Buona Pasqua (Happy Easter)

Handcrafted ceramic egg. 

Buona Pasqua is the greeting I've heard in the streets and shops throughout Lucca in the past few days. Easter is celebrated in a variety of ways in Italy; the traditions are religious, cultural, and culinary. As in the United States you will find colored eggs and chocolate treats - but in Italy there is no Easter bunny or egg hunt tradition. This year I was able to experience an Italian Easter first hand and cook a pranzo di Pasqua (Easter lunch) with friends here in Lucca.

Shop window, Lucca.

The first signs of Easter appeared in the shop windows - especially the local chocolate shops, which have had dazzling displays of Easter confections. This is Easter candy at it's artisanal best! The displays included everything from small chocolate eggs to white, milk, and dark chocolate bunnies, lambs, and hens.

There are also huge chocolate eggs, most filled with small toys. Most of the Easter chocolates are wrapped in shiny foil, colorful paper, cellophane or packaged in pretty boxes. Pop into one of these shops and you are sure to be tempted with a sample!

Artisanal chocolate Easter treats.

The pastry shops compete with a display of their own, including traditional Colomba cakes shaped like doves, glazed chocolate cakes with Easter messages, and beautiful tarts ready for the Easter meal.

I also found delicate ceramic decorated eggs at a street fair, beautiful porcelain eggs, and stuffed bunnies and lambs in shop windows. 

Porcelain eggs. 

Easter in Italy isn't all about eggs and chocolates. It's an important religious holiday (second only to Christmas).

Basilica of San Frediano, Lucca, ready for the Easter service.

Many Italians observe quaresima (Lent) in the 40 days before Easter, carry the traditional bunches of olive branches on Palm Sunday, attend mass on Holy Thursday, and participate in an ancient and moving ceremony on Good Friday. In this ceremony, which represents the crucifixion, black-robed and barefoot members of the Misericordia (a volunteer religious and civil organization) move through the streets of Lucca in a procession, carrying a large wooden crucifix and stopping in small squares and churches to chant prayers. 

The procession begins in daylight but continues after dark as local worshippers carry candles to light the route through which the crucifix travels. 

Candlelight Good Friday Procession.         Photo courtesy of Eva Fritzsche.

Pasquetta, or Easter Monday, is a national holiday and a perfect time for drives and picnics in the country or an extra day of relaxation. I think Pasquetta is a tradition I should bring back home!

                                                                       - post by JB

An Easter toast from Lucca, Italy

April 1 - A Day for Gardening and a Dinner Time Surprise

Before going any further, I should apologize to my friends back home who were hit with an April Fool's Day snowstorm. Mi dispiace (I'm sorry)!  Here in Lucca, April 1 was a clear, warm, sunny day.  No scherzo (joke). It is a day for spring gardening to begin in earnest, starting with the Verdemura garden show.

This annual event takes place along the northern section of the wall surrounding Lucca. Strolling through the many booths and exhibits it is possible to see a huge variety of colorful plants, and also to look out on views both inside the wall and out toward the hills surrounding Lucca. In other words, there is beauty in every direction as far as the eye can see. 

The Lucchese bring wagon-like carts to Verdemura and use them to carry home larger bushes, vines, or trees. Wisteria (glicine in Italian), viburnum, hydrangea, lemon and orange trees, lavender, and grape vines were in abundance.

Eye-catching flowers - orchids, peonies, camellias, pink dianthus, alstroemerias, and even an exotic Mano di Buddha (Hand of Buddha) with its striking yellow fruit were on display, along with a variety of bulbs and sedums. There were booths with herbs and others with garden vegetables, including a remarkable assortment of tomato plants. Oh to have a kitchen garden here!

There was truly something for everyone at Verdemura, young and old, green thumb or not. Children were entertained by the whimsical garden art, the oversize tic tac toe and domino games, and the seemingly magic balancing toys.

Serious gardeners found tools and even small tractors alongside the plants. I was entertained by the basket weavers, the maker of the painted wooden birdhouses, the cheese and wine vendors, the produce markets, and the many booths selling delicate scarves, ceramic dishes, essential oils, spices, and teas.

