05
Jan

Epiphany and Moscato

Tomorrow is Epiphany day, which in the West is traditionally celebrated on January 6th. The word Epiphany comes from the Greek, and means “manifestation of divinity”. There are two legends related to the origin of this celebration. The first has a religious nature, and recalls the moment in which the three Magi Melchiorre, Baldassarre and Gaspar went to Bethlehem following the trail of the comet, to pay homage to the child Jesus by bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh. The pagan interpretation, on the other hand, traces the origin of this festival to the twelfth night after the winter solstice, during which Mother Earth manifested herself in the guise of a wrinkled old witch, to symbolize nature, now withered, but ready to be burned and reborn from its own ashes. Tradition wanted Mother Nature, before being burned, to give the farmers the seeds that they would plant the following spring. This Celtic rite was assimilated by the Romans, who saw the goddess Diana, lady of the moon and vegetation, fly over the fields to propitiate the harvest The figure of the Befana, on the other hand, is not widespread outside Italy, but would refer to the Celtic figure of Perchta, similar to the figures of Frigg in Scandinavia, Holda in northern Europe and Bertha in Great Britain, and would be the female personification of ‘winter. In our country there is the legend of an old lady to whom the Magi would have asked for directions to reach Bethlehem. Once they had been shown the way, the old woman was invited to join the magi to visit the son of God, but she refused. Shortly thereafter, repenting, she prepared a basket of sweets and went looking for the Magi. She began knocking from house to house giving sweets to the children, in the hope that the baby Jesus was among them. bad guys. The broom is the symbol of cleaning from old things, and of purification of the soul. Throughout Italy for the Epiphany traditional dishes are cooked, both sweet and savory, such as the Apulian chests, small clouds of leavened and fried dough served as a dessert (if sugared) or as an appetizer, or the gianca, a Genoese white lasagna , or again the capon, always in Liguria, the stew, with its succulent morsels of meat floured and cooked together with bacon, aromatic herbs and cocoa, all shaded with cognac.

In Tuscany, and in particular in Lucca and Versilia, the Befanini or Befanotti cannot be missing, biscuits that are prepared on January 5 and are used to fill baskets to be placed on the fireplace instead of the classic sock.

The recipe calls for flour, sugar, butter, eggs, yeast, milk, orange zest, a pinch of salt and a small glass of rum. Usually they are made with various shapes, especially for Christmas, and are decorated with colored sugared almonds. The Tenuta del Buonamico offers, in combination with befanotti, its Spumante Dolce Moscato, which will delight you with its freshness. The sparkling process of Spumante Dolce Moscato takes place in an autoclave directly from the must at a constantly controlled temperature where, thanks to selected yeasts, there is an excellent second fermentation. After the 120 days of the sparkling process, there is almost immediate filtration, in order to preserve the natural freshness. Bottling is preceded by a few weeks of aging in an autoclave, and followed by another small aging in the bottle.

The nose is intense and persistent, with hints of muscat grapes, sage, honey, orange blossom, exotic fruit and nutmeg. On the palate it is fresh, soft, floral, with a long taste-olfactory persistence and a fine and elegant perlage. Try it with buttery and aromatic leavened dough desserts such as pandoro and panettone and Easter doves. It is also excellent with sponge cake-based desserts or semifreddos with white/yellow pulp fruit, with cream and sultanas, eggnog, panna cotta, tiramisu and dry pastries. You can also serve it with a cheese platter, for an original and impressive combination. Try the Spumante Dolce Moscato with Befanini and you will be pleasantly surprised. You can find the Befanini recipe at the link below: https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Befanini.html

 
 

Buonamico Shop

Il gusto della Toscana a casa tua

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Buonamico Soc. Agricola Srl - Sede Legale via Provinciale di Montecarlo, 43 55015 Montecarlo - Cod Fisc. E P. Iva 05585560963 - Registro delle imprese di Lucca 05585560963 Cap. Soc. 1.000.000,00 € Int. Vers.