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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Easter Lunch in Italy

May 19, 2022 by Mary 2 Comments

My good friend Tiziana with the pasta!

I absolutely adore the Italian tradition of a proper Sunday lunch, a multi-course wonderful meal in the sun dappled daylight of the afternoon, Prosecco, wine and Vin Santo early in the day. And enough time for a walk in the afternoon to work it all off. And Easter Lunch in Italy is even more special! Buona Pasqua!

(I had debated in my mind that perhaps it was too late to post about my Easter Lunch in Italy but I really wanted to share this time with you and make it permanent on the blog. I had posted some photos as an Instagram story, but they disappear after 24 hours, so here you go. And truth be told, I’ve been too busy cooking, eating and drinking here to do a proper post before this time!)

My Easter, Growing Up

My mom would always serve a big Easter dinner with a leg of lamb or ham or both if we had a huge crowd. I carried on that tradition with my own family, usually roasting a pancetta-wrapped leg of lamb with some additional traditional Polish dishes, including homemade bread and beets with horseradish.

Easter Lunch in Italy -Tagliatelle.
Marzia’s homemade Tagliatelle.

Tiziana hosted this year’s Easter Lunch and it was utterly fantastic. Thirteen people were present, of all ages, and practically everyone pitched in with the food. Her sister-in-law, Marzia, outdid herself making 3 different kinds of bread, all of the tagliatelle noodles, the tiramisu and fruit salad. Marzia’s friend, Eleanor, made a super delicious lemon tart with an outstanding cookie crust.

Andrea, Tizi’s husband, made a spectacular sugo sauce with pork and sausage meat. And then of course we had Tizi’s amazing starters, plus her delicious roasted lamb with rosemary, potatoes and sautéed fresh spinach from the Farmer’s Market. I added a radicchio salad, made with the long leaves of radicchio, which are much less bitter than the round headed variety. Radicchio and thinly sliced celery were topped with gorgonzola, toasted walnuts and a fresh lemon juice olive oil vinaigrette.

The excitement and mirth before and during the meal were palpable. And Tiziana does not disappoint. 

Here is the complete menu, but I am almost certain that I left something out.

STARTERS WITH PROSECCO

Crostini with homemade chicken liver pate 
Dark bread crostini with salted butter and smoked salmon
Hard boiled eggs
Pollo in galantina
Various thinly sliced meats and sausages

FIRST COURSE: with a light red wine
Homemade tagliatelle with sugo sauce and grated parmigiana

MAIN COURSE: with my red wine – 2020 Bolgheri Bell’Aja
Roasted lamb with Rosemary and garlic
Roasted potatoes 
Sautéed spinach
Radicchio salad with sliced celery, Gorgonzola, toasted walnuts and a lemon vinaigrette dressing

DESSERT: with a choice of Sauternes and/ or Vin Santo

Tiramisu
Lemon Tart
Fruit Salad
Meringue and cream cake with strawberries 
Coffee

Our After-lunch Walk!

The vineyards are starting to grow again.

After eating (lunch is pranzo) we went for a beautiful walk in the hills of Arezzo, near the house I used to rent!

I hope your Easter or Passover were wonderful and filled with LOVE!!

Filed Under: Events, Lunch, Pasta, Travel Tagged With: Easter, Easter celebrations, Easter lunch, Italy, Pranzo

A whirlwind weekend!

April 9, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Passover dinner table.The Passover table

Ranuculous at the Passover table.So you may remember, my husband was raised Jewish and I was raised Catholic. We are now Unitarians but culturally we celebrate both traditions, and why not? It’s way more fun this way!

We hosted a Passover seder on Friday night for eleven people – old friends, new friends, family and girlfriends from 4 different countries and both coasts. It was such fun – lots of wonderful conversations and the traditional readings and food, with some new traditions thrown in. The party lasted until nearly 1 am – I do believe a good time was had by all and that makes it all worth it.
Making Passover brisket and egg noodles.Beef brisket with egg noodles tossed with fennel fronds
Roasted asparagus in a pan.Oven roasted asparagus with olive oil and lemon zest

My brother hosted Easter dinner in CT – and early dinner with cocktails outside on that gorgeous day, serving a beautiful butterflied leg of lamb with Julia’s traditional and delicious mustard coating with a Madeira sauce, but starting off with 2 spectacular spinach soufflés! We are spoiled!
Easter dinner table.The Easter table

Lamb on a wooden cutting board.

Delicious lamb

I hope you enjoy the photo gallery and remember, the brisket recipe is here on the blog.

Tell me what you did this past weekend!

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat Tagged With: asparagus, beef brisket, Easter, good times, lamb, mustard sauce, Passover, ranunculus, seder, spinach souffle

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

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