One thing about Christmas in Sardinia is certain, households will not fall short of food.
That is what Scottish baker Claudio Leoni believes anyway.
Having been born and raised on the island, Claudio relocated to Aberdeen in 2011 after wanting to explore other places in the world.
Being that his wife, Alex, is half Scottish and her grandparents live in the city, it was a simple choice deciding where to uproot to.
But what does the 32-year-old, who runs his own microbakery business known as SourCloud Bakes, miss most about the festive season back home?
The importance of Christmas Eve
“The period is very family orientated in Sardinia,” Claudio said.
“I would say that it is more of a religious celebration and less commercialised, and the main celebration is on Christmas Eve.
“Going to the church at midnight on Christmas Eve was always exciting and we usually opened presents after coming home.”
Christmas in Sardinia also means erecting the Christmas tree on December 8 in honour of Immaculate Conception Day, which celebrates the belief that Mary, mother of Jesus, was preserved from original sin all of her life.
Afterwards, Claudio and his family made su pan’e saba, a sweet bread made with saba which is made by boiling freshly squeezed grapes cooked at high temperatures.
“Where possible, Alex and I have continued with Italian traditions,” he added.
“I think it is important for my children to know where they come from and how we did things in Sardinia, but we have added some British traditions in there, too.”
Christmas in Sardinia
While the main day of celebration differs in Sardinia and Scotland, Claudio explained that one thing remains the same, both countries share the same love of food throughout the season.
“There’s an abundance of food in both places,” he added.
“I would say there are a lot more festive sweets and desserts in Scotland compared to Sardinia, but that’s the only main difference.
“We also have our big feast on Christmas Eve.
“To start, families would have traditional cheeses, breads, Sardinian dried sausage and olives, then a few pasta dishes (usually classic lasagne and culurgiones – a fresh filled pasta with boiled potatoes pecorino cheese and mint shaped like wheat grain).
“Then we would eat the meat dishes – suckling pig with roasted potatoes, lamb with olives, and roasted prawns with garlic and parsley.
“Desserts usually include pandoro (a traditional Italian sweet bread), panettone horse chestnuts and walnuts all finished with a glass of spumante and some mirto a traditional Sardinian liquor.”
Claudio went on to say: “Coratella is also one of the mains festive foods found in Sardinia. I would call it the Sardinian version of Scottish haggis.
“It consists of lamb offal cut roughly into pieces and is cooked on a skewer.”
While the suckling pigs are a firm favourite of Claudio’s during Christmas in Sardinia, he says roast Angus beef and mince pies share the top spot in Scotland.
The talented baker currently produces sourdough breads, croissants, focaccia, chutneys, brownies, Danish pastries and cruffins – a hybrid of a croissant and a muffin – at his microbakery in Bridge of Don.
Chocolate and orange panettone
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
- 150ml warm milk
- 2 tsp dried yeast
- 100g caster sugar
- 3 egg, beaten
- 175g melted butter
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 500g strong white flour
- 150g raisins
- 4tbsp orange juice
- 75g candied peel plus some extra to decorate
- Some melted dark chocolate for decorating
- Oil for greasing
Method
- Put the milk and yeast in a small bowl and whisk together.
- Whisk the sugar and eggs together in a separate bowl until well incorporated and light, then add the melted butter and vanilla extract.
- Place the flour, yeast and milk mixture along with the whisked egg in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and knead for 10 minutes on a low speed.
- Cover and leave to rise until double in size (around two to three hours).
- Soak raisins in the orange juice during this time.
- Grease a 18cm deep cake tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.
- Tip the dough onto a floured surface, mix in the soaked raisins and candied peel and knead for 5 minutes, the dough should be soft and sticky.
- Roll the dough into a ball and place into the tin, cover and leave it to rise until double the size.
- Preheat the oven to 180C Fan/200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
- Brush the top of the panettone with a beaten egg.
- Bake for 45minutes or until golden brown.
- Once cooled down decorate with melted dark chocolate and some candied peel.