We do Easter big in Italian families. It's right up there with Christmas for us. The whole family gets together and we eat - this never happens otherwise (lies.it happens every sunday).
Traditionally a roast lamb is served... except in my family, where we had pasta. We always had pasta. Why get complicated when we all wanted the pasta anyway. For Easter, though, we'd probably have Al Forno (in the oven w/ mozzarella oozing all over the place) which would make my cousin Marco especially excited - he's difficult. My grandmother used to put lamb in her sauce, though... so we've got that base covered.
For dessert we'd probably also get some pastries from the bakery around the corner from my grandmother's house. Most likely there'd be Cannoli, Lobster Tails and Sfogliatele. Cannoli are tubes of pastry filled with either sweetened ricotta and mini chocolate chips, or custard. The Lobster Tails are long horns of super duper flaky pastry filled with Italian Pastry Cream (my dad's favorite), and the Sfogliatele are like a smaller version of a lobster tail but instead of the pastry cream, they're filled with sweetened ricotta.
We'd always have Anginetti, which are also known as 'Italian Lemon Drop' cookies. They're light and a bit sweet, and a bit tart at the same time. Let me tell you this... my love for Anginetti didn't really come to fruition until much later in life. I'm a custard kind of girl. Custard and brownies are my weakness - FYI . Just in case we're ever on a gameshow and you need to know what my two weaknesses are.
Now that I'm doing the baking, I've rediscovered Anginetti. I want my son to be raised with the same traditions (=food) I was raised with. These cookies were always around. Poor little things. As a kid I took them for granted. Now that I'm 26 (lies.) and have a family of my own, I've started making them. They're lemon. If you love lemon, and even if you hate lemon, you will love these airy, pillows of sunshine. I really can't get enough of them.
xo
L
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