is a traditional Italian fruit bread. It is baked in a wood-fired oven and is eaten at about the time of I Santi on 1 November and I Morti on the following day. It is a speciality of

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

and the

Maremma The Maremma (, ; from Latin , "maritime and) is a coastal area of western central Italy, bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea. It includes much of south-western Tuscany and part of northern Lazio. It was formerly mostly marshland, often malarial, but ...

, and is among the products of

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

with

prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale ''Prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale'' (PAT) is an official approval for traditional Italian regional food products similar to the Protected Geographical Status of the European Union. A list of approved products is published by the Ministry of ...

status.

History

Pane coi santi is a traditional Italian regional product, strongly associated both with the city of

and with the feast of I Santi on 1 November and I Morti on the following day.

George Gissing George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include ''The Nether World'' (1889), ''New Grub ...

wrote in his diary for 1 November 1897: "At Siena (and here only) they eat to-day a kind of very plain plum-cake called ''Pane coi santi''".

Preparation

The traditional ingredients are flour,

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...

raisin A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word ''raisin'' is reserved for the d ...

s and

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

s. Other ingredients may include

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

pine kernel Pine nuts, also called piñón (), pinoli (), pignoli or chilgoza (), are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus''). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are trade ...

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

s and

date Date or dates may refer to: *Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner **Group dating *Play date, an ...

s. The flour is used to make a

leavened Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made food ...

bread dough, into which the other ingredients are then mixed. It is then formed into a low round or oval loaf and baked in a wood-fired oven. The result is fragrant, of a moderately dark brown, and fairly soft.

References

{{reflist, refs= Grazietta Butazzi, Tino Buazzelli (1988). ''Toscana in bocca''. Palermo: La Nuova Edrisi. {{isbn, 9788878090118. Luigi Cremona (2004)
''L'Italia dei dolci''
(in Italian). Milan: Touring Club Italiano. {{isbn, 9788836529315. Gino Cervi, Monica Maraschi (2005)
''Authentic Tuscany''
Milan: Touring Club Italiano. {{isbn, 9788836532971. George Gissing, Pierre Coustillas (editor) (1978
''London and the Life of Literature in Late Victorian England: The Diary of George Gissing, Novelist''
Hassocks: Harvester Press. {{isbn, 9780855277499. Allegato al decreto PAT 2019
(in Italian). Ministero delle politiche agricole alimentari, forestali e del turismo. Accessed November 2021. Giuseppe Rigutini, Pietro Fanfani (1864)
''Giunte ed osservazioni al Vocabolario dell'uso toscano''
(in Italian). Firenze: Cellini e C. Michele Scicolone (1993)
''La Dolce Vita''
New York: W. Morrow. {{isbn, 9780688111496 sweet breads Italian breads Cuisine of Tuscany