Have
you ever wanted to celebrate the holidays with Italian food? Maybe you want to try something different
this year and love Italian food, or maybe you've been invited to spend the
holidays with Italian friends or are fortunate enough to actually be spending
the holidays in Italy. What Italian food
is appropriate and traditional? Well,
like many other cultures, Italians have certain food traditions for certain
holidays.
The
biggest tradition is with Christmas and it starts on Christmas Eve. The traditional Christmas Eve meal doesn't
include a lot of Italian food that foreigners may be familiar with. That's because the Italians observe a type of
symbolic fast which actually equates to more of a light dinner. This means that there will be no Italian food
that includes the typical meats. Instead
the Italian food will be centered more around seafood including fish, snails,
and frogs. That may sound a little more
French than Italian, but it's a great time to experience some excellent
traditional Italian food that is hard to find outside of Italy.
The
next day on Christmas the food may be a little more familiar. The first course is a very well known Italian
food, tortellini. This pasta dish filled
with meat is more in keeping with what most people envision when thinking of
Italian food. After the meal dessert
consists of one of two types of cake, either panettone or pandoro. If you're in Milan or spending the holidays
with a family from Milan it will be panettone.
This cake like bread takes days to make and is an Italian food that not
many people know of, despite it being a symbol of Milan. The other traditional cake is pandoro, a
sweet bread that is often made to look like a mountain complete with white
sugar icing giving it a snowy finish. Christmas
is a great time to taste the sweeter side of Italian food.
Easter
Sunday is another holiday that brings families around the table. The holiday starts out with breakfast. Not too many people think of breakfast when
thinking of Italian food, but Easter Sunday starts off with a feast of salami
and boiled eggs with cakes and pizzas all washed down with fine wine. That night the Italian food of choice will be
dishes that rely on lamb, avoiding other meats.
The evening will be finished off with wine and cakes.
The
last holiday that has importance to those who love Italian food is St. Joseph's
Day. This holiday is in commemoration of
St. Joseph saving Sicily from famine. This
holiday centers on a rather unknown Italian food, the fava bean. It was this bean that saved Sicily from
starving. So, while this bean is not
native to Italy, there are many Italian food dishes that are centered on it in
celebration of St. Joseph's Day. The day
is spent giving food to the needy, eating doughnut like pastries and enjoying
good Italian food.
Anytime
is a good time for Italian food, but the holidays really make authentic Italian
food shine as families get together to celebrate with traditional dishes. Try celebrating the holidays with Italian
food and you'll be introduced to a side of the cuisine that many don't know
exist.
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