A sweet, snail-shaped bread is the stuff of this Italian chef's dreams

Italian-Australian chef Marco Dazzan can't imagine Easter without gubana.

Italian gubana is a sweet leavened cake you'll want to try for Easter. Source: Supplied

For Melbourne-based chef, Marco Dazzan, Easter feasts are some of the best meals of the year. 

"For us, [Easter] is four days of gatherings, starting with a Good Friday lunch, which leads into dinner, which is all seafood based," says Dazzan, who currently leads the team at restaurant and wine bar, Via Torino in Toorak, Melbourne.  

The Dazzan family's Easter spread continues into the weekend where Saturday features brodetto, a traditional fish soup from the Dazzans' place of origin – the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, located by the Adriatic Sea. 

"Depending on the gatherings, our menu changes slightly, but as you know, brodetto is always served. My aunty Mara is a great cook and she spoils us with other seafood canapes like smoked trout, eel on the spit, polenta taragna, grilled scallops and white local razor clams served hot off the grill," Dazzan explains.

The family also eats baccala mantecato and baccala alla vicentina.

"My mum is absolutely the queen of baccala alla vicentina. Our menu depends on what we can catch, but I always pray to get a few turbots to serve alongside sea bass, which we call branzino." 

They also like to eat bread during this occasion. "Prosciutto in crosta in Trieste dialect...is called 'parsuto in crosta de pan' , and it is a typical dish in the Venezia-Giulia area of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where I am from," he explains. 

Prosciutto in crosta is a big cooked and cured ham that's baked in a leavened dough. 

"I remember the first time I saw it, I was walking past a small delicatessen and was hit by an image of a giant bread placed on top of a prosciutto stand. I fell in love with it on that day ."

However, Dazzan doesn't make it at home because it's a difficult recipe. Instead, he makes another bread dish called gubana.

"Wow, I have goosebumps [when I think of gubana]," says Dazzan.

Gubana is a leavened cake from Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It's served during special occasions, such as Christmas and Easter. It comes from the Natisone Valleys, a region bordering Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea. Some say the cake was made by a grandma who wanted to feed her family with the ingredients she had on hand: honey, nuts, eggs and flour.

Dazzan says that when he was growing up, his family used to eat gubana outside of Easter too. "Gubana recalls many memories and mostly emotions of my childhood, and for me, represents family time that is timeless," he says.

"We had our fireplace burning to warm our house up. Gubana was always on the table, made by my nonna, and I remember the smell of the fire, as well as the gubana."

Wow, I have goosebumps.

He watched his mum knead the gubana dough and crush walnuts. She then wound the dough into a snail shape and baked it in the oven.

Dazzan emphasises it's important to use quality ingredients. "We used strong baking flour directly from the local mill and all the nuts were sourced from farms in our town." 

Like all great Italian desserts, it needs liquor. "Grappa is almost essential, even if the quantity used [in the cake] is just a shot in total. The grappa gives the characteristic aroma unique to gubana." 

You shouldn't use too much, just enough to bring out the nuts, spices and citrus. "You can use any grappa you have on hand, my nonno made his own grappa, but I like to use Sgnape dal Checo, which is an historical grappa from Aquileia. My nonno's grappa was good but not as good as the ones from Aquileia." 

Much like hot cross buns in Australia, there are variations. "Even the most traditional pastry shops blend different flavours and offer a big choice of variety to the public."

However, he prefers the traditional version. "I don't blame you if you pick a dark-chocolate flavoured one. But how can you not love the soft brioche-like dough perfectly cooked in the oven with the rich nutty and aromatic filling aromatics filling your house? It is like a warm blanket on your shoulder." 

During Easter, he eats it for breakfast, lunch and dinner with a glass of milk. 

"I remember my mum telling me to always stop eating as I had already had enough of it, and that I should leave some for my brother too.

"It is so hard to explain with words sometimes because gubana is so unique in flavours and aromas that you really have to taste it to understand what I am talking about." 

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Marco Dazzan's gubana

Serves 8-10

Ingredients 

For the filling 

• 250 g walnuts 
• 60 g almonds 
• 120 g pine nuts 
• 120 g sultanas 
• 2 whole eggs  
• 50 g butter 
• 50 g breadcrumbs 
• 100 ml marsala 
• 20 ml grappa 
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 orange 

Dough

First dough 

• 250 g 00 flour
• 185 mL water 
• 18.5 g fresh yeast 

Second dough 

• 1 kg 00 flour 
• 15 ml grappa (you can substitute grappa with cognac or whisky) 
• 42 g fresh yeast
• A little water (to dissolve yeast) 
• 4 whole eggs 
• 2 yolks 
• 20 g salt 
• 175 g butter unsalted (warm it to around 50°C) 
• 250 g sugar 
• 25 ml vegetable oil  

Method 

Filling 

1. Roughly crush the nuts with a mortar and pestle. Toast them in butter in a clean pan over low heat. Set aside.
2. When nuts are cool, add the remaining ingredients – except the egg whites.
3. Whip the white eggs until firm then gently add them to the mix. The mixture should be moist but not watery.

Dough

First dough

1. Mix the water and yeast at room temperature before adding the flour one spoonful at a time. Knead for 15 minutes to develop the gluten.
2. Cover and rest for 1 hour.

Second dough

1. Add the eggs, yeast, sugar and flour to the first dough. Knead together. 
2. Add salt, then oil and butter, while mixing continuously. 
3. If the dough is too firm, add water. 
4. Let the dough rest for 2 hours.

Assembling the gubana

1. Roll the dough into a rectangular shape that's 0.5 cm thick.
2. Spread the filling across the dough, leaving about a 1-2cm from the edge. Roll it into a cylinder (log) shape. 
3. Grease a round cake tin with butter and sprinkle flour over it to prevent sticking.
4. Place the end of the log in the middle of the mold and spiral it into a snail shape.
5. Let it rest for 30-45 minutes. 
6. Brush egg yolk on the top, and sprinkle it with some sugar. 
7. Cook for 60 minutes at 170°C. Because every oven is different, check it at the 45-minute mark.
8. Let it rest for 30 minutes before slicing and serving it. It is best served warm with milk or grappa.