The best of artisanal sweets production in the city of Verona
Verona is the city of love and of Romeo and Juliet, a UNESCO heritage site and a city of art crossed by the Adige river and surrounded by the Scaligeri castles. But Verona is much more: it is a provincial capital where you can taste delicious flavors, sweets and many typical dishes. There are many pastry shops in Verona that produce typical artisanal sweets, delicately prepared with fresh and genuine products. Try the softness of the Veronese panettone, the colombe and the fragrance of the biscuits, the dry pastries, the miniature cakes and many typical cakes prepared on the spot and made to awaken the taste buds of the most demanding palates. In this article we have collected a list of typical Verona desserts that you must try when you visit the city.
1. Torta delle Rose
The Torta delle Rose, created in 1490 to celebrate the wedding between Francesco II Gonzaga and the very young Isabella d’Este, is reminiscent of a bouquet of rose buds. The cake was much appreciated by the spouses and became part of the Gonzaga cuisine and soon spread to nearby lands. Valeggio sul Mincio, between Verona and Mantua, includes among its specialties this delicious dessert that is prepared both in pastry shops and in home kitchens, especially on special occasions and holidays.
2. Pandoro of Verona
Pandoro is the typical Veronese sweet, most popular during Christmas holidays. A soft and fluffy dough of natural yeast enriched with the precious Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, cocoa butter, eggs and lots of icing sugar to make it a truly special product. Strictly without mono and diglycerides of fatty acids, the Pandoro has a delicate and refined taste, thanks to the delicious combination of cocoa butter with Madagascar vanilla.
3. Fritole
The Fritole are a delicious dessert, a typical product of the Veronese Carnival, which is remembered as one of the oldest in Italy. Still today the Fritole di Carnevale maintain a deep-rooted popularity by continuing to be prepared not only in confectionery but also in the homes of many Venetian families. Fritole alla Veronese differ slightly from their Venetian cousins in the use of grappa instead of rum and in the presence of apples, which enhance the delicate flavor. The semantics of the dialect word for fritters “fritole” means that they were “frite”, made fried, originally on pork fat, because the oil was little known.
4. The Nadalin from Verona
The Nadalin of Verona is a soft and very tasty dessert, typical of the Christmas holidays. A niche and less commercial product, which many Veronese prefer because they consider it more linked to the city, being the first that has now become a national and export dessert. Compared to the dessert born at the end of the nineteenth century from the hands of Domenico Melegatti, the preparation of Nadalin is simpler and faster, without those laborious reshuffles that characterize the leavening of Pandoro.
5. Sfogliatine of Villafranca
The Sfoliatine, crumbly and delicate, were born in Villafranca di Verona from an idea of Giovanni Fantoni and immediately captured the attention of local families and inhabitants of neighboring villages, to the point of becoming the favorite delicacy for anniversaries, baptisms and weddings. They are prepared with flour, eggs, butter, sugar and a pinch of salt, they are simple and laborious at the same time. The dough is made with flour, eggs and sugar, to which you can add a little water. From Verona, wealthy families ordered them to celebrate anniversaries, weddings and baptisms.
6. La Torta Russa di Verona
The Russian cake from Verona is a typical dessert of traditional Veronese pastry. The Verona cake is a dessert made up of a crunchy shell of puff pastry and a soft filling with almonds and amaretti. The origins of this cake are not very precise. One thesis argues that the name derives from the shape of the cake that resembles a fur hat, a typical headdress of Russian populations. According to others, it seems that this cake was made by a pastry chef in love with a Russian woman with wonderful blue eyes: this would explain the origin of the name of this cake.
More desserts…
In Verona other desserts are produced such as the Veronese risini and the sanvigilini. Risini are delicious rice filled pasta with an irresistible taste and are made up of a crunchy shortcrust pastry shell and a very tasty vanilla-flavored rice filling.
Sanvigilini, on the other hand, are typical Lake Garda biscuits prepared with flour, butter, eggs, sugar, sultanas and yeast. According to tradition, these biscuits were created for the first time in San Vigilio (hence the name) and had been kneaded by Winston Churchill imitating the typical English tea pastries.
