Let the Feasting Begin
Wear your stretchy waistband pants!
Celebrating Christmas in Italy is not for the weak. The gargantuan tables of food are a real challenge for those not prepared.
I have a website which I keep to explain some of the Italian holidays, as they also almost always involve food!
When I plan my tours in Italy, I love including festival or holiday foods as well.
I didn’t make it even half-way through my first Christmas dinner with my new friends in Florence. I now know, you need to build up to be able to eat so much. I made the mistake of not eating before I went and my stomach shrunk in preparation.
This dinner was at the home of a friend who had a fish shop and his friends who were all hunters.
The menu for the evening was:
Two kinds of small appetizers of smoked salmon on toast with prosecco.
Tortellini in Brodo
Poached whole fish with insalata russa
Roast fish with roast potatoes
Roast beef with Porcini mushroom sauce ( this knocked me out! too much oil and the porcini mushrooms were so strong)
Then the whole table of game from the hunters.
It was arranged on an entire dining room table.
Quail, Pheasant, pigeon, Venison, Wild boar, Hare….. a mountain of meats
An Entire table of Desserts: classic Panettone, Pandoro, several kinds of cookies and Tuscan sweets like Panforte and Cantuccini as well as Cavallucci and Panforte.
Wines, Grappa and Dessert wines as well.
This was the friend’s Christmas celebration then everyone did Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with their various relatives.
Serious Eat-a-thon.
Andrea’s mom and brother have both passed away and his sister-in-law with her son and now grandson spend the holidays with the inlaw’s, so we are on our own. Mostly by choice as I just can’t eat that much.
We have decided to spend December eating our way through some of our favorite seasonal dishes and for Christmas my husband asked for a large tray of lasagna, which will be several meals for us.A light lasagna is only 4 layers and for the holidays we do the 7 layer version. In Tuscany, no ricotta or mozzarella but rather bechamel sauce with ragu and grated parmesan cheese. It melts in your mouth.
PERFETTO!
This month I made two kinds of Cardoons, fried and baked. They require a lot of work, so not something I make often.
I also made a wild boar stew. Wild boar, cinghiale, are a problem out where I live in the countryside, so it’s not hard to know a hunter who has some in their freezer for friends and family!
I served mine on Polenta.
I had a Pistacchio Panettone shipped from my friends on Mount Etna and it was delicious.
My new theory about pacing out the food for the holidays is working.
This may be the first year I am not making a collection of Christmas cookies. We are invited to a Christmas Eve party at Dario Cecchini’s, so will make something to bring to share with everyone that works there.
Our wedding anniversary is December 20th and to celebrate we are going to Bologna for two really nice meals.
We are going to have a Bollito Misto meal, where the restaurants roll a huge cart up to your table and you select the various cuts of meat you want to try and they serve you a selection of sauces and side dishes. This is an old school classic and not so easy to find anymore.
Our second meal is at one of our favorite osteria’s in town.
I’ll be sharing all that on my paid subscribers newsletter in 2023 I am creating a montly listing of my favorite markets around Italy.
Each month will have a city with the markets and my guide to the City of places to eat, drink, shop and tips on where to stay as well. If you are interested, sign up for the paid version.
Have the best holiday season and I know we are all looking forward to a happier and healthier 2023.
For my paid subscribers, I am including in this newsletter some of my favorite recipes for the season.