When they hear that the panettone, the doc Milanese still twist their noses a little. Yet, in an era of globalization, it is not so strange that under the Rubicon there are fine confectioners who prepare great Christmas leavened products. And many of these have received awards that have rewarded their commitment to reproducing the traditional Christmas dessert. All in a strictly artisanal way, sometimes in a philological way, other times with more creative recipes. We have selected a few. It does not want to be a ranking, but only a suggestion for the tastings of the holidays, also because never as in this case the taste is subjective and is also based on the style you prefer. And there is no shortage of pandori for those who prefer the Veronese star dessert.
All the panettone selected can be easily purchased, as well as in the respective stores, even in the online shops, which have become increasingly efficient in delivering. In the main cities of Italy, most of these panettone are also present in the catalog of What I bring and they can be ordered regardless of origin, with guarantees on the shelf life, making sure that production is as close as possible.

The Roman “leaveners”

In Rome, a tough fight has been fought for several years for the perfect panettone. In the Capitoline area there are both confectioners and bakers of great respect: all experts in leavening, test after test have refined the technique. In the team of bakers there are certainly two most illustrious representatives: the Roscioli brothers on one side and Gabriele Bonci on the other.
From their bakery in via dei Chiavari, i Roscioli brothers they defend themselves both with the classic panettone and with pears and chocolate, while to order they tease true gourmets with a sweet / savory version with walnuts and truffles. Traditional and almond: the "Pizza hero" Gabriele Bonci instead, he tries his hand only with the great classic of Christmas pastry, bringing all his experience of perfect leavening into the dough.
There are also two pastry chefs "competing" to win the prize for the best panettone in the city. From Crane Five different varieties are available: there is the classic and there are the "creative" ones, including Italian Espresso, Gianduioso, Pecan, Pear and Chocolate. To make them special, soft, fragrant and highly digestible, there are two main factors: the slow and natural leavening thanks to the use of mother yeast, treated by Marta Boccanera and Felice Venanzi day after day, and the raw materials, all of the highest quality.
From Manfredi house the months of lockdown were an opportunity for Giorgia Proia to improve herself, with the collaboration of pastry chef Andrea Tortora, who helped her refine the recipes in time for Christmas. Not only panettone, both classic (with Avola almonds, made with French butter and high quality candied fruit) and Cubo chocolate (double dark and milk chocolate inside, cocoa glaze with cocoa grit and Piedmont IGP hazelnuts , and cocoa dough), but also pandoro, to please those of the pandoro team with a buttery cuddle flavored with Bourboun vanilla from Madagascar.

A gem outside Rome

Not in the city, but not too far away because we are in Ciociaria, there is Dolcemascolo pastry shop in Frosinone, which has just celebrated thirty years of activity. It offers five references: the classic version that enriches the traditional Milanese recipe with home made candied orange and citron; the dark chocolate flavor with Valrhona chocolate chips or its chocolate and pear variant that balances the irresistible combination of the bitterness of cocoa and the sweetness of pears; the panettone with red fruits from Ciociaria, which enhances the territory, the only one available even in summer; finally the pandoro with an intense yellow color.

The kings of panettone in Campania

Also in Campania there is no shortage of pastry chefs who have been trying their hand at Milanese dessert for years, often reworking it and creating hybrids. This is the case with the lamentation Alfonso Pepe, whose pastry of Salerno, despite the disappearance of the progenitor, continues to churn out panettone nonstop. Here the references are innumerable and especially in the creative versions reflect in the ingredients the strengths of the territory: white figs from Cilento, cream and buffalo milk, apricots from Vesuvius, limoncello. Particularly the version that mixed the panettone dough with the filling of the pastiera: the result is an even tastier leavened product than the panettone that brings Christmas and Easter together.
Extremely linked to the territory too Pietro Macellaro, which with its Cilento agricultural pastry brings to everything the heart of its land does. Suffice it to say that all its Christmas leavened products have a fundamental ingredient that characterizes them and makes them particularly enveloping: buffalo butter. In fact, even in the classic panettone, Pietro Macellaro's signature is the use of this ingredient, to which other typical Cilento products and recipes are added in the creative versions. The Aubergine, pistachio and chocolate panettone is exemplary, in which we find the taste of a classic Campania dessert, the aubergines with chocolate.
Always from Salerno, but this time from the Amalfi Coast, he arrives Sal De Riso, with its famous super creative panettone. The Cilento panettone is prepared with buffalo butter and stuffed with dried white figs infused with rum, walnuts, candied orange and wild fennel; one of its classics is ricotta and pears, where you can find a mix with the famous cake of the pastry chef from Minori, who celebrated his 20 years; also characteristic is the limoncello one, stuffed and glazed with a delicious limoncello cream and lemon peel from the Amalfi coast.
Deviation in the Avellino area (but we are on the border with the province of Salerno) to taste the panettone of Raffaele Vignola of the patisserie of the same name, which this year won the selection of King Panettone with its Milanese classic. For those with a sweet tooth, it also has a couple of versions with chocolate and a more “territorial” version with PGI annurca apple and cinnamon. For those who prefer salty, Vignola has also created a Gastronomico Irpino panettone with pancetta, capocollo, stretched and soppressata and Irpinia caciocavallo.

From Puglia to Basilicata

In San Marco in Lamis, a municipality in the province of Foggia, for several years Antonio Cera and his team of splendid deans, the two aunts plus his mother, are teaching their Panterrone, which this year was also chosen by the starred chef Viviana Varese for a Christmas collaboration on the San Marco-Milan axis. The Panterrone of Sammarco oven was created to enhance the products of the Apulian territory and is a conceptually poorer version, because it starts from peasant ingredients such as burnt wheat, but very rich in taste and the result of painstaking work in the choice of raw materials and combinations, sometimes daring. To give a few examples, there is the one with Celline di Nardò olives, Podolica cow butter and chocolate; King Lampascione, precisely with candied lampascioni; that of burnt wheat with figs. The candied fruits are strictly home made and the citrus fruits are from Gargano, then there is also Panterrolio, which is the vegan version, in which butter and eggs have been replaced with extra virgin olive oil.
Another pastry chef is instead in Potenza and he is Vincenzo Tiri. His traditional panettone has received an avalanche of prizes, probably thanks to the innovation of the process that from two mixing phases was brought to three, for 72 hours of leavening. Added to this are the taste of Diamante cedar and Lucanian staccia orange, whose candying takes place directly in the laboratory in open-air tanks. Only three “creative” versions, whose basic recipe is still that of the traditional panettone: coffee and white chocolate; apricot and gianduia; salted caramel.