> (Wow, Nicola -- that was a great piece of information. Is this
common throughout Italy or in a specific region?
---well, i'm not shure for the diffusion .....Befana is the usual name
of the day pratically in all Italy, but i think this particular cakes
(well, in effect the exact word to use is, i think , bisquits) are
specific of my area. They are made with flour, milk, butter, eggs,
lemon peel & sometime some drop of anisette liquour. they are very
popular in all the times of Xmas but specially the morning of the 6th
with milk or tea. Generally we make them in different flat shapes
(little men, bags, flowers, birds) in quite a big dimension (respect
on the standard bisquits in italy).
Then, if you are interested in proper cakes, we have different kind in
the area....in easter we make sweet rice cakes that are more similar
to condensed pudding, salty farro cakes (farro is a particular cereal)
with goat milk, salty vegetable cakes, bread with a kind of grape
that is called "strawberry grape".....
well, you know....it seems incredible but in Italy every little area it's different in recipes, tradition & so on.....think that just on my part of Tuscany, in less than 30 Km of coast we spell more than 6 different dialects....not talking about the mountains!
sorry, i want not to be boring....for the story of Margherita...even
on that i'm not shure, 'cause Panforte is specific of the area of
Siena & it's quite far from my area (well, in effect is only less than
50 miles but....) i'm thinking is a business of a queen named
Margherita that like cakes & request a special recipe that remain with
her name.....
hope to help
Nicola Angolini #769
(You did help, thanks. The lemon and anisette bisquits sound delightful -- just the thing to have with tea in mid-Winter. The "salty vegetable cakes" sound interesting to me too. Federico Manicola already supplied the story of Queen Margherita, and the special panforte recipe named in her honour. I was so tempted by his description of the ""other" Queen Margherita recipe, Pizza Margherita, that i ordered the closest thing we have to that up here, which goes by the name "North Coast Special." It's basicallically a Pizza Marghrita (tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil pesto, the red, white, and green pizza) on which pieces of chicken and marinated artichoke hearts are scattered as gustatory ornamentation. Yum yum. It was great. I have a slice left over for lunch today, too. --cat)
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