THE PANETTONE, THE KING OF CHRISTMAS LUNCHES

Panettone, undisputed king of the Christmas tables, is certainly one of the most famous sweets of the Italian gastronomic tradition. In the houses of the Bel Paese, it is as much a part of Christmas as the tree, the crib or the garlands on the fireplace, and it absolutely cannot be missing at lunch on December 25th.

It is a Milanese sweet of ancient origin, there are already traces and evidence of it from the fifteenth century, when in Milan, just on Christmas day it was customary for bakers to give to all customers a white bread (such as micche wheat, privilege of the rich) sweet, filled with butter, honey and zibibbo. It was a luxury bread, in Milanese dialect a “pan de ton”.

There are so many legends about the true origin of panettone that they are lost in the mists of time… like the one that it was born thanks to the astuteness of a cook, Toni, serving at the court of Ludovico il Moro, who, in order to save the Christmas lunch, replaced the expected cake, which unfortunately had burnt in the oven, with this easy-to-prepare bread made with the few remaining products he had in his pantry: flour, butter, eggs, citron peel and raisins. The experiment was a success among the diners at court and the cake was known as “el pan de Toni”.

Today the recipe of panettone, is not very different from the one used by Toni, there are few and simple ingredients which are needed to obtain perhaps one of the greatest classics of Italian cuisine, spread all over the country and often enriched with new combinations of flavors such as almonds, chocolate, citrus peels, dried fruit, marron glacé or pistachio.