Among the traditional Italian Easter sweets, few embody such symbolic power as the unmistakable ‘colomba’ (meaning ‘dove’ in English). For its shape, obviously, this cake represents a symbol of peace and love, flanked by an egg that represents the Resurrection in the Christian tradition. The colomba is also famous for the simplicity of its dough and the sentimental sweetness of the almond icing, which never slips into the "sinful" indulgence of chocolate (even if chocolate should never be considered a sin). But there are few holiday desserts with so many legends and tales surrounding it as our precious Easter Colomba.
Perhaps to hide its origin that is, in reality, much less noble than they would have us think? So let’s investigate – and delve into the magical world of the colomba!
The 1st version: Saint Colombanus and Queen Theodolinda
According to tradition, the Easter colomba is a recipe from Lombardy. At least, that’s the setting for all the legends about it. The first one occurs in Pavia. It is said that around 610 AD, in what was once the capital of the Lombards, Queen Theodolinda hosted a group of Irish pilgrims, led by St. Columbanus. The queen offered her guests game, dogs and rich libations, but the saint declined – he was observing Lent. Teodolinda and her husband Agilulfo interpreted the refusal as a personal offense and it was then that Colombanus, while blessing the game, turned it into “white doves of bread.”
The 2nd version: Pavia and the siege of Alboino
The second legend features Pavia in Lombardy as its setting, as well. But this time, the jump back in time goes all the way to 572 AD, at the time of King Alboin – who decided to wage war on Byzantine Italy, besieging Pavia after crossing the Alps. After three years of siege, the resistance was won and the barbarians entered the city. It was then that the Pavian people, in order to avoid the barbarians’ wrath, offered them soft sweets in the shape of a dove (or ‘colomba’). A gesture of peace that, according to legend, prevented plundering and earned Pavia the title of capital in the newborn kingdom.
The 3rd version: The Battle of Legnano
Another legend traces the origin of the colomba all the way back to the Battle of Legnano (1176 AD), following the resounding victory of the Communes of the Lombard League over the Germanic Emperor Federico Barbarossa. It is said that a chariot leader saw two doves resting on the insignia of the League, despite the approaching torrent of battle. In order to give courage to his men, the leader had the cooks make bread in the shape of a dove – made from eggs, flour and yeast.
The daughter of panettone
These legends suggest that there must have been dove-shaped Easter cakes from the start. An element that wasn’t exactly new to Italian gastronomy… Just think of some versions of the Sicilian cuddura with eggs, in which the sweet dough is even combined with boiled eggs. But the colomba that we know today has much more recent origins, taking us to Milan of the 1930s. Turin, for some years, had already invented the Easter egg. And for Christmas, for some years now, the panettone we know and love today was already in full effect. A leavened evolution – conceived by Motta – of the ancient Milanese ‘pan de Toni.’ Dino Villani from Mantua, creator of the competition that would later become “Miss Italy,” came up with an idea for the artist and advertiser from Mantua. Why not use the same machinery that Motta used to produce the panettone to create a new Easter cake with a very similar recipe? This is how the modern Easter colomba was born.
Three times the leavening
The ingredients are very simple, but the procedure is rather laborious. For the starter dough, you’ll need flour, water, milk, and yeast. Everything must be left to rise for a couple of hours. Then we move on to the second dough, where flour, sugar and butter will be added to the starter dough and left to rise for an hour and a half. Now we move on to the third dough. Ingredients: flour, butter, raisins, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, and candied oranges – all added to the previous dough and left to rise for 16 hours. Then the dough is placed in the dove-shaped mold. Cover everything with the traditional icing made with flour, cornstarch, egg whites, brown sugar, almonds and (sometimes) hazelnuts. Garnish at the end with more almonds and turbinado sugar. Finally, bake in the oven.
In Veneto
Did we mention that a version of the colomba also exists in Veneto? This recipe is a variant of the fugassa or focaccia (a term that has always been associated with sweets in the Veneto region) with the shape of a dove. The ingredients are flour, sourdough, eggs, sugar, butter, honey, salt, vanilla, cocoa butter, almonds, hazelnuts, cornstarch and candied fruit. Knead all the ingredients together three times and let it rise. In the end, after a leavening of about 45 minutes, make the ‘dove’ shape and after more than 10-12 hours of further leavening, glaze everything with almonds, hazelnuts, starch, and egg white. Then bake in the oven. Don’t forget the sugar on top!
The verdict
The epicenter of the focaccia and the Veneto version of colomba is undoubtedly from Verona. If there is no doubt about the lineage of of the first version of colomba, the same is true here; according to legend, this recipe was born from the creativity of a baker from Treviso who added bread, butter, eggs and honey to the bread dough. And the antiquity of the ‘a colomba’ version from this area is just as uncertain, but it seems that it already existed in Verona at the end of the 19th century. Proof that, even before Dino Villani's indisputable intuition, dove-shaped sweets were well known in Italy. And so the legend goes…