For Italians it's just not Christmas if you don't have a Pandoro.Or so I learned as I ate my very first Pandoro last night.
It looks like a craggy mountain snow-capped with powdered sugar.
The cake is almost a foot high!
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Blogger friends in Italy--can you tell us more about this tradition?
At my nun friends' dinner table sat nine people from seven different countries. Hermits, sisters, Jews, and one or two regular people. :-)We had a fine time and ate and talked long into the night.
I went home with a doggie bag containing a big slice of the cake.
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Yum! What a gift it is that we can share each other's traditions.
ReplyDeleteWow! What a cake. And what's a "regular" person (you don't need to answer - I thought it was a cute remark).
ReplyDeleteThe nuns must have quite a cake mold for that cake.
FA, sometimes I forget that this is a gift. It's just the normal way of life for my friends and me.
ReplyDeleteLeora, I neglected to point out that the cake was was a bought gift from Italy. It came in a box complete with a little packet of powdered sugar.
"Regular" as in non-monastic people who live in the world, have 9 to 5 jobs, etc.
That is quite a cake!
ReplyDeleteIt looks dilicious.
ReplyDeleteI will remember this name ;)
I think I've seen something similar before, but it wasn't called Pandoro. Of course, I can't remember what it was, but it was also Italian.
ReplyDeleteWhat interesting conversations around that dinner table you must have had!
I hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful Christmas, Dina. Wishing you a joyful, peaceful and love-filled new year.
Now THAT'S my kind of dinner dessert! Wish I had been invited to dinner, too!
ReplyDeleteHave never tried it but would love to! :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, Dina, I've seen the Flash Mob at Lisbon airport! :-)
An eternal struggle is going on within Italian families between the fans of Pandoro and the followers of the Panettone.
ReplyDeleteI like both, but my favorite by far is the second one!
Hermits! Hermits? You live the most fascinating life, Dina.
ReplyDeleteSo delicious looking, and I can attest that it is, in actuality, scrumptious.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful way to spend the hours, and connect with each other.
Dina, I'm glad you've eaten the pandoro. It's delicious with all that butter, isn't it? In Italy we have both panettone and pandoro, but the pandoro is much more popular than the panettone during the Yuletide.
ReplyDeleteThank you all, dear commenting friends.
ReplyDeleteThanks especially Pietro and Vogon Poet in Italy for enlightening me about the delicious pandoro.
Petrea, if my life is fascinating, it is only because, like you, I ended up in the place just right. This little mountain we live on has been fascinating for thousands of years. Its remoteness and underground springs attract special people.
It looks delicious. The name, a contraction of pane di oro, translates into English as 'bread of gold.' .
ReplyDeleteInteresting - gotto try some.
ReplyDeleteVogon Poet is right: Panettone is definitely the traditional and most popular (and preferred) cake we are used to eat at Christmas (and first of the year). I'm amazed by Pietro. He's from Torino like me and he should know that even if Panettone was born in Milan, in Torino and around the city, there are many factories that produce Panettone since ever (one name for all: Galup). Pandoro is mostly produced and bought on North West of Italy. Just last 15 years or so it's a bit more popular.
ReplyDeleteBy the way belated "Chag molad sameach" to you Dina and thank you for visiting my blog
Love pandoro! Have eaten more than my fair share in the past week or so!
ReplyDeleteThere was a teacher friend in Illinois of Italian descent and I remember how she'd bring that cake to parties. I think it was the Panettone that she liked though.
ReplyDeleteCiao Dina,
ReplyDeleteI happened here via the City Photo Blog webring, and I scrolled back to your Pandoro post, which caught my eye. I am also the author/editor of a cooking blog called Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino. You can come visit me for anything Italian-food and/or lifestyle related.
For more news about Pandoro, read an article I posted HERE. It tells a little history and I provide the recipe for it too.
Ciao,
Eleonora
Roma Every Day