Pampepato di Ferrara is a dessert with a very special past, seasoned with a dash of great history and fragrant spices and where pepper has nothing to do with it. In the 1600s, the nuns of the Corpus Christi Monastery of Ferrara, drawing inspiration from an ancient recipe of the great Renaissance cook Cristoforo da Messisbugo, created a dessert to send to the great personalities of the time. Cocoa, newly arrived in Europe in the hands of Cortes, was a luxury good, destined for the few and is added as if it were a jewel, precious powder.

Shaped like a zuccotto, it is embellished with the finest almonds or hazelnuts, tasty candied fruit, and is flavored with fragrant spices; finally, the shell is covered with dark chocolate. Thus the rich cake becomes the Pan del Papa. Easy to understand to whom this marvel was dedicated! An ancient, poetic and lost language turns it into Pampapato and Pampepato. For centuries the two names have coexisted and the substance does not change.

It is the dessert of Christmas, of the holidays, it is the dessert that best represents the richness and refinement of Ferrara. It is the dessert that with its intense taste and delicious aroma recalls the tradition of a land of many tales and flavors.