If ever there were a week when Italians must do a lot of cooking, it’s the week before Easter. 

When I was a child, lent fasting was a severe prescription for Catholic families. I remember my grandmother Modestina took it so seriously that only when the bells started ringing at midnight on Holy Saturday would she let us near the cupboard where she stored the food. She had patrolled it, like a marine, since Ash Wednesday. That is why Easter Dinner was, and still is, a feast. 

Every Italian region has its traditional dishes for the festivity. My family’s traditions come from Filignano, Molise, my parents’ hometown. My husband’s parents were from Marche and came from a family of tenant farmers, and spent many years working in Umbria. Since we married, the Easter dinner menu has always contained both families’ traditional dishes. Additionally, today the family sitting around the table is three-generation born in Rome. Finally, I can’t overlook my years in England, a life experience that must be added to our Easter culinary variety. 

Easter dinner this year, as for the last fifty years, will contain a bit of Molise, Marche, Umbria, Rome, and England.

Are you ready? Imagine it as a fashion show but with beautiful dishes parading the catwalk. Here we go:

Starters

From Rome: Corallina Salami and hard-boiled eggs.

From Umbria: Savoury Cheese Cake

From Molise and Rome, but with different names:

SFritt’ ( in Molise dialect) /Coratella (how it’s called in Rome).

From Molise: Egg and sausage omelette.

First course

From Marche: Vincisgrassi

Second course

From England: Roast lamb with mint sauce

Side dishes

From Worldwide: Lettuce Salad

From Rome: Artichokes the Roman way.

Dessert

From Italy: Colomba

Do you want to try my Coratella Recipe for Easter?

Discover My family recipe!

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