Traditional italian food - Food For Religious And Holiday Celebrations

Every Italian village celebrates its own saint's day with a festival featuring fireworks, feasting, and dancing. The traditional italian food (main dish) for these festivals is roast suckling pig. A popular Easter dish throughout Italy is Agnellino (roast baby lamb), often served with roasted artichokes.

Minestrone soup

Osso bucco (braised veal shanks) with baby artichokes
Lemon orzo (a rice-like pasta)
Arugula salad with lemon-garlic vinaigrette dressing
Ripe peaches and figs
Biscotti

Although the holiday bread called panet-tone is the best known of Italy's many holiday desserts, regions throughout the country have their own traditional holiday sweets featuring local ingredients. In the north, butter is a major ingredient of these desserts. Zelten cakes, similar to fruitcake, are filled with raisins, dates, figs, almonds, pine nuts, orange peel, rum, and cinnamon, are baked two or three weeks before Christmas because they improve with time. Strudel is popular in the Tyrol region in northern Italy. In the south, dessert recipes are more elaborate and use olive oil (instead of butter), lots of eggs, candied fruit, and honey. Among the best known arestruffoli , fried cubes of egg pastry covered with honey and sprinkled with colored sugar, a specialty from Naples.

Italian Easter Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ⅔ cup warm milk
• 2 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 7 eggs
• ½ cup mixed candied fruit, chopped
• ¼ cup almonds, chopped
• ½ teaspoon anise seed
• Vegetable oil

Procedure

1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, yeast and salt.
2. Add milk and butter; beat 2 minutes on medium.
3. Add 2 eggs and ½ cup flour; beat 2 minutes on high.
4. Stir in the fruit, nuts, and anise seed, mixing well.
5. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
6. Place on a lightly floured board and knead until smooth, 6 to 8 minutes.
7. Place in a greased bowl; turn once. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
8. If desired, dye remaining eggs (leave eggs uncooked); lightly rub with oil.
9. With a fist dipped in flour, punch dough down. Divide in half and roll each piece into a 24-inch rope.
10. Loosely twist ropes together; place on the baking sheet and form into a ring. Pinch the ends together.
11. Gently split ropes and tuck eggs into openings. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
12. Preheat oven to 350°F.
13. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

Serves about 6.

Panettone (Italian Christmas Bread)

Ingredients

• 4 Tablespoons yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• ½ pound butter, melted
• 4 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 6 egg yolks, beaten (discard egg whites or save for another use)
• 10½ cups flour
• 2 cups citron, sliced fine
• 2 cups raisins, seedless

Procedure

1. Dissolve yeast in the water. Mix in the butter, sugar, salt, eggs, and yolks.
2. Stir about 10 cups of flour into the butter and yeast mixture until blended.
3. Spread a little flour on a board. Turn dough out onto the board and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. When the dough is soft and smooth, knead in the citron and raisins.
4. Place dough in a greased, round pan, and brush the top with melted butter.
5. Cover, and allow to rise until the dough has doubled in bulk (about 1 hour).
6. Preheat oven to 425°F.
7. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep cross in the top of the loaf.
8. Bake for about 8 minutes, or until the top begins to brown. Lower heat to 325°F and bake for 1 hour more.

Serves about 10