pine nuts, dried figs or plums and rum. Bakeries in the Natisone valleys and Udine take great pride in (and carefully guard) their recipes for making this treat, a prized product of FVG culinary craftsmanship.
VENETO
The Veneto’s best-known holiday cake is the sugar-coated, star-shaped pandoro, made without a filling.But in the 1930s, the Pasticceria Perbellini, renowned for its artisinal products, devised a nut and fruit cake that was called Pan dei Siori (shortened from pane dei signori), which translates to “gentleman’s bread” because the original cost of the ingredients was something only the gentry could afford. This tasty treat is cinnamon rich and contains a denser mix of ingredients, including diced oranges, dried figs, walnuts and almonds, than what you’ll usually find in a panettone. The cake is baked as a circular, flat layer rather than in the cupola shape associated with its famous counterpart. Pasticceria Perbellini has two locations, Bovolone and Isola Rizza, towns in the province of Verona. Products are available to order internationally.
SOUTH TYROL
Zelten. An Alpine cousin ofMittel-European fruit breads, Zelten is typically dense, cake-like, and made with figs, dates, sultanas, raisins, rum, white wine and spices like cloves and cinnamon, although families and bakeries in the region use individual recipes where the ratio or range ofingredients can vary.
TUSCANY
The thick, nut-rich panforte from Siena, dating from the era of the Crusades, and its offshoot, the chocolate-covered panpepato, popular in Tuscany and other parts of Central Italy, are widely known classic treats, but you can try a scrumptious contemporary offering, like Giulebbe, created in 2002 by Paolo Sacchetti, founder of Pasticceria Nuovo Mondo Caffè, in Prato. (The bakery was awarded three “cakes” by Gambero Rosso, the publisher of influential food guides.) Sacchetti says he created Giulebbe to “pay homage to Tuscany and her ingredients,” and while he works from a panettone base when preparing the cake, he uses top local products from the Val di Bisenzio, like Carmignano figs and walnuts instead of candied fruit for the dough, and a pine-nut glaze to finish. (The pine nuts are from San Rossore.) “The pairing of dried fig with walnuts reflects both Tuscan and peasant traditions,” says Sacchetti, adding that about 40% of his clientele chooses the loaf-shaped Giulebbe over panettone during the Christmas season. Because of its popularity, the bakery is now producing Giulebbe after the holidays. Products are available to order internationally.
CALABRIA
Pitta’mpigliata. Like many holiday bread-cakes, pitta’mpigliata has raisins, spices and nuts, but it will sometimes include Sambuca or another liquor as ingredients. And what does the unusual name mean? “Pitta is any round-shapeddessert or bread,” say Francesca Montillo, founder of Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures,author of The 5-Ingredient Italian Cookbook, and a Calabria native. ‘Mpigliata is dialect or slang meaning “filled” or “stuffed.”Thought to have originated in the town of Cosenza, the cake can easily be found throughout Calabria in December, says Montillo, but she points out that like Sicily’s buccellato (see below) this treat is hard to buy outside its home region.Montillo notes that while buccellato and pitta’mpigliata can be labor intensive, they’re not difficult to prepare. She says she will make the Calabrian cake for the holidays, along with a panettone.
SICILY
Buccellato. “Buccellato hails from Palermo but is widely available all over Sicily during the holidays,” says Montillo. “Made with what’s available in winter months, itis eaten throughout the Christmas season, up to the Epiphany.” Because the ingredients [including figs, an assortment of nuts, chocolate, sometimes apricot jam] were expensive, the cake was once seen as a status symbol to serve or give, and was also used to mark family milestones like weddings or births, says Montillo. (The Buccellato di Lucca involves a different recipe.)
