Corti Brothers Newsletter for Spring 2006   Page 1 

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To Our Customers:

Spring is a time for renewal. New growth in plants, new birth in animal life, and hopefully rejuvenation for us. Of my selection of products on offer some are new to us and to our customers. Hopefully, we will all enjoy them.

Darrell Corti

(Please note: Loison Cakes are sold out for the season)

To celebrate spring, Corti Brothers would like to introduce our customers to very special sweet breads, akin to panettone, but flavored for spring. These are the Colomba, Veneziana, and Focaccia from the noted Loison family owned bakery in Vicenza. In Milano, just as Christmas has its panettone, Easter has its Colomba.

In Venice, plainer breads, called Foccacia (fugassa in dialect) and Veneziana, are the regional traditions. Loison, bakers since 1938, are considered one of, if not the best Colomba/ Panettone producers, in Italy. These once Milanese specialties are now so diffuse in Italy their respective holidays are celebrated with them throughout the country. I guess Italian unity really does come at table.

From the Loison production we have selected some differing yet similar breads: Colomba Mandorlata Classica, Colomba Alla Pesca, Focaccia Mandorlata, and Veneziana Classica. The Colomba Mandorlata made from a raised dough with eggs and butter, has a delicate almond scent with candied orange peel from Sicily, candied citron from Diamante in Calabria, and whole almonds with sugar granules on top. The Colomba Pesca is identical but delicately flavored with perfumey, candied peach pieces.

The Focaccia Mandorlata is firmer in consistency with an orange blossom, flowery flavor and a delicate texture. The Veneziana has a haunting almond flavor with a delicate, almost sponge cake-like texture. (You might wonder about the word “focaccia” for this kind of bread. Traditional throughout Italy as a savory bread, usually liberally anointed with olive oil, focaccia comes from Latin “focŭs” meaning cooked on a hearth [focolare] rather than in an oven.)

In Venice both Veneziana and Focaccia are the Venetian springtime sweet breads, fragrant, without candied fruit or raisins. To differentiate them from the savory type they are called “di pasticceria” or pastry shop type.

Most of our customers know panettone, the Christmas bread. Very few know about the Colomba which is the Easter bread, baked flat in the form of a flying dove. It is thought that the Colomba antedates panettone. The suppositions about this specialty are numerous. They begin in the 500s with the arrival of the Longobards (Lombards) in what is now Italy’s Lombardy. Alboino, the Lombard king, was determined to take Pavia which he had besieged for three years and when in 572 it fell, on the eve of Easter, the story goes that he was offered a cake which pleased him so much he did not raze the city, but made peace with it. Eventually, Pavia became the Lombard capital for the 200 years (568-774) its kingdom lasted.

All said and done, the histories of both the spring Colomba and the Christmas Panettone are recent.

Most of the time there is more mystique about them than actual knowledge. Etymological dictionaries give dates for the first use of their names dating only to the middle 1800s when their industrialized production started. Of course, there may be truth to some of the stories grown up around these cakes--their medieval or earlier origins--but what is certain is, that we really don’t know when or how they came about. We have them and certainly should enjoy them, especially those from Loison.

Easy to serve, these breads require absolutely no special treatment. Just open the packages, cut and serve. There is nothing to spoil, but everything to enjoy. The Colombas are 1 kilo in size, Focaccia and Veneziana 750grams.

An Italian governmental decree, which took force in January 2006, controls the production of certain Italian sweet baked products. This law codifies what must be the ingredients and production methods of panettone, colomba, pan d’oro, amaretti and savoiardi. If the necessary ingredients do not conform to the law, the resulting products may not be called with the traditional names. This law insures these traditional sweet bakery goods are both genuine and have real quality. Both Colomba and panettone must be made with a sour dough starter, generally known as Lactobacillus sanfrancisco, the same responsible for San Francisco sour dough bread.

Loison Colomba Mandorlata Classica Sweet Bread  (with orange, citron, almonds and sugar glaze) Sold out. The Colomba Mandorlata made from a raised dough with eggs and butter, has a delicate almond scent with candied orange peel from Sicily, candied citron from Diamante in Calabria, and whole almonds with sugar granules on top.

Loison Colomba Mandorlata Alla Pesca Sweet Bread   Sold out. The Colomba Pesca is identical to the Colomba Mandorlata Classica but is delicately flavored with perfumey, candied peach pieces.

Loison Foccacia di Pasticceria Mandorlata Sweet Bread  (no candied fruit, with almond glaze) Sold out. The Focaccia Mandorlata is firmer in consistency with an orange blossom, flowery flavor and a delicate texture.

Loison Veneziana Classica Sweet Bread  (no candied fruit, no almond glaze) Sold out. The Veneziana Classica has a haunting almond flavor with a delicate, almost sponge cake-like texture.

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