What to eat in Bergamo, Italy (part 3)

Desserts

Bergamo also offers many desserts, and the most famous are:

• Polenta and Osei

It is one of the most representative sweet specialties of Bergamo.

Its main ingredients are: sponge cake, chocolate, butter, hazelnut creams and rum.

It has the shape of a regular, savory polenta and is covered with yellow marzipan, apricot jam and yellow sugar. Little chocolate-covered marzipan birds are then placed on top.

Tourists can find this dessert in many bakeries of the city.

• Stracciatella ice cream

The owner of La Marianna, Enrico Panattoni invented this ice cream in 1961 using Fiordilatte ice cream as a base; he then added irregular pieces of dark chocolate to it and incorporated them with a spatula.

La Marianna is still open in Bergamo and has opened new cafes around the city.

• Biscotti di San Pellegrino or Bigio biscuits

It is a golden-colored and very fragrant shortbread perfect with fruit jams and cocoa creams.

Luigi “Bigio” Milesi from San Pellegrino Terme (Bergamo) invented this biscuit because he wanted to offer treats after his puppets shows. The Bigio restaurant, hotel and cafe is still open in San Pellegrino Terme and attracts many tourists to this day.

• Donizetti Cake

Angelo Balzer, owner of one of Bergamo’s most famous cafes, invented this cake in 1948 to celebrate composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a sponge cake with the shape of a donut and pieces of apricot and candied pineapple.

Its ingredients are: butter, flour, eggs, sugar, candied apricot and pineapple, starch, Maraschino cherry liqueur and vanilla essence. 

References

https://www.donizetti.org/en/visit-bergamo/donizettis-cake/

https://www.visitbergamo.net/en/polenta-e-osei/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stracciatella_(ice_cream)

https://www.bigio.info/en/biscotti_di_san_pellegrino/