Colomba (Italian Easter Cake)

Colomba pasquale is a naturally leavened sweet bread made from strong flour, butter, egg yolks, sugar, candied orange peel and a mature sourdough starter. It is baked in a paper mould shaped like a dove with spread wings, under a glaze of ground almonds, sugar and egg white, scattered with whole almonds and pearl sugar.

It belongs to the same family as panettone: same starter, same multi-stage dough, same thirty-odd hours of fermentation. The differences are the shape, the crunchy almond crust, and the fruit: colomba takes candied citrus only, never raisins.

Italian law defines the word. A 2005 ministerial decree sets minimum standards for anything sold as colomba: natural sourdough leavening, at least 16 per cent butter, at least 20 per cent candied citrus peel and at least 4 per cent egg yolk. Products below those thresholds are legal, but have to be sold under a different name.

Buttery and airy, closer to a brioche than to a cake, with long shreds rather than crumbs. The candied orange gives bright, slightly bitter bursts against a background that tastes of butter, egg yolk and a faint sourdough tang.

The top is the counterpoint: a thin almond glaze that bakes into a crackly, macaroon-like shell, with pearl sugar that stays granular and whole almonds that toast. Every slice gets some.

A good artisan colomba is noticeably less sweet than people expect and noticeably more perfumed. A cheap one is the reverse: sweeter, softer, and vanilla-scented, because vanilla flavouring is what fills the gap left by a short fermentation.

Serve it at room temperature, cut in thick slices from the centre outwards so the wings stay intact. If the room is cold, warm the whole cake for ten minutes in an oven that has been switched off at around 40 C, which re-melts the butter and brings the crumb back.

Day-old slices are excellent fried briefly in butter, like pain perdu. Older ones make the best possible base for a trifle: soak them in Alchermes or Marsala and layer with pastry cream.

The standard Italian Easter accompaniment is mascarpone cream: 250 g mascarpone whipped with two egg yolks, 60 g sugar and a spoon of Marsala, for four to six people. Lightly sweetened whipped cream or plain vanilla ice cream work just as well.

Do not refrigerate leftovers. Seal the bag and leave it on the counter, or freeze slices in a double bag for up to three months.

In its sealed bag an industrial colomba is dated as far out as six months; an artisan one, made without preservatives, is generally given thirty or forty days. That printed date comes from the producer and is the reference point. What happens over time is drying: the crumb gives up moisture, the strands stiffen, and the butter and citrus aroma fades.

Once open, close the bag tightly or wrap the cake in film, and keep it at room temperature out of sunlight. Not the fridge, where the cold speeds up starch retrogradation and within two days the crumb turns dry and chalky.

It freezes well, whole or sliced, double bagged, for about three months. Thaw at room temperature and give it five minutes in an oven at 50°C (120°F) to loosen the crumb. Once it has firmed up after several days it stops being a cake you slice and becomes an ingredient: griddled in a pan with butter, or soaked into a spoon dessert.

The first check is on the label and takes ten seconds. Lievito madre or sourdough starter should be listed; if the only leavening is baker's yeast, the rise was accelerated. Butter should be butter rather than margarine or vegetable oil, flavourings should be natural, and the candied fruit should be orange rather than generic mixed peel.

Cut it and the holes should be elongated and irregular, running in the direction the dough grew, with a crumb that is yellow and moist. A tight, even structure like an industrial brioche means a short prove. A piece torn off should come away in strands, not crumbs. The glaze should be thin and slightly cracked, since cracking is normal and a good sign, and the almonds on top whole and pale rather than broken and dark.

Against the panettone sitting beside it in the same shops, a colomba is dove-shaped, finished with an almond and sugar glaze, and carries candied orange with no raisins. It should smell of butter and citrus; heavy vanilla usually covers for what the dough lacks.

Colomba appears in Italian shops from early March and disappears within days of Easter Monday. Abroad, Italian delis, Eataly and the seasonal aisles of larger supermarkets carry it for roughly the same window.

Prices split into three bands. Industrial 750 g boxes cost 4 to 9 euro in Italy, 12 to 20 dollars in the US and 8 to 18 pounds in the UK. Semi-artisan versions with real butter and sourdough run 12 to 20 euro per kilo. Artisan colombe from named bakers start around 25 euro per kilo and reach 45 to 55, with limited editions above that.

Read the label before the price. You want lievito madre or pasta acida, butter rather than vegetable fat or margarine, and candied orange peel rather than unspecified candied fruit. If vanilla flavouring leads the aroma list, the fermentation was short.

Artisan bakeries take pre-orders and close them a week or two before Easter. Order early or accept what is left.

Milan is the origin and still the best hunting ground: historic pasticcerie in the centre and a scattering of specialist bakers across the neighbourhoods, several of whom run tastings in the weeks before Easter.

Verona is the industrial capital of Italian festive baking, since the big groups are based there, and also has good independent pastry shops.

The wider belt across Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto holds most of Italy's respected leavened-dough bakers, though there are now serious ones in Campania and Sicily too, often working with local citrus for their own candied peel.

If you are in Italy at Easter, the most reliable move is to walk into any well-regarded pasticceria on Holy Thursday and buy whatever is left. By Saturday, the good ones are gone.