La Colomba Marietta: Italian Easter cake (recipe)

 

This recipe is from Tuscany.

Colomba

The colomba is to Italian Easter what the panettone is to Christmas. The name, which means dove, comes from its shape, representing the Holy Spirit, who in the New Testament of the Bible appears in the form of a dove. Like the panettone, the colomba is ubiquitous in the shops in the period leading up to the festival, and it’s notoriously difficult to make. The original recipe requires making three doughs and leaving each to rise for a couple of hours before using it to make the next one.

Colomba

 

In the classic La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene by Pellegrino Artusi—with which regular readers of the blog will be familiar—Artusi includes a recipe for a quick panettone which he calls Panettone Marietta, after his cook who taught him the recipe. He declares that this relatively easy recipe is ‘a cake which deserves recommendation because it is much better than the Panettone di Milano which you can find on sale everywhere, and requires a lot less going nuts.’ You can just enjoy eating the nuts on the top instead.

Colomba

I am sure Artusi would have included a Colomba Marietta if he’d known what one was, but unfortunately it appears that the cake was only invented in the 1940s by the Motta baking company in order to extend the panettone season (of which they were the major producer) until Easter. So in the spirit of Artusi I decided to make the Panettone Marietta but to bake it in a colomba mould, which you also find everywhere in Italy at this time of year. It consists of oven proof paper in the shape of a dove and you cook and serve the cake in it.

 

Colomba

 

There are two things I’ve noticed with this recipe are essential to get a good rise. The first thing is to really beat the eggs with the butter until they have a good mousse. The second thing is to really mix the batter for 25 minutes with the paddle. (Artusi says 30 but he was doing it by hand). I’ve tried without doing either thing and the cake doesn’t rise half as much.

Nothing really beats a handmade colomba that has been allowed to rise for 6 hours, but this comes a close second and has the advantage, of being relatively moist and in Artusi’s words of requiring ‘a lot less going nuts.’

ColombaColomba

 

Buona Pasqua!

 

La Colomba Marietta

Serves: 10
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 5 minutes

lll

Ingredients
200g (2 1/4 sticks) butter
2 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
600g (4 2/3 cups) plain flour
400ml (1 1/2 cups) milk
160g (4/5 cups) sugar
a large pinch of salt
40g (1 1/2 ounces) chopped candied peel
1 lemon zest
160g (1 cup) sultanas
16g (1 heaped tablespoon) cream of tartar
10g (2 teaspoons) instant yeast
5g (1 teaspoon) bicarbonate of soda
cane sugar for sprinkling
100g (3 1/2 ounces) blanched almonds

lll

Method
  1. Heat the oven to 160°C (320°F).
  2. In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat together the butter and the eggs.
  3. Change to the paddle attachment. Then add the flour and, little by little, the milk.
  4. Add the sugar, salt, candied peel, and lemon zest and then continue to mix on low speed for 25 minutes.
  5. Dust the sultanas lightly in flour, and then add them to the mixture along with the cream of tartar, the yeast and bicarbonate of soda.
  6. Pour the mixture into the mould and make sure it is evenly distributed.
  7. Sprinkle the cane sugar over the top and then decorate with the almonds.
  8. Bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

 

9 thoughts on “La Colomba Marietta: Italian Easter cake (recipe)”

  1. Pingback: Twenty Egg-citing Recipes For Easter | Foodies 100

  2. Pingback: Easter in the Valtiberina « Chestnuts and Truffles

  3. Pingback: Arista: Tuscan roast pork (recipe) « Chestnuts and Truffles

  4. Pingback: Why do Italians go crazy about Italian cuisine? - Chestnuts and Truffles - Luca's Italy

  5. Hello, I have just found your website when I was looking for genuine carbonara recipes, and there are so many beautiful recipes here, but I am a bit sad that photos are broken on some old posts such as this. You know you have to see the photo to decide whether to try the recipe! Is there any possibility to fix the photos? Molte grazie!

    1. Luca Marchiori

      Hi Lisa,
      Thank you very much for your comment and I’m glad you are enjoying the blog. Thanks for pointing out the broken links. Something went wrong when updating the design a while ago and some of the older posts were affected. I’ve fixed it for this post now so you can see Artusi’s (or should I say Marietta’s) Colomba in all its glory. Have a great day.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d