After spending the morning at Verdemura I had already proclaimed this a perfect day. And then - an April 1st treat - the dinner time reappearance of risotto alla faraona on the menu at Gigi Trattoria. Delicately seasoned with thyme and just a hint of rosemary, studded with tender pieces of Guinea fowl (faraona), steaming hot and oh so very delicious. If you've followed my risotto saga you know that I've spent a year longing for this dish. I have to say it was worth the wait!

Sunday in Lucca

If there is one thing you can count on it's this - if it's Sunday in Italy, the sound of church bells will fill the air. It's an enchanting sound, and walking through the quiet city on my first Sunday morning back in Italy, it established a perfect sense of time and place for me. Today is Sunday and I am in Lucca.

Sunday is also a good day to visit churches. And for such a small city, Lucca has A LOT of churches filled with architectural, artistic, and religious interest.

Santa Maria della Rosa church  

One very special church is Santa Maria della Rosa, which happens to be right across from my apartment. One side of this small church is built up against the original Roman wall of the city and the church is one of the few places in Lucca where the oldest wall can be seen (the current wall that  surrounds Lucca is from the Renaissance period).

A section of the Roman wall, built circa 200 BC, lies within the church. 

The church is intimate and shadowy with beautiful frescos and a serene vibe that is perfect for prayer, meditation, contemplation or just deep breaths and a pause from the outside world. Tourists rarely wander into this church, so it remains quiet. There is a beautiful painting of a Madonna holding three pink roses over the main altar. As with most of the churches here it is possible to take photographs, but only "senza flash"  (without flash).

Just one of the beautiful frescoes inside the church of Santa Maria della Rosa. 

If it happens to be the fourth Sunday of the month you can also count on finding an arts and crafts fair in the area surrounding Piazza San Giusto.

On this Sunday, the piazza was filled with merchants selling artisanal soaps, beautiful hand-painted pins and jewelry, brightly colored wooden tops that spin and nearly hypnotize, papercrafts, leather goods, woven scarves, brightly colored ceramics, paintings, and even art pieces made completely from painted sassi (stones). Wandering through all these beautiful things is a wonderful Sunday morning pastime.

Hand-painted terra cotta pins

Brightly colored spinning tops

Hand-made scented soaps

Sunday afternoon brought rain showers and chilly weather, a perfect excuse to put the Moka on the stove, sip a cup of coffee, read, and have a little pisolino (nap). I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday in Italy!                                                           -post by JMB

Paper crafts

Pane di Pasqua

Easter is right around the corner. One of the traditions in my family is the making of Italian Easter bread. I don’t know if this is a straight-from-the-old-country recipe or more of an Italian-American invention but Carmella, an Italian friend of my parents, brought us a loaf every year when I was growing up. She would arrive with a freshly baked loaf that was as beautiful as it was tasty – slightly sweet, eggy, braided, and studded with colored Easter eggs. It was one of my favorite Easter treats, far outshining any chocolate bunny.  How I missed this bread when I moved away from home. Luckily, Carmella shared her recipe and I began making it myself many years ago. Today, it’s still one of my favorites, as well as a favorite of my children and grandchildren.

There are many variations of this bread, some flavored with anise, some with citrus, some glazed and topped with sugars or fruit, but Carmella’s recipe remains my favorite. Her original recipe made four big loaves. I've cut it in half to make two nice size loaves. 

The bread is braided and can be left straight or twisted into a ring. Brightly colored eggs are traditionally tucked into the braids; when I want something a little more special I use a natural onion skin dye and create a leaf design on the eggs. Since I will be spending Easter in Italy this year, away from my family, I decided to make an early batch of Easter bread for a Sunday brunch before I headed off to Italy. Doesn't it make a pretty centerpiece for my table?

Below is the recipe for the bread and the instructions for the onion skin dyed eggs. If you enjoy this recipe, please say grazie mille (thanks a lot) to Carmella!                                          post by JMB

Carmella’s Italian Easter Bread (Pane di Pasqua)

• ½ cup whole milk, scalded
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup warm water
• 2 packages dry yeast
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 6 cups sifted flour, divided
• 4-6 dyed eggs

Directions:

• Add sugar, salt, and butter to scalded mix; mix to dissolve sugar and melt butter. Cool to room temperature.
• Put the water into a large, warmed bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top and mix to dissolve.
• Add cooled milk mixture to water and yeast.
• Add the beaten eggs, mixing to combine well.
• Add 2 cups of flour; beat until smooth. Add remaining flour or enough to make a soft dough.
• Turn dough onto floured board and knead until smooth and elastic; add more flour if dough is too sticky.
• Put dough in an oiled bowl, turn over so that both sides are lightly oiled. Cover with a towel; let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 1½ hours (until doubled in size).
• Turn onto board and knead again until smooth and elastic.
• Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Shape each into a 1-inch thick rope (should be about 13 inches long).
• Working on a greased baking sheet, braid 2 strands, making 2 or 3 twists and pinching ends to seal.
• Tuck a dyed egg into each twist of the braid. Repeat with remaining strands to make a second loaf. Use a separate baking sheet for each loaf or a sheet large enough for both loaves to rise during baking without touching.
• Brush shaped loaves with melted butter.
• Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 1 hour (until doubled in size).
• Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, turning pan once in the middle. Tops should be golden brown when done.
• Cool on wire rack. May make one day ahead of serving, wrap well in plastic wrap once completely cooled.

strands ready to braid

shaped loaves

Finished loaves

Natural Onion Skin Dyed Eggs

ready to dye eggs

• Fill a medium size pot with the dried outer skins of yellow onions (these can be scavenged from the onion bin at the grocery store; may combine 2/3 yellow with 1/3 red skins if you like). The amount isn’t critical - the more skins used, the darker the color. I generally fill one of the plastic bags meant for vegetables, loosely packed to color a dozen or so eggs.
• Cover onion skins with water. Add 1-2 tablespoons of white vinegar.
• Add eggs to the cold water / onion skin mix.   Bring to boil and simmer 15- 20 minutes.
• For even fancier eggs (pictured): take a piece of stocking, lay a leaf from a carrot top on the stocking and then place a raw egg on top. Pull the stocking tightly around the egg, making sure the carrot leaf is spread out nicely. Tie the stocking with kitchen string.  
• Put the wrapped eggs into the cold water, onion skin mix, bring to a boil, simmer 15 – 20 minutes until desired color is achieved.
• Set aside until cool.

wrapped egg

wrapped eggs in onion skin dye

beautiful dyed eggs

Italy on the Big Screen

When I can’t escape to Italy, I like to escape for a couple of hours into an Italian film. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s an America-made film set in Italy (“Roman Holiday,” anyone?) or an Italian-made movie set during World War II (“Life is Beautiful,” perhaps?). It’s the ability to escape into my favorite other world of Italy that does the trick. (An added bonus with Italian-made films is that I can practice my language skills – if I don’t peek too often at the subtitles.)

The colors of the Italian flag shine on the stage during this week's Italian Film Festival in Albuquerque.

In Albuquerque, we are extremely fortunate because every year we have the Italian Film Festival, put on by the Italian Festivals of New Mexico. The festival is a weeklong celebration of Italian film, but also includes music, food and friendship. Even better is the fact that the festival raises money for a local nonprofit organization.

"Noi e la "Giulia" had people in stitches.

The first film I took in during this year’s festival was “Noi e la Giulia,” a film written, directed and acted by Edoardo Leo. This comedy in which three hapless strangers decide to buy a dilapidated property in the Italian countryside and open an agriturismo had theater-goers roaring with laughter. Few aspects of Italian culture are left unskewered in “Noi e la Gulia” Everything from organized crime and inefficient bureaucracy, to family and politics are part of the absurdly funny plot that also includes heartwarming moments as the three protagonists try to build new lives. And the “Guilia” in the title? That character is also typically Italian – an Alfa Romeo Giulia.

A couple of the film festival’s screenings include preludes of food, wine and music performed by Italians who now make their home in New Mexico, including an Italian Elvis, who leaves his audience “all shook up.” The week’s finale is a post-film dinner at a superb local restaurant accompanied by live opera. This annual festival is a fun way to stay connected to the Italian community here in Albuquerque and is also great preparation for my upcoming trip to Italy.  Ci vediamo al cinema!                                               -post by JG