Liguria might be best known for its pesto sauce - but it also has lots of traditional bread and cakes. Here are some of them - plus a recipe for delicous Pan Martina.
Travel around Liguria and you’ll find wonderful local bakeries selling all sorts of bread and cakes – including plenty of regional specialities. One such is Le Dolci Piazze, a family run bakery on Via XXV Aprile in the resort of Sestri Levante on the Riviera. They make all sorts of cakes and little biscuits including anicini, which are hard biscuits made without butter and containing flour, eggs and aniseed; and pinolate, made with almonds, sugar, egg white and pine kernels.
Another great shop is the historic Pasticceria Copello, on Via Martiri della Liberazione in Genoa. It’s worth seeing just for the interior, with its elegant Liberty style mirrors, wooden counters and cabinets that date back to 1911. The shop itself is even older – it was founded in 1826. It stocks all sorts of little sweets like fondants and candies – a tradition that dates back centuries in Genoa.
At Easter, every bakery seems to sell their own version of Colomba, a light fluffy cake baked in the shape of a flying dove of peace (hence the name: ‘la colomba’ is Italian for ‘the dove’). It’s eaten on Easter Sunday, and made with flour, sugar, lots of eggs, candied peel and almonds.
Focaccia, a savoury bread made with olive oil is everywhere and comes plain, made with cheese – focaccia al formaggio, or with vegetables/herbs – focaccia alle verdure. Then there is the famous pandolce, from Genoa – a rich cake usually eaten at Christmas. It’s a dense, heavy cake made with butter, candied fruit, muscatel raisins and orange flower water. Shops often sell small versions for tourists to take home with them.
Pan Martina is a special bread made with chestnut flour – a staple of the mountain regions of Liguria. Here is a recipe provided by the chef of the Hotel Amici in Varese Ligure.
Ingredients:
- 250 grm ordinary flour
- 250 grm chestnut flour
- 50 grm yeast
- 300 grm water
- teaspoon of sugar
- pinch of salt
- 100 grm walnuts
Method:
Mix the yeast with the water and sugar, work it together then let it rest for 15 minutes. Then mix it with the 2 types of flour and work it into a dough. Sprinkle on a little salt, add the walnuts, then cover it with a tea towel and leave it to rest in a warm place for about 1 ½ hours. When it has risen, place it in a greased baking tin and cook it in a preheated oven for 10 minutes at 200 degrees, then lower the temperature to 160 degrees and cook for another ½ an hour.
When it has cooled you can eat it like any bread – local people say it’s very good with salami.
For more information on Liguria read Liguria's Secret Valley
Recipes for Pesto and Battuto sauces
