[Sca-cooks] Panforte

[Johnna Holloway]

Here's information I have sent to the list in the past that mentions  
panforte.

It should be in the archives.

Johnnae

Post on panpepati sent February 25, 2009

Maybe I can add some more information. I'll be drawing together  
information
from several books so I hope this makes sense.

One book that has appeared since
your original research was done is Gillian Riley's The Oxford  
Companion to
Italian Food (2007).
I won't reproduce the entire entry on "Panpepato" but there appear to  
be a number of variants to this cake or bread.
(To begin, Riley lists it as being a version of panforte and there's  
of course another entry on that. See below.)
In her entry on panepato, Riley writes "The scholar-courtier Francesco
Redi defined panpetato as coming in three versions: the /sopraffina/,  
made with refined sugar,
decorated with marzipan shapes and coloured icing;
a medium quality made with honey and ordinary ingredients; and
the inferior sort, which to us sounds rather good, made with wholemeal  
flour and bran,
pepper, dried figs, walnuts, and honey."
[Redi's dates are 1626–1697, so his remarks are 17th century.]

Riley refers to the work of Giovanna Giusti Galardi author of the 2001  
Dolci a Corte.
I actually own both the English translation and the original Italian  
version of Dolci a Corte, so I can easily look
up her chapter on "panpepato." Giusti Galardi notes that the Palatine  
Electress Anna
Maria Luisa de' Medici wrote from Dusseldorf to her uncle to thank him  
for the offer of a panpepato
that he was sending from Florence. This was 1692.
Giusti Galardi uses this letter as an introduction to a section on  
panpepato. She writes that
it was "linked to the Feast of All Saints....in Siena it was called  
pane impepato (literally,
peppered-bread), in Florence, less refinedly, pandigusto (flavourful  
bread).
Giusti Galardi includes a 17th century recipe that calls for honey,  
squash preserves, orange
preserves, spices,and flour as needed.

When one returns to Riley and her Oxford Companion to Italian Food  
entry on panforte,
one comes across a few more places to check for medieval and  
Renaissance descriptions and recipes.
She writes "Spiced cakes or breads were described by Costanzo Felici  
in the 1560's."
(According to the bibliography there are two volumes of Felici letters  
that were published
in the 1980's.)
Panfortes were also made "with honey or sapa, hence the name pan  
melato and panpepato."
Riley ends with the interesting note that Maria Vittoria della Verde  
included recipes for
several versions of a panmelato in her  notebooks.
This is an important note. By way of information, Suor (or Sister)  
Maria Vittoria  was  a
nun in Perugia. In 1583 she began keeping a series of notebooks that  
include recipes for a number
of confections and items like wafers. She died in 1622 at the age of  
67, so her notebooks
are late 16th and early 17th century as to dating. And all 170 recipes  
from the notebooks were
published in 1989. It took me forever but I eventually found and  
purchased a copy of this book
several years back. In it there are indeed a few recipes for panmelato.

--
Lastly, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, author of The Splendid Table, says that  
chocolate
was first added in the 19th century. She includes a recipe at:
http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/dessert_chocolate_christmas_spicecake.shtml

Hope this helps

Johnnae llyn Lewis
On Apr 12, 2010, at 1:39 PM, otsisto wrote:

> What I have read on this is that is goes back to the 1200s but I  
> have not
> found any period recipe for this. It is alleged to be similar to  
> Lebkuchten.
> Also, looking for cavallucci which is alleged to be 1500s almond
> biscuit/cookie.
> My group is planning an "Italian" event and I was looking for a few  
> sweets
> for the Inn. Panforte is a specialty for the region we're doing.
>
> De
>
>
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