The Sicilian blend of Catholic and pagan traditions hold an anthropologic fascination for me, but for my Italian partner they are part of an over-dominant Catholic culture he would like to be free of. More often than not we stay at home on the Saints’ days or take a walk on the abandoned streets to appreciate a quiet moment in this otherwise hectic city. Easter is the one holiday we both don’t want to escape. Though the preceding week is full of processions, passion plays, and women in black loudly mourning Christ’s death, Easter and Easter Monday are bacchanalian feasts even us pagans can get into.
The saying goes “Natale con i tuoi, e Pasqua con chi vuoi,” or "Christmas with your parents and Easter with whomever you wish". Although most people spend the day with their family anyways, there are always a few friends at the table. Sicilians have a knack for making their guests feel like they did their hosts a favor by coming instead of vice-versa.
Easter lunch is a formal meal usually composed of a first course of pasta al forno (a cross between lasagna and spaghetti-o's) followed by oven roasted lamb. The high point of the meal, however, is dessert. Along with giant chocolate eggs with prizes inside and marzipan lambs, a cassata is a must. Emblematic of the Sicilian love of excess and drama, its made up of layers of eggy sponge cake alternated with sheep’ milk ricotta studded with chocolate chips. Pale green stripes of almond paste line the sides, and baroquely ornate curlicues of candied fruit decorate the top. The word cassata comes from the Arabic qas’ah, the name for the large terracotta bowl used to shape this triumph of gooey sweetness. One of the island’s many conquerers, they are responsible for bringing sugar to Sicily along with their taste for the cloyingly sweet.
I must confess that for me, the cassata is overshadowed by my great love for almond paste. I’m not alone in my devotion, in Sicily its called pasta reale or royal dough. Though it can now be found year-round, it makes two traditional appearances. For I Morti on November 1st, its moulded into brightly colored fruits that are given to children by their dead ancestors. The sticky dye gets all over you hands and gives a chemical aftertaste to the sweets. For Easter, children receive lambs with tinfoil haloes sitting on pistachio grass. I prefer them to the fall fruits because the lambs aren’t colored. Special plaster forms are sold by pastry supply shops, but if you loved play-dough as a child, its more fun to shape the lamb yourself.
Easter Monday, known as Pasqueta, is entirely devoted to meat. Sicilians head up either to the mountains or to the beach where they have the grill hot by 10. Though you can usually find coils of aromatic sausage with fennel seeds, cross-cut pork ribs and breaded slices of strip-steak, the protein of choice is still lamb. At the beginning of Spring, they are young, and fatty from the abundance of lush green grazing material to be had (the ricotta is at its best for the same reason). Lamb chops and cross-cut mutton shank are grilled over the remains of an olive wood fire until they are well done. salmoriglio sauce, a mix of salt, pepper, lemon juice and oregano, is basted on directly with a piece of fresh rosemary while the meat cooks. I’ve never been to a Pasqueta where people sat down to eat. Instead whoever is hungry burn there fingers picking lamb chops directly off of the grill, hence their name scottadito, finger-burning. Pieces of toasted crusty bread are used as a plate and everything is washed down with strong Sicilian wine. Meanwhile those who need to “encourage “ their appetite take a hike, sing songs and chat until they have room to eat some more.
Those of us who are ecologically minded might be horrified by the idea of a holiday devoted to stuffing yourself with as much lamb as possible. It should be remembered that traditionally Easter is the end of Lent, 40 days without meat or sugar. Before the Second World War, this was one of the few days in which the poor would allow themselves a bit of animal protein, their diet was vegetarian out of economic necessity. Chicken and beef were luxuries for the very rich, the rest of the populace depended on sheep and goats for their meat as well as their cheese. Sicilians still remain highly seasonal. Naturally, everybody shifts towards lighter fare as the summer bounty of fruits, vegetables and tuna arrives and ricotta and meat are no longer at their best. Easter excess is a way to use up these winter ingredients while they are still at their peak.
And now, some recipes:
Manlio’s Oven Roasted Lamb
My husband has a genius for simple dishes, using a minimum of ingredients but exalting their true essence. This is the meal he wooed ( and won) me with.
Serves 6-8
4 lb. young lamb cut into regular pieces with the bones
4 large sweet onions
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 tbsp. dried sage
extra-virgin olive oil
white wine
sea-salt
pepper
1. Cut the tips off of the onions and chop them into into sixths. If your lucky enough to have them, put the lamb’s gizzards apart. Put the rest of the meat in a large roasting pan and coat it with just enough oil to coat it.
2. Break up the rosemary by hand over the pan and season the lamb with salt, black pepper and the sage. Spend a good five minutes massaging all of this into the meat.
3. Add the onions, and give everything one last shake to distribute them evenly and coat them with oil. The pan should be quite crowded, otherwise the contents will burn.
4. Put it into a hot 500 F oven for 15 minutes and then turn it down to 375 and cook for another hour. Give the contents a stir every 15 minutes and if the pan gets to dry (the onions are burning instead of caramelizing) add a little white wine or water.
5. Add the gizzards for the last 15 minutes. When the lamb is done, the pieces should be fork tender and the onions should have practically dissolved into a creamy sauce.
Lamb Scottadito with Salmoriglio Sauce
Scottadito means finger-burning. If you eat these chops like the Sicilians do, straight off the grill with a crusty piece of bread toasted over the hot coals and dribbled with a little sauce, you’ll see why.
Serves 6
2.25 lb. small lamb chops
1/2 cup cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
a hefty pinch of dried oregano
juice of two lemons
1 crushed garlic clove
Salt and pepper to taste
a few sprigs of rosemary
1. Heat up the grill, preferably using wood coals.
2. Mix the olive oil, lemon juice and seasonings together in a bowl, rubbing the oregano together briskly with your hands as you add it.
Grill the lamb chops dribbling the salmoriglio sauce over the meat every so often, using the rosemary sprigs as a basting brush. Italians like to cook lamb until its well done. The fattier the meat, the more I agree with them.
Agnello di Pasta Reale with a Pistachio filling
for the pasta reale:
12 oz whole blanched almonds
14 0z granulated sugar
5 tbsp. water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
for the pistachio paste:
8 oz unsalted shelled pistachios
8 oz sugar
1 tbsp. orange-blossom honey
4 tbsp. water
For decorating the lambs:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon
cloves
bits of candy, and dried fruit
Grind the almonds and sugar in a food processor until you have a fine powder. Add the rest of the ingredients and continue to process them until you have a smooth paste. Form a ball, and cover it in plastic. Let it rest in the refrigerator over night.
Grind the pistachios to a slightly grainier consistency with 2 tbsp. of the sugar. Dissolve the sugar and honey in 4 tbsp. of water and heat over a low flame until the syrup is at the soft-ball stage. Mix in the pistachios.
3. To make the lambs, dust your work surface with some of the the powdered sugar/ cinnamon mix. Flatten out a piece of almond dough, covering it with some pistachio paste. Roll it back up, creating a tube with almond outside and pistachio inside. This is the lambs body. Use more bits of almond dough to create the lambs head, and legs. Follow your fancy making a flock of tiny lambs or one giant agnellone. Use two cloves for eyes and whatever other bits and pieces you like for the nose, mouth and inside of the ears. Place your creations on tinfoil covered pieces of cardboard, dusting them with the cinnamon powdered sugar, and letting them dry out over night. Store in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap.
