E Buon Natale (Merry Christmas)

Ciao a tutti!

Have not been able to post lately due to a few (unfavourable but not dramatic!) life events. I am very sorry but I intend to catch up with the next year.

So, let me just wish you all a very merry Christmas with a picture of my mother’s faboulous ‘cappelletti’.

Talking about traditional food, I just posted about our traditional Christmas on my Patreon project, my half-serious lessons on How to be Italian.

Here is an excerpt.

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In Italy we have a saying: Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi, meaning that you are expected to spend Christmas with your parents (despite your being in your ‘40s/’50s/’60s) but, here the proverb tries to reassure you!, you may spend Easter with whomever you want (con chi vuoi).

Obviously this is not true and, mostly, it does not apply to my family. To me and my sister it has always been: La Vigilia di Natale (Christmas Eve), il pranzo e la cena di Natale (Christmas Lunch and Dinner), il Capodanno (New Year’s Eve), Pasqua (Easter), Pasquetta (Easter Monday) and Ferragosto (Aug.15th) with your parents… any other day with your friends except for birthdays, name days, various anniversaries and Sundays!

So here I am, with my fridge full of an illegal amount of food, wondering whether we should boil the meat for the Christmas lunch broth tomorrow or if we should just boil it on Christmas morning. And, most of all, wondering if the decision I’ll take will affect the taste of cappelletti (our marchigiana version of tortellini) that are going to be cooked in the broth for our typical Christmas Lunch. And then again, how shall we remove the grease form the broth? Shall we use a piece of linen, as nonna Pina used to do, to filter it or – as Walter suggests – shall we leave the broth outside on the balcony overnight and, in the morning, remove the greasy layer with a spoon? I guess I will not fall asleep easily tonight.

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