It's All About the Food! Part 1

This Sunday is Easter, or Pasqua, and on Monday Italians will also celebrate Pasquetta, or "little Easter". This long weekend means food, and lots of it. One of the principle protagonists of the Easter feast in Italy is the "columba", meaning dove. The columba devoured by millions of Italians on Easter is not the bird, but a cake in the shape of a dove. The classic columba cake has an almond-covered top crust and a soft inner cake sweetened with candied fruit. Early this Saturday morning, aiming to beat the final rush before Sunday, my husband and I headed to Gilbert, a small sweets factory in Torino producing and selling their handmade cookies, chocolate, and columba. I like the classic, but always end up going for the more elaborate versions. There is columba made with moscato wine and one with pieces of chocolate inside. My favorite and the one we chose to keep for Easter lunch as oppposed to the others we will give to friends is covered with a chocolate crust and filled with gianduja cream. Gianduja is chocolate mixed with hazelnuts and is a specialty of Torino. The first image shows our Gianduja columba at noon. As of 7pm, all that remained was one round end, although I couldn't say if it was heads or tails. I'm not convinced our columba will see Easter morning.

A columba topped and filled with small pieces of chocolate.

A columba given to my husband at work. This columba is made with "frutti di bosco", or candied berries, and made a very nice breakfast Saturday morning!