When you think of Italian panettone, what do you think of? Just a few weeks ago, when someone said “panettone,” the first thought that came to my head was a large chain store decked out in Christmas decorations and a high stack of big red boxes featuring tall, fruit-looking bread. I’d tasted panettone at Christmas parties, straight from one of those red boxes. It seemed like a quick and fast party contribution which always left me disappointed. I had heard homemade was delicious but never had the chance to try it. The big red box kind did make amazing bread pudding because of the dryness. But believe me, that is not what people should think of when they hear “panettone.”

Il Pioppo, a Dulles-based artisan wine distributor just started selling made-in-Italy panettone. I had a couple of slices of the award-winning Loison pasticerri sweet bread, and it changed my entire American panettone-first-thoughts. Airy, moist, with plump dark red cherries, I couldn’t stop eating it. My 10 sweet loaves arrive this week. No need to turn it into bread pudding, although if I did, it would be dangerous … and then I started thinking, what if I made a panettone frittata? Oh my goodness.

If you go overboard on your panettone ordering this Christmas (especially after you try Loison, like I did) here is an easy recipe for your leftovers from the bakers at Loison:

Panettone

frittata with

vanilla ice cream

(If you don’t have a scale, use the metric conversion chart here.) Ingredients: 175 g milk 80 g sugar 2 eggs 225 g panettone 90 g egg white 50 g sugar

Caramelise 80 g of sugar, pour on the milk and leave to cook until the sugar has melted. Add the panettone cut into cubes and the eggs and stir well.

Beat the egg white with 50 g of sugar and fold into the mixture, stirring slowly from the top down. Pour into a greased tin and bake for about 9 minutes at 160 degrees. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

To order Loison from Il Pioppo, visit http://www.ilpioppo.com.