The particular situation of this Easter 2020 region by region: with Italians who rediscover the pleasure of making traditional desserts at home
The lockdown made us rediscover the taste of kneading bread and pizzas, proposing traditional recipes and baking cakes and biscuits. So, for Easter, more than half of households – 53% – will experiment with the homemade preparation of typical regional sweets, as emerges from the Coldiretti / Ixè survey presented on the occasion of the reopening of the Campagna Amica farmers market in Rome.
Making festive dishes at home has become (or returned to being) a rewarding activity, both for men and women, who in this way manage to release some tension and the stress of social isolation that the coronavirus emergency forced everyone.
This is demonstrated by the products with which, in the last five weeks, the Italians have filled their shopping carts: they are Flour purchases doubled (+ 100%) and brewer's yeast (+ 73%), but also sales of sugar (43%) and eggs (40%) increased, while for packaged ones, chocolate, purchases fell by 30-40 %). It is estimated that this week will be more than 400 million eggs of hens painted by hand to decorate houses and tables set or used in traditional Easter recipes.
The typical Easter cakes, region by region
In Piedmont they taste the Pope's salami, made of chocolate, and the tira, loaves to dip in milk or sweet wine. In Liguria Easter canestrelli are prepared, woven baskets of shortcrust pastry, which in the center or on the edges are decorated with colored eggs. There Lombardy it is the region of the classic Easter dove, made with flour, butter, eggs, sugar and candied orange peel, with an almond glaze. In Trentino Alto Adige there are the Easter wreath, a leavened sweet braid, and the fochaz-osterbrot, a flat bread made from wheat flour, generally in the shape of a bunny. The Friuli is the region of the pincer, a rounded loaf on which a cross is engraved, while in Veneto the traditional Easter cake is called fugassa and is a soft pan prepared with eggs, butter and sugar. In Val d'Aosta flantse or flantson are prepared, flattened rye breads, usually round in shape, to which were added a little sugar, maybe a little butter, raisins, almonds and candied fruit. L'Emilia offers the bensòne, an oval-shaped dessert, with plum jam and black cherry filling. But also the dove of Pavullo, a village in the Emilian Apennines, a cake prepared with four sheets of leavened dough and stuffed with savòr, a compote of cooked grape and fruit must, pine nuts and raisins. In Tuscany there is the Pisan Schiacciata, sweet aniseed bread to accompany with Vin Santo, while in Umbria the ciaramicola, prepared with alchermes, meringue and colored sugars. In Abruzzo you can taste horses and pupae, biscuits made with shortcrust pastry enriched with a boiled egg, while in Lazio triumphs the sweet pizza, in the shape of a very fragrant and very tasty panettone. The Easter pine cone is typical of Ciociaria: it is a dessert with raisins, candied fruit, vanilla, cinnamon, anise, with the aromas and scents of candied fruit with orange and lemon and a hint of liqueur. In Marche Easter donuts are served, biscuits made according to an ancient recipe: the dough is prepared on Good Friday and then cooked on Easter day. In Molise pine cone, a donut made from flour and eggs, is served while in Basilicata there are the pannarelle, in the shape of a braid or heart, with an egg in the center to remember a basket full of sweets for children. There Calabria proposes cuckoos, made with a sweetened bread dough enriched with a few drops of anise and lemon zest. In Campania the pastiera triumphs while in Puglia prepare the scarcelle, shortbread biscuits with sugar, flour, eggs, oil, lemon zest, but also the panzerotti. In Sardinia the typical Easter sweets are pardulas, made with cheese or ricotta and aranzada nugoresa, orange peel threads slowly cooked in honey and enriched with toasted almonds. There Sicily presents the egg cuddura, a dough similar to a shortcrust pastry, which contains whole boiled eggs and is decorated with colored sugars.
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