Italian easter recipes: sweet bread "pagnotta" from Romagna

Sarsina, in the province of Forlì-Cesena, is an Italian town famous for Latin writer Tito Maccio Plauto, but also for the Italian easter tradition of the “pagnotta”.
This sweet bread is one of the most well known in the region.

Ingredients: 2 kg of flour, 1 kg of leavened bread flour, 700 g of sugar, 150 g of lard, 10 eggs, three grated lemon rinds, one tablespoon of beer yeast, sultanas, two vanilla sachets and salt.

Method: create a crater of flour and one by one add the ingredients, working energetically with both hands until you get a smooth mixture.

Leave to rise for a few hours, covered with a cloth.
In times gone by, the mixture was left to rise first under a cloth and then on the coals of a stove called the “prete” or priest.
After rising, place in an adequate tin, pass a brush dipped in beaten eggs over the surface and mark a cross on the top.

Bake at 200°C for about an hour until a crunchy golden crust forms.