The Los Angeles Times says that: “If you’re Italian, panettone is the one tradition that’s obligatory at the holidays. There’s something so festive about that box with the sugar-dusted cake inside. And no worries if it doesn’t all get eaten at the first sitting: stale, it makes wonderful French toast.”
I just read an article that said that during the holidays, at least 81% of Italians had Panettone. Pretty much everybody, excluding the infants. But also in America, now, you can find Panettone everywhere: in supermarkets, stores, bakeries. Most are commercially made, and not the real thing.
How do you find a great one? The LATimes, comes to our aid, lists some fine purveyors and says: “Gustiamo, the mail order source for all things Italian, has panettone from pastry chef Luigi Biasetto in the Veneto region of Italy. A 2.2 pound bread is $70. Biasetto makes his from a mother yeast that has been nurtured for 60 years, organic eggs, organic honey from the Alps and candied fruits from Sicily. Considering that the festive sweet bread is consumed over a period of days and many meals, the price doesn’t seem as daunting. To order, call (718) 860-2949 or email gustiteam@gustiamo.com.”
Grazie mille!