Pinza (dessert)

Pinza, also called pinsa in the Venetian language or putàna, is a dessert flan from the Veneto region of Italy. The recipe differs from place to place, but it is built from peasant ingredients that are richer today than they once were: white flour and yellow flour, yeast, sugar and milk, enriched with pine nuts, dried figs, raisins, fennel seeds and grappa. It is traditionally eaten with red wine, especially fragolino or mulled wine. The cake can grow to a meter across and is usually served over the Christmas holidays and above all at Epiphany, when it is baked near the bonfires that mark the start of the year. The name is thought to share its origin with the word pizza, and other Italian desserts such as the pinza bolognese and pinza triestina are different dishes that merely share the name.