IT ALL STARTED WITH A PANETTONE!
You can say what you like …that too many sweet things are bad for you, that they ruin your figure and even that you can do without them. But there’s no way I’m giving up panettone at Christmas.
And just think – in Peru panettone can be found practically everywhere at all times of the year: they use it to celebrate birthdays, name days, the arrival of summer and, of course, the festive season… Actually this custom is nothing new, it was more or less like that in the 1800s in Italy!
Maybe I’m not yet ready for possible future gastronomic challenges, I’d rather indulge in the memory of when I was a child and it was my grandmother who gave me my first slice of panettone for breakfast on December 8th, together with a cup of hot milk. For me, this marked the beginning of the Christmas period, followed by the decoration of the tree, the letter to Father Christmas, sticking drawings on the window panes, thinking long and hard about the presents I wanted and Sunday walks in the town centre with my parents to choose our festive clothes… An immense task that I would probably now consider incredibly stressful, but at the time I enjoyed it so much that I went to bed in the evening with a smile and woke up in the morning with even more energy than the day before.
The years go by, things change, some for the better, some for the worse and others simply get forgotten. But I’ll never abandon the tradition of panettone, because it’s my tradition!
One thing I don’t mind compromising on is the taste of my Christmas panettone; in recent years, many top pastry chefs have produced amazing creations, using a list of ingredients that would be the envy of the best-stocked culinary encyclopaedia, ranging from the trendiest fashion versions that include ginger, turmeric, wine, pepper and even dew gathered on the night of St. John’s Day (24th June) in the mountains of Trentino, through to the more cautious panettone with pistachio, lemon, red berries, marrons glacés, chocolate, ricotta and pears.
“Incredibly delicious cakes can be created by reinterpreting tradition without distorting it”, says the pastry chef Iginio Massari. Wise words!
This year I’m in no doubt; the choice is infinite but my irresistible desire for sweetness and genuineness says Panettone Crema Caffè by Diemme: a fluffy cake, with soft plain chocolate and coffee cream, chocolate drops, without raisins and without candied fruit.
Diemme has put into this product all the experience, curiosity and passion of almost 100 years of activity in the world of roasted coffee and service to public businesses. And you can see this, or rather you can taste it: careful selection of its confectionery partner, study of the recipe and balances of the ingredients, creation of the dedicated coffee blend right through to the packaging, simple but incredibly appealing, making the Diemme panettone also a perfect gift.
When you open the package, amazingly, the fragrance is just like it used to be; the slice is really soft and the filling creamy and rich. It’s true! I like it because the coffee blends perfectly with the flavour of the chocolate, it’s not overpowering, and it leaves a pleasant after-taste in the mouth. For breakfast, or for tea in the afternoon, with a nice tray of nuts and dried fruit or a good glass of vin santo.
Ladies and gentlemen, here’s to appetite and imagination… You’re allowed to treat yourself!
Enjoy your panettone everyone!!!
“Anvedi che bel panettone! O’ quand’è che ‘o scartamo?” – Carlo Verdone “Il Gallo Cedrone”…
(“Wow, that panettone looks yummy! When are we going to tuck in?” – Carlo Verdone “Gallo Cedrone”…)
Vices and virtues by Jean-Luc
