Got to do something with panettone

"I am deeply suspicious of any food item that is only ever wheeled out once a year. If it was so good we would be eating it all the time."

Julie Bindel - The Guardian

As we do Hot cross buns. But not turkey, mince pies or Christmas pudding, though I guess fruit cake is a close cousin. In fact I really can't think of anything other than hot cross buns that we do eat all year and not just at the time they are supposed to be eaten. Oh - pancakes I suppose. But that's it I think.

Last Christmas my husband was carried away by the piles of glossy panettone boxes in Aldi and insisted on buying one - against my protests I have to say. For I knew what would happen. And yes I was right. It didn't get eaten - we had all already eaten too much - and we still have it. And yes I know that it's months later, but it's still eatable. Well it hasn't passed it's use by date. Which is probably a bit of a worry in itself. So I'm looking for things to do with it because it's huge - see the poster - it looks like a bird cage in that picture.

Mine is not quite that big but it's taking up valuable space in my store drawer. And, no doubt, gradually going off. Fortunately we have a big family dinner on Sunday so I'm going to do something with it. Probably Jamie Oliver's Bonkers Bread and Butter Panettone Tart. A typical batty Jamie Oliver title but it does look good. and it serves 12, which is about how many we shall be. Not that I expect everyone to go for it. And suitably wintry too. For those who don't fancy bread and butter pudding I might also make a crumble with a panettone topping - I saw that somewhere - you just turn the panettone into crumbs and mix with melted butter to make the crumble. The recipe I saw was for a pear crumble but I'm guessing you could make it for apples too - or anything else come to that.

And that's the thing - there are lots of ways you can use up leftover panettone. Because, I'm guessing there is a lot of panettone around. And a lot of hostility and scorn - or perhaps just journalists having fun. But I can't resist including some of the fairly biting remarks that I found. Which I confess I secretly agree with.

"the Italian part-bread, part-cake monstrosity that fills the shelves of every Italian deli and supermarket throughout November and December, and is, inevitably on sale for a knock-down price right up until spring. It is, for some inexplicable reason, packed in plastic, then encased in a box you could fit a family of four in. It takes up every spare inch of space as you will know if you have ever had the misfortune to buy or be given one, and it tastes like Gandhi's flip-flop after three months in the desert." Julie Bindel - The Guardian

"And if you don't eat it at all, you can give it as a present and it looks really lavish. When really it's just a box of air." Zoe Williams - The Guardian"

I think I particularly agree with this one. Although the taste is sometimes surprisingly nice - ours has chocolate in it too - it doesn't look appetising - to me anyway - and it is a bit like American bread in being just too light and airy. But yes it does get given as a present - probably someone passing on their unwanted one - my husband even suggested this, but I really think that is going too far.

"What, exactly, is panettone all about? It should be gorgeous. It looks like a delicious Amaretto biscuit but twice the size of your skull. In fact it's joyless mass of dry cake polluted with the unpleasant bits of dried fruit that even your Nan wouldn't eat, dusted with a cloying layer of elderly icing sugar and wrapped in a box with a ribbon." Tim Hayward - The Guardian

No icing sugar on mine though - just the unappetising brown domed thing. I guess the icing sugar would improve the look though. As the photo above shows, you can make anything look good if you're clever.

So what is it? Well it's a yeasty cake - a kind of sourdough, with sweet things like candied peel and dried fruit and which takes several days to make. I'm not really sure why it has come to be associated with Christmas but they do say it is an Italian Christmas thing. It probably dates back to Roman times, certainly medieval, and comes from latin or early Italian - pan del ton meaning bread of luxury - for only the rich could afford it. However, modern day panettone originated in Milan - panettone capital of the world. The original company that made it - Motto - was bought up by Nestlé, but I think this, in turn has been bought up by somebody else. And anyway everybody makes it now, in spite of the Milanese trying to get an official appellation for it. Too late I would say.

Those are the facts as I know them but there are two rather lovely legends about its origin - one of them being a bit like Tarte Tatin and other dishes that have come from disaster. I reproduce the legends here:

"The popular legend is that of a nobleman and falconer named Ughetto, who fell in love with Adalgisa, the daughter of a baker whose business had hit upon hard times. Ughetto’s family were unhappy with his choice and forbade him to marry such a lowly girl. In a bid to continue seeing his lover, Ughetto in disguise took a job at the bakery where one day after selling some of his falcons, he purchased butter and sugar and added it to the bakery’s bread mix. Ughetto’s sweet bread became popular and the ailing bakery soon began to see better times, which pleased Adalgisa. To continue pleasing her, one day near Christmas, he added candied peel and raisins to the mix and the popularity of his bread surpassed everything the bakery had ever produced before - in fact it became so popular that his family relented and gave their permission for the couple to marry."

"It is said that at the 15th century court of Duke Ludovico, during a Christmas celebration, the chef burned the dessert. When the Duke demanded that dessert be served, the chef became visibly distressed and, seeing this, a scullery boy named Toni approached him and explained that he’d made a sweet loaf out of left-overs and offered this bread to the chef who accepted and served it at court. The dessert was a success and the Duke called the chef to congratulate him in front of his guests, however, unable to take the credit, the chef told everyone who had really made the bread and that’s how it became known as panettone; the bread of the scullery boy, Toni."

So what can you do with your leftovers?

Bread and butter pudding and variations thereof seem to be the most popular choice, often with marmalade. Then there's trifle and tiramisù with the cake bits being replaced by panettone. French toast is popular, and waffles - well you soak a slice of panettone in an egg and cream and sugar mixture, shake off the excess and put it in a waffle maker. Then of course you can cover your French toast or waffle with fruit, yoghurt - whatever. I'm sure this kind of thing appears on the menu of several trendy breakfast places. I saw a recipe for ice-cream - I think the ice cream mix had toasted crumbs of panettone in it. Muffins were a thing - I might have a go at them one day. They looked quite tempting. The crumbs can be mixed with butter, pressed into a springform tart pan and cooked in the oven briefly to form the base of your favourite cheesecake mixture. And biscuits too. And lastly it was even suggested that you could toast small crouton sized bits and add them to salads or roast vegetables. Just feed leftover panettone into Google and you will be inundated.

There are some recipes for making panettone itself but not many. It's one of those things that most people seem to think it's better to buy ready made. And judging from the number of inventive things you can do with it out there, I would say that most people don't actually eat it as is, but, like me, get left with it and so resort to other things.

And it's unlucky to cut off the 'dome' and eat it on it's own!