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Colomba Italy |
A traditional cake
during the year-end
holiday season |
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This
cake appeared in Milan,
northern Italy, around the 15th century, and the custom of
consuming Panettone
spread immediately all over the world.
But
how was panettone born? There are many legends around this traditional
product. They are almost all love stories, and we shouldn't be
surprised, since Milan,
notwithstanding its aspect, its work oriented
attitude, its traffic, and everything else, it has always been, and will
always be one of the most romantic cities in the world. Here are some of
these legends.
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The
first one is a love story: it is the XVth century, the Court of the Duke
Ludovico Maria Sforza.
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Ughetto, the
hawk breeder
of the Duke, loves the studying and the solitude. But he especially
loves the beautiful daughter of the baker, Adalgisa. Their love, as it
often happened back then, was opposed by Ughetto's family. So he could
only meet the beautiful Adalgisa at night, when he could avoid her
family
surveillance. Moreover,
Adalgisa at night
was up too, because she had to attend to the bread
making in her father bakery.
Unfortunately, a series of misfortunes happened to the baker all at once.
He started losing many clients, another bakery opened up nearby, then
the bakery boy fell ill and Adalgisa was forced to do all the heavy
chores.
Then Ughetto had an idea: he offered himself as the baker boy and
thought to improve the bread adding some butter to the
dough:
there was no money to buy the butter?... no problem... The young man
sold a couple of beautiful hawks and bought the butter he needed. It was
an immediate success and it grew even more when Ughetto added some sugar
to his
recipe.
Some glutton found out and the word got around in the neighborhood.
Ughetto, happy to see a smile again on his lover's lips, one night added
some candied citron and eggs to part of the dough, which was ready for
cooking. It was a very special bread and everybody liked it. At
Christmas, the young man had another idea and added some
raisins.
It was a huge success. Naturally at this point Ughetto and Adalgisa's
dream came true and they could get married.
Their secret soon became common knowledge; soon enough in every block
bakers made big shapes and big quantities of the sweet bread with
raisins.
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A
very similar story, but without the romantic part, says that the
invention of the sweet bread wasn't the work of messer Ughetto, but of
sister Ughetta that, in order to please the other
nuns,
invented a very successful sweet bread
for
Christmas.
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Sister Ughetta lived in a poor
convent with other young nuns: the upcoming Christmas was going to be
sad and miserable. But all of a sudden the situation changed when Suora
Ughetta
came up with this new cake
on which she had
traced with a knife a cross on the
crust of the cake.
When the
cupola-shaped crust was cooked and golden, the groove left by
the knife opened up, creating those bumbs that are still visible today
in the traditional panettoni, still manufactured today according
to the old recipes.
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The
third legend goes back again to the times of the most flourishing of
Milan, during the reign of the Visconti and Sforza families.
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Court of the Duke Ludovico, Christmas Night. That night
at the Castle Sforzesco a big party was given, with music and dance. A
luxurious banquet that had to finish with a dessert. The art of
dessert-making was a very special art at that time: it showed the
quality of the kitchen of the
seigniory and especially of the skills of
the head chef of an important family. For that occasion the chef had
prepared a special dessert, but this, alas, had suddenly burned, it was
all pieces of coal.
How to fix it? "Dessert!... Dessert!..." demanded loudly the
guests. What to do?... In the Court kitchen people were terrified; the
Duke's
wrath was going to be
terrible: back then, they put you to death for reasons far more
futile
than this. The head chef was scared to death: he was going to get the
worst punishment.
Toni, the little
scullery boy
approached the head chef and with trembling voice said: "With the
leftovers of what you used for the big dessert, I made my own dessert,
I added a few eggs and a little sugar, a bit of raisins and citron...
it's a simple dessert, for me and some friends of mine that are
gathering tonight at my house... If you want it, there it is...",
and he pointed to a big bun, well made, with a big cupola of brown
crust. The chef looked at it with great suspicion, but from that dough
was coming out a very
enticing aroma. And after all, he didn't have much
choice... that is, there was nothing else to send up to the table of the
Duke's guests, who were protesting louder and louder. He decorated
little scullery boy's dessert, put it on a large golden tray and had it
sent to the party hall. A big applause saluted the entrance of the
unusual cake. The
Duchess cut the first slice and in a few moments the
whole cake was devoured. A chorus of praises raised from everybody at
the table; the praises turned soon into enthusiastic acclamations. The
chef's heart quieted down. "Bravo!... Bravo!... What novelty, what
a good dessert!". The Duke himself wanted to pay his compliments to
the chef, who was the only one who couldn't
figure
out the reason of all this great success. Naturally, nobody
said anything about what had happened. The little scullery boy,
astonished and scared, was hiding in a corner. But the truth came out
eventually and Toni's bread - "el pan del Toni"
- was on everybody's mouth: everybody was talking about this new cake
and its incredible sweet taste, popular and aristocratic at the same
time. Thus, "El pan del Toni" turned soon in the panetton
we know today.
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Source:
Colomba Italy Website |
GLOSSARY |
spread:
extended
(se
extendió)
notwithstanding:
in spite of
(a
pesar de)
hawk
breeder:
a person who breeds hawks
(criador de halcones)
surveillance: close observation, control (vigilancia)
was up too:
was also awake
(estaba
despierta también)
chores: tasks, domestic activities (tareas domésticas)
dough: flour mixture (masa, pasta de harina)
recipe:
formula or directions
for making something
(receta)
raisins:
dried grapes (pasas de uva)
nun:
woman religious (monja)
came up: appeared (apareció, se presentó) |
traced:
delineated
(marcado,
dibujado)
crust:
outer layer
(corteza)
cupola-shape:
in the form of a dome
(con
forma de cúpula)
seigniory:
the
estate and power of a seigneur
(señoría)
wrath: anger (ira, rabia)
futile: unproductive, minor (menor, inútil)
scullery:
in charge of kitchen utensils (cuchillero)
leftovers:
food remains
(sobras
de comida)
enticing:
tempting
(tentador)
duchess:
duke's wife
(duquesa)
figure out: understand (entender, comprender) |
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MAS "FESTIVIDADES"
FORO
INICIO |
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