Easter is a feast day when families gather around the table to celebrate together.
This religious festival in Italy is celebrated with a great abundance of food, drinks and sweets, which fill the tables of Italian families.
Easter lunch usually begins with appetizers, including meats, cheeses, olives, croutons and other delicacies. These appetizers are often accompanied by white and red wines, such as Chianti, Montepulciano and Barolo.
If you want to discover the traditions and celebrations of Italian Easter do not miss our previous article!
Traditional Italian food for Easter
From savory to sweet, here are the traditional Italian foods for Easter:
Homemade pasta
On feast days in many houses is traditionally made homemade pasta: agnolotti, lasagne, orecchiette and many other formats.
Cold cuts
The chopping board of cold cuts (called fellata in Campania) is essential in the Easter meal: soppressata, salami, capocollo, ham, pork loin, bacon and pork.
Casatiello
Casatiello is a rustic cake in the shape of a donut typical of Campania, filled with a mixture of meats, cheeses and hard-boiled egg.
Crescia di Pasqua
The Easter crescia is a typical recipe of the Marche region, a kind of salted panettone rich in cheese. The name "Crescia" comes from the strong increase in the volume of dough during leavening, which makes the original mass "grow" twice.
Easter Pie
A typical recipe of Liguria, in particular of Genoa. It is a savory cake formed by 33 sheets in homage to the years of Christ. The sheets are stuffed with a filling of chard or artichokes, Ligurian prescinseua, eggs and fresh chopped marjoram.
Lamb
Lamb is a second dish that on Easter day is prepared differently depending on the region. Its origins date back to Passover, when the people of Israel sacrificed a lamb and ate it.
Coratella
Coratella is a well known and widespread sausage in the Umbro-Marche tradition. The name comes from the coral gut gentle, or the first tract of the colon of the pig. It is in fact a dish based on offal and entrails of lamb.
Vegetables and broad beans
In the spring period that also coincides with Easter, there are a wide variety of products of the earth: artichokes, asparagus, chard, spinach, green beans. Don’t miss the fresh beans, to eat with pecorino cheese, salami and bacon.
Boiled eggs
Hard-boiled eggs date back to ancient times and are the emblem of rebirth. With the advent of Christianity in the Western world, the egg was associated with the Christian feast of Easter as a symbol of Jesus' rebirth and hope in eternal life.
Pinza triestina
Pinza triestina is a slightly sweet bread made with simple ingredients such as eggs, flour, butter and sugar. It is a traditional Easter recipe from Trieste, so much so that it is often associated with Happy Easter greetings in the region: "Bona Pasqua, bona pinza".
Colomba
La Colomba is an Easter cake typical of the Lombardy Region. Symbolically the dove represents peace and salvation. It is made from wheat flour, sugar, eggs, candied citrus peel, yeast and salt.
Chocolate eggs
In the fourteenth century the eggs were decorated and given away. Chocolate eggs are born with Louis XIV, thanks to the first French chocolatier mâitre David Chaillou.
Pastiera
The pastiera, although now made in many regions, is native to Campania. A dessert made with shortcrust pastry filled with ricotta, cooked wheat and candied fruit.
With the Hop-On Hop-Off Destination Eataly Line you can reach Eataly and taste excellent Easter sweets, in a vast selection of dove cakes and Easter eggs. From classic or more extravagant tastes, made by small and large artisan producers. Go to Eataly and you will find Colomba with ricotta and pears, with limoncello, the classic Colomba and the one with pears and chocolate, with black cherry, apricot and mandarin.
At Eataly you will also find a vast selection of typical Easter products, with the most delicious chocolate delights this season, with dark chocolate eggs, hazelnuts and meringues.
