Easter dove: the traditional dessert that must be on the table.

Christmas has been over for a few months, and who knows, maybe you still have some panettone or pandoro left. Hurry up and finish them because it’s already time for Easter! And with the Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus, the Easter dove inevitably arrives, the delicious sweets dessert typical of Italian tradition. There’s no respectable Easter lunch that doesn't end with this dessert. Some love it only with icing, candied orange peel, and almonds, but there are numerous variants, and all are very good. From chocolate to chantilly cream, including raisins, you can find everything on the market. Let's discover together the history of this famous dessert in all Regions of Italy.

Easter dove, what are its origins?

Many legends, myths, and stories surround the Easter dove. Various places claim the paternity of this tasty product: from Lombardy to Veneto, all the way down to Sicily. Tradition has it that the Easter dove is considered a Lombard dessert because the main legends that are passed down originate from these places.

It is said, for example, that in Pavia, the capital of the Lombards, in 610, Queen Theodolinda hosted a group of Irish pilgrims led by Saint Columbanus. The queen offered her guests a grand banquet of exquisite dishes, but it was declined because it was Lent. Theodolinda and her husband Agilulf interpreted the rejection as a personal insult, and it was then that Columbanus, blessing the game, transformed it into white doves made of bread.

Another legend, also set in Pavia, is from 572, during the time of King Alboin. He besieged the city for three years, and after achieving victory, he entered the city welcomed by the Pavesi who, to avoid looting, gifted the invaders soft sweets shaped like doves. A stroke of genius that, in addition to preventing the city from being sacked, made it the capital of the Lombard kingdom.

These legends suggest that there must have been Easter sweets shaped like doves. But the dove we know today has much more recent origins. In Milan, it was the Motta company in the 1930s that had the intuition to propose a leavened sweet for Easter. In short, it was a purely commercial operation. Specifically, it was the Mantuan advertising director Dino Villani who proposed using the same machinery used to produce panettone to create a new Easter sweet.

A version of the dove also exists in Veneto. The recipe includes flour, sourdough, eggs, sugar, butter, honey, salt, vanilla, cocoa butter, almonds, hazelnuts, cornstarch, and candied fruit. It seems that it existed in Verona already by the end of the 1800s.

Another story is that of the Sicilian Easter doves, also known as “palummedda”: firm dough sweets that, in their oldest and most traditional version, are shaped like doves, often with a hard-boiled egg in the center.

Easter dove, a symbol of peace and love in the world

Among the symbols that represent Easter, the dove is the one for which there are more versions regarding its meaning. The dove is considered a symbol of peace. This meaning likely dates back to the interpretation of an episode in Genesis in which a dove brought an olive branch in its beak to Noah after the great flood, indicating the end of hostilities between God and His people. But looking further back, even during the times of the Greeks, Egyptians, and then Romans, a bread shaped like a dove was prepared for sacred ceremonies, which was attributed with ritual and magical properties. The Christians adopted this tradition, attributing the symbol of Peace to the dove, in this way interpreting the episode mentioned in the Bible.

Easter dove, tips from Spaghetti e Mandolino

The best artisan and gourmet Easter doves can be found at Spaghetti & Mandolino, the right place to buy the Easter sweet that will make you shine in front of friends, guests, and relatives. On the portal, you will find very different Easter doves, including one from Molise, from Cercepiccola, Panificio Rosa Maria Vittoria.
The classic artisan Easter dove wrapped by hand from the Panificio Rosa Maria Vittoria is a high-quality baked product. Made with healthy and genuine ingredients. Soft dough with a long leavening period of at least 30 hours (up to 48) with sourdough. Made with fresh eggs, artisanal candied fruits with peels of Italian oranges and lemons, and sugar.
Whatever choice you make with these Easter doves, rest assured that you will not go wrong. Happy Easter from Spaghetti & Mandolino!