Italian bakery goodies

One of our errands today was to stop in a bakery in Viterbo and order some “Pansucchio” for Christmas, for ourselves and as gifts for friends. Pansucchio is a panettone-like cake, made only at this bakery, using their 70-year-old mother yeast. It is filled with chestnuts, dark chocolate, and then doused in rum. it is BOOZY and really, really delicious. Half an hour before eating, you are supposed to turn it upside down, to let the rum soak through. A friend bought one as a gift for us two years ago; then last year, we went to the bakery to pick one up in mid-December, but they were all sold out! Everyone “in the know” pre-orders and if you snooze, you lose.

So we made a note in the calendar last year so we would be sure not to miss out this year. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, no pansucchio and I cry all Christmas.

What a delightful find this little bakery, Pasticceria Alba, has become. It’s on a very busy, commercial street, outside the town walls in the busiest part of this modern town, and the traffic around it is crazy. It is the kind of place we might not find ourselves, but are so grateful to be made aware of by locals in the know. At this time of year, they are making these large chocolate fish that are then wrapped in colorful foil.

While there, of course we had to buy a little tray of goodies. When you buy a little tray like this (at any bakery), they always wrap it up like a gift, with ribbon and their wrapping paper. This entire tray cost us €7. I would have paid twice that for it.