The SPONGATA: A journey through Etruscan, Jewish and Roman traditions

Tasting this dessert, much more than a simple cake, gives us truly authentic and extraordinary sensations: a combination of flavors and ingredients that, expertly combined, manage to enhance each other, creating a mix of sweet and slightly spicy flavors evoking the nature of the Mediterranean, of candied fruit, almonds, honey, citron and raisins, all gently placed in a thin casing of fragrant shortcrust pastry.

INGREDIENTS: almonds, pine nuts, walnut kernels, pine nuts, dry biscuits, candied citron and orange peel, raisins, honey, good quality dry white wine, ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg, wheat flour, sugar, butter, salt .

TYPICAL EMILIAN CHRISTMAS CAKE. It is a dessert widespread between Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Modena, La Spezia and Massa-Carrara, but its origins are very ancient. It is believed that it was one of the first traditional dishes of our territory since it seems to have originated in the time of the Etruscans or even come from the Jewish tradition of the Roman period.

It requires one of the longest preparation times in pastry making: at least three weeks are needed to make it according to tradition and in each family different ingredients are kept secret and passed down from generation to generation.

It is said that in peasant families the dough was made a week before and left to rest in a cool place in the cellar (at that time refrigerators did not yet exist). After this time it was kneaded and cooked. But why exactly seven days before? These were the days Dante spent on his journey from Hell to Paradise, and this is the reason why legend has it that it is considered a heavenly dessert.

THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME. The term SPONGATA seems to derive from the Latin word spungia (sponge) which is certainly linked to the consistency of the filling or to the surface which is pricked before cooking. However, there are those who also derive it from a particular sugar processing from which spongato or rock sugar is obtained which is the one, for example, with which sweet coal is prepared.

The term SPONGATA is mentioned for the first time in the documents of the Abbey of San Colombano di Bobbio, founded in 614 by the Irish saint Colombano. We have confirmation of this in the Diplomatic Code of 1194 of the monastery of Bobbio, in which we find that the monks used to give a “spongia” to whoever brought them the rent at Christmas.

In the year 1088 the Prior of Saint-Quentin de Beauvais established that the cake to be offered at Christmas in monasteries should be called “spongae” . This cake had to be special compared to all the other gingerbreads or panfortes that by now throughout Europe, including Italy, had become the prerogative not only of monasteries, thus becoming something more than a simple Christmas cake.

ETRUSCAN OR JEWISH CAKE? Looking for the origins among ancient dishes with similar doughs, we find an Etruscan dessert that was very popular at the time. It is a cake filled with honey, pine nuts, raisins and spices, closed between two layers of flour. Honey was a very deep-rooted custom among the Etruscans with which they used to sweeten their wine, not of the highest quality, together with barley. In fact, it is known that the Etruscans suffered from pyorrhea and paradentosis, ailments caused by a diet with foods with a high sugar content.

It is now well established that in Roman times a spicy dessert similar to SPONGATA was already widespread, so much so that in the past the paternity of the dish was attributed to them. But more precisely, the ingredients that compose it suggest an origin of the Jewish tradition in Roman times. Very accredited hypotheses, in fact, would find its origin in Haroseth, a cream based on fresh and dried fruit, traditional of the Jewish holiday of Purim, subsequently spread throughout the Emilian territory thanks to the migrations of Jewish populations fleeing from Spain. One of the most conspicuous Jewish communities in the surroundings of Parma had settled precisely in the territory between Soragna and Busseto, and it is precisely here that the traditional SPONGATA originated (Angelo Muggia ).

THE STORY OF FRANCESCO SFORZA . The first written testimony on SPONGATA dates back to the 15th century and is a letter written in 1454 by the General of Parma for Francesco Sforza, the Duke of Milan. The General had sent the Duke a series of gifts, including SPONGATA , at the time considered a propitiatory food.

It was only the beginning of the success of this dessert which soon reached other illustrious palates such as those of the Magnificent Borso d'Este, the Abbess Eleonora D'Este, the Dukes of Ferrara and, in more recent times, the Maestro Giuseppe Verdi.

TODAY. The SPONGATE par excellence produced on an industrial scale but according to traditional historical recipes are essentially two:

SPONGATA Angelo Muggia . In his pastry shop in Busseto , Angelo d'Israele Muggia (of clear Jewish origins), in 1867 developed the recipe for this special shortcrust pastry filled with honey, almonds, pine nuts, candied fruit, citron and raisins. Since then, the original recipe has remained almost unchanged with all the spicy fragrance of a historic and prized dessert, and in the second half of the 19th century, he prepared it for Villa Sant'Agata, the home of Giuseppe Verdi.

SPONGATA Luigi Benelli di Brescello . The first written document that speaks of the SPONGATA "De Berselo" sent to Francesco Sforza, Lord of Milan, dates back to 1454. From the registers of the Masserie Estensi we learn that the SPONGATA , from Brescello were also sent to the Dukes of Este in Ferrara.

The oldest recipe for this product dates back to the Benedictine monastery, which already existed in Brescello at that time. In an ancient "book of expenses" of this monastery, in fact, the expenses incurred for the purchase of a list of ingredients with a great similarity to those of SPONGATA Luigi Benelli, produced since 1863 and officially distributed nationwide since 1868, are recorded.

SPONGATA di Corniglio . While it is a fact that the production/sale of SPONGATA on an industrial scale is almost exclusively attributable to the two mentioned above, we cannot forget that throughout the Val Parma area there are small artisan workshops that every winter are activated for a very limited production according to ancient family recipes handed down from parents to children who preserve a “know-how” that cannot be mechanically reproduced by machines: one of the best known of these workshops is located in Corniglio .