Back when I worked in the camping holiday industry on Lake Garda, I discovered the wonders of pasticcini, a seemingly endless variety of tiny Italian cakes, typically enjoyed alongside a delicious, frothy cappuccino. I now consider a cake breakfast an essential part of any Italian holiday!
This winter, Giordano and I went on a special mission to Brescia to try some of the best cakes Italy has to offer, at Pasticceria Veneto in the city centre. It was also our first ever visit to Brescia and we had a great time exploring the city!
Pasticceria Veneto was opened in 1971 by Iginio Massari, a famous pastry chef who has appeared on many different cake-related TV programmes in Italy in recent years. I first heard of his work in winter 2019 via a programme called Artisti del Panettone, centered around the famous cake traditionally enjoyed in Italy around Christmas time. His pasticceria has been voted the best in Italy multiple times, and we couldn’t wait to find out exactly why.
To begin with, we were both completely blown away by how beautiful the cakes were, and the choice on offer. Just look at that display!
We eventually narrowed it down to three monoporzioni – small individual cakes that can be comfortably enjoyed by one person (depending on your appetite!).
I have a mild obsession with pistachio cream. It’s almost impossible to find it in the UK, so I tend to enjoy as much of it as possible when I visit Italy! For this reason, we decided to start with a torta al pistacchio.
It had layers of pistachio mousse, sponge, cream and biscuit, and it was heavenly. Check out my “I can’t believe I’m eating this” face in the photo below!
Our second monoporzione combined my love of pistachio cream and Giordano’s love of strawberries. Mixing pistachio sponge, fresh cream, fresh strawberries, pistachios and topped with a strawberry glaze, it was beautiful in every sense.
Giordano’s favourite was the delicious torta di fragole. It’s made with fresh strawberries, sponge and lemon and topped with a little lemon zest.
We also couldn’t leave without trying the tiramisù. In my opinion it was great – a perfect balance of delicate sponge and cream, with a tiny layer of proper dark chocolate at the base – but Giordano’s version is still the best!
Finally, the cappuccino is magnificent. It also comes with a tiny square of dark chocolate on the top, which makes the coffee extra delicious once everything is mixed together!
We now have a copy of Iginio Massari’s book, Il Lato Dolce (The Sweet Side), and one of our next projects is to create more delicious desserts for our restaurant at the Harewood Arms. Look out for some more additions to our menu in the near future!
A presto!
Laura
Oh my god these look amazing. Pistachio cream sounds delicious.
Pistachio cream is one of my favourite things in the world! We’d like to add more of that to the restaurant menu soon 😊 – Laura x