Colomba di Pasqua

It’s Easter season, and that means if you’ve stopped by either of our retail locations, you’ve no doubt seen Colomba di Pasqua on the shelves. It’s a traditional Italian bread baked and served for Easter. 

If you’ve had panettone before, then you’re more familiar with colomba di pasqua than you might think. The two breads are very similar. While panettone usually has candied fruits and raisins in it, colomba contains citrus peels. Panettone is also baked into a dome shape and colomba is baked in a dove shaped mold. In fact, 'Colomba di Pasqua' translates into “Easter dove”. The dove is a delicate bird and a symbol of love and peace, an obvious theme of the springtime holiday. 

Colomba di Pasqua dough in the molds before baking.

Just like its Christmas counterpart, what makes Colomba so unique is that while it technically is a bread, it has the look of a cake. It is prepared and baked like bread though. One thing that makes colomba special is the domed top. If you’ve seen our bakery during Easter season, the Colomba needs to hang upside down as it cools, otherwise the delicate bread will collapse in on itself.

Click to see a video of our Colomba 'hanging out' at the Mayfair Bakery

Depending on who you ask, some will top their colomba with chocolate, while purists may scoff at the notion of messing with tradition. However you choose to eat it, we're happy you've been able to get something special for the holiday.

While we still may not be able to enjoy the holidays as we normally would, it’s important to remember what they represent. Easter, and Spring in general are a time of celebration, peace and rebirth. When you take a bite of Colomba, hopefully you can taste the joy of Spring and the love we put into each loaf.