It’s that time of year when the Christmas tree is up, the wreath is on the door, the fire is on and you find yourself singing along to carols at every opportunity. We all have our traditions at Christmas, and here’s a great British one for starters; it is a British Christmas tradition that a wish made while mixing the Christmas pudding will come true only if the ingredients are stirred in a clockwise direction. That means, if you buy a Christmas pudding from the supermarket and make a wish, you have a 50% chance of the wish coming true (since you don’t know which way they mixed it up….)
A far easier, tastier and obtainable tradition is the match-made-in-heaven Italian Prosecco with Panettone. For those of you who have yet to discover the delights of this traditional Italian Christmas cake, it is made tall, dome-shaped or flat and round. The interior is filled with candied fruit, raisins, or with chocolate or flavored cream, chocolate chips or pastry cream and even liqueurs; and the exterior either can be plain, or as in the Pandoro, covered with confectioners’ sugar.
Legend has it that it appeared in Northern Italy around the 15th century. The legend tells of a Milanese nobleman, Ughetto degli Atellani, who fell in love with the daughter of a poor baker named Antonio. To win her over, the nobleman disguised himself as a baker and invented a rich bread in which he added to the flour and yeast, butter, eggs, dried raisins and candied lemon and orange peel (which the poor daughter of Antonio couldn’t afford). It was an immense success. After having the bread, the duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro Sforza (1452 – 1508), agreed to the marriage, and encouraged the introduction of the new cake-like bread.
You may be wondering where the Prosecco fits in all of this. The soft creamy fizz of Prosecco makes it a marvellous match for Italian panettone, which is not too rich or too sweet to overwhelm it.
And most importantly, Panettone eaten with sips of sparkling Prosecco guarantees good luck and good health for the coming year.
You see? The combination is guaranteed success, tastiness and all-round festive enjoyment. If you’re in the area, why not drop by – we have Pandoro and Panettone’s in beautiful tin boxes, and of course our fantastic Prosecco to accompany it.
So if you’re feeling festive, as we certainly are, crack open a bottle of our delicately delicious Dal Bello Prosecco and slice yourself a hefty chunk of Pandoro or Panettone – for good health and good luck over Christmas and the New Year. 