This is a preview of the content in our Italian Food Decoder app. Get the app to:
  • Read offline
  • Remove ads
  • Access all content
  • Build a list of your own favourites
  • Search the contents with full-text search functionality
  • ... and more!
iOS App Store Google Play

biscione

viper-shaped Christmas cake

A viper is a biscia, and this big one, or biscione, is a Christmas speciality of Reggio Emilia, made from almonds, sugar, egg whites and Sassolino, then topped with a meringue and canditi to make the face.

Why a snake for Christmas? Apparently a local pastry shop, the Pasticceria Nazzani in Reggio Emilia, made it one year and it just caught on. It is a play on the name of a similar Northern Italian sweet known in Milan (bissòlo), Vercelli (bissolano), Piacenza (bisolàn), Parma (busilàn), and Venice (bossolà).

Also known as biscione reggiano or biscione natalizio.

In Umbria, they make a similar spiral-shaped Christmas cake called a torciglione that resembles an eel.

Desserts and pastries

Emilia-Romagna

Lombardy

Text © Dana Facaros & Michael Pauls

Image by travel carnet