A Christmas Mantuan Delight
The two most famous Italian Christmas desserts are ‘Panettone’ (from Milan) and ‘Pandoro’ (from Verona).
But, of course, every single Italian city, town – and even village! – has its own traditional festive specialities.
The typical Mantuan Christmas cake is known as ‘Anello di Monaco’ (litterally: “Ring from Munich”). The story goes that it was invented by the Putscher family, a German-speaking family of Swiss pastry chefs, settled in Mantua at the end of the Eigheenth Century.
Adolf Putscher created the ‘Anello di Monaco’ in 1798, combining the german recipe of the bundt cake known as ‘Gugelhupf’ with the local baking tradition.
The ‘Anello di Monaco’ has the shape of a considerabely tall donut (20-30 cm). Its buttery pastry, with an intense yellow color, is stuffed with hazelnuts and chestnuts (some also add liquor to perfume the filling). The top is frosted with a thick layer of icing, or – sometimes – with white chocolate.
This is definitely a not-to-be-missed dessert during your Christmas visit to Mantua!
