Hello everyone!
It is time for yet another of our weekly journeys around Italy, seeking new typical flavours and figuratively tasting Italian specialties.
Today, our gastronomic journey lands in Calabria and since we are close to Easter, we will focus on the special relationship this region has with this festivity.
For starters, let’s just say that Calabria is a genuine land that has a special bond with the products that nature has given to it and its inhabitants.
Calabrian cuisine has its roots in the peasant tradition, which was devoted to setting up proper feasts during religious festivities. All the family would gather to cook and share together the most elaborate and yet so simple meals that would be consumed during ever-lasting dinners and lunches around the table. Religious festivities were the only occasion where even the poorest and most humble families would reunite together and celebrate camaraderie and friendship.
This is the main reason why the tradition has developed special different dishes for every religious festivity.
At Christmas and during Epiