Christmas dinner fruits, chocolate, raisins, and/or pine nuts, known as panettone, followed by "torrone" (enriched with cherries, chocolate, sweets and more), nougat and nuts. In Southern Italy instead of one cake they serve many kinds of marzipan, biscuits, zeppole, cannoli, candied fruits, and fresh fruits. In the last few decades, panettone has become popular as a Christmas sweet all over Italy. Pandoro is also a very popular cake at Christmas and New Year, accompanied by a good Champagne. One typical Dutch tradition is that of 'gourmet,' an evening-long event where small groups of people sit together around a gourmet-set and use their
Christmas dinner soup made with pasta (usually filled pasta, like tortellini) boiled in meat or capon broth. The secondo is very different in the two areas. In Northern Italy they usually eat poultry, often filled, or roasted or boiled and seasoned with sauces, like mostarda. In Southern Italy they eat the fried "capitone" eel, which is typical of Christmas Eve, because this is a fasting day. On Christmas Day they could eat roast lamb or fish.<br> Christmas sweets are very varied and every region and sub region has its own. Generally speaking, in Northern Italy they eat a cake enriched with candied