As the motto says, region where you go, tradition that you find and Italy, especially during the holidays, offers a great variety of customs and dishes typical of every place. About this, in a few days is Easter, the feast of „rebirth“, the last „official occasion“ of culinary excesses before the fateful „costume test“.
But despite the approach of „this moment“ so awaited and feared, which preludes, as a rule, the start of strict diets, it is practically impossible, to give up the festive delicacies that accompany the entire Easter period, especially those confectionery.
Easter sweets: the egg
Inevitable, for example, in the tables during this holiday is the egg both di chocolate that hard (obtained by boiling). This food (chicken) with a strange shape and at the same time perfect, symbolizes life, since it can be born a creature (the chick). For this reason, during the Passover dinner, the egg was the food that should not be divided among the participants because this meant „demolition“ of a lifetime.
A typical Easter cake that, for example, is prepared during the holy week, is a large biscuit of shortcrust pastry prepared with simple ingredients such as eggs, flour, milk and oil, with different shapes and imaginative type „woven basket„bunnies, etc even if usually the most common one is the dove, symbol of excellence of this festival. Another characteristic and very particular specialty, includes, in addition to the decoration with chocolate eggs and colored food beads, the use of hard-boiled eggs with the shell often colored, in different ways that is nestled between the shortcrust pastry.
This tasty specialty, prepared in the most diverse forms, where art and imagination come together, is particularly typical of the southern area. In Puglia, for example, it takes the name of Scarcella or scarsella (which means donut), hard-boiled eggs, to be consumed should be „released“ from shortcrust pastry, this act, which probably depicts the liberation from original sin.
In Calabria the typical sweet with boiled egg is called: Piccillato di Pasqua. It is an easy dessert to prepare but requires a long time for leavening and for this reason it is made from the day before Easter. It is characterized by the presence of hard-boiled eggs, usually of odd number, which cook together with the variable-shaped cake: basket, braid, donut.
The use in the Easter celebrations of the egg that, as mentioned above, symbolizes rebirth or Resurrection, in the Christian tradition of Easter, leads us back to the Last Supper when Christ, after having broken the bread, distributed it to the apostles. The breaking of the cake, in this case, symbolizes precisely the same gesture of love and solidarity of this mystical moment in the history of Christ.
Let’s take a tour in Italy and discover the typical Easter sweets
Sicilian Easter sweets
In Sicilia it’s called „cuddura (corona) cull’ova“. In the past for example, the most common form was circular (handbag, basket) because it could be hung on the arm or the stick by shepherds, or heart-shaped chosen especially by girls to give it to boyfriends, or even more playful forms like dolls to give to girls. Also Palermo e Enna amaze with their rich program.
But it is among the small villages of the hinterland that the most ancient and evocative rites are kept: Easter is celebrated with a blaze of the throat. The protagonists are the almond paste lambs and the „pupi cu l’ovu“. That is, baskets of shortcrust pastry that contain hard-boiled eggs as a wish for sweet rebirth. And then again the chocolate, but especially many sweets filled with ricotta including his majesty the cassata.
What to do in Sicily on Easter weekend
A salt in Sicily during the Easter weekend is an experience for the spirit ma anche una festa per il palato. There are hundreds of religious events linked to Holy Week. Da Trapani, which for more than 400 years celebrates the spectacular rite of „mysteries“, a Caltanissetta, where the whole Week is experienced with great intensity. Every day is marked by processions that involve ever different and majestic sculptural groups.
Sardinian Easter sweets
In Sardinia, the Easter dessert is called „Coccoi cun s’ou“ is a typical bread of durum wheat semolina, which during Easter takes different forms: dolls, birds, baskets or crosses but the constant is the boiled egg with the shell inserted into the shortcrust pastry. In the past this cake was given to children instead of the classic Easter egg.
Sardinian culinary traditions are rich in typical sweets to be prepared at Easter. Just think of the Sardinian Easter Coccoi, the hard wheat bread decorated with scissors, which can be prepared at home without too much difficulty. The list also includes other options, such as Pabassinas with sultanas, Pastissus with almonds, Sardinian biscuits with lemon Pirichittus, Pistoccheddus incappaus and finally the delicious Sardinian nougat with honey from Nuoro.
What to do in Sardinia on Easter weekend
Every year many tourists visit the island to discover some of its wonders, taking advantage of the Easter holidays to enjoy its sea, its small villages and some must destinations such as Sassari, Porto Torres and Asinara. First you can decide to travel to discover the wonders of the Sardinian coast, but also the Gennargentu and the Gulf of Orosei, which is absolutely worth a visit, because of the beauty of its pristine coastline.
Easter sweets from Abruzzo
In Abbruzzo, the characteristic sweet is called Cavalli e pupe, these sweets of simple shortcrust pastry, were prepared on Holy Thursday by grandmothers in the shape of a pupa to give to girls and in the shape of horses to give to boys. The common feature of ponies and pupae was the hard-boiled egg on the belly.
What to do in Sardinia on Easter weekend
Participate in the different celebrations of Easter also means to turn between the villages and the most beautiful castles of Abruzzo in an atmosphere of celebration that makes even the smallest villages animated and full of people. When you’ve had enough of medieval villages, head to cities like L’Aquila, Teramo and Pescara.
What to taste during Easter in Abruzzo
If you are among those who can not give up the Easter lunch served at the table, book in one of the many restaurants where you can taste the specialties of Abruzzo. There will be arrosticini, le mazzarelle (rolls of lamb cuiratella), il timballo, the lamb, the pipindune and where (fried peppers and eggs), le scrippelle ¿mbusse (pancakes in broth), eggs both hard-boiled and chocolate and Easter pizza.
Did you enjoy this journey in the world of Easter sweets? Continue to follow us for many other curiosities about our country!