I am talking about the typical Genoese Pandolce, the king of all Ligurian desserts.
It is a dessert similar to the classic Italian panettone or Christmas cake but its size, consistency and ingredients are different.
In its dough, made with yeast, butter and flour we add cedar and candied orange, orange flowers water (or bergamot), fennel seeds, raisins and pine nuts (just like in pesto sauce!).
The Pandolce has two versions, one is thick and one is thinner. The latter is called Pan dei pescatori (Fishermen’s bread) and it’s usually sold in the bakeries around the city.
According to tradition, when you prepare it at home, you should keep aside a slice for the poor and donate it to a homeless person. The tradition also wants it to be served on the table every Sunday in February and decorated with a sprig of laurel as a good omen. The youngest person at the table shall cut the cake and the oldest shall distribute the slices to the guests.
Although the real Pandolce is still prepared by hand using the most genuine recipes in some artisan labs and bakeries in or around Genoa city, some massively-produced versions of the ‘sweet Genoese cake’ are now available for sale in the supermarkets all over the country.
It is possible to visit some of the artisanal labs where this specialty is made and, when you arrive in the establishments, you are greeted by a unique scent: in the air the smell of dough and raisins is overwhelming.
The best ‘cakes’ are destined to end up in the patisseries of Genoa, but also in Australia, the United States, Sweden and South Africa because the dessert is now being exported abroad.
Simple in its preparation and at the same time rich in ingredients, the Pandolce until the last century was very often prepared in the houses and the Genoese, generation after generation, and grandmothers used to hand down the family recipe: with or without walnuts, with pine nuts, with a type of sugar instead of another, in each house there was a different recipe for this dessert.
The yeast base (starter) was an essential ingredient to make the Pandolce rise well. Today times have changed, but tradition remains very much alive. It can be bought in pastry shops and bakeries but the technique and the ingredients used are always the same as the ones used over one hundred years ago: flour, baking powder, sugar, raisins butter, candied fruit, pine nuts, many hours of patient waiting and cooking and some good “elbow grease.”
Here is the recipe of the Genoese Pandolce if you wish to have “a slice of Liguria” in Japan!
For a kilo of Pandolce you will need:
200 grams of yeast base (starter)
250 grams of all-purpose flour
80 grams of butter
120 grams of sugar
250 grams of raisins
200 grams of candied fruits of your choice
20 grams of pine nuts
You need to put all ingredients in a bowl and knead the dough until you get the classic round shape (as per photo below) then you need to let it rise for about sixteen hours and put it in the oven at 170 degrees.
The cake needs to cool down before being served.
It’s served with vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream on the side.
Traditional Ligurian Pandolce with raisins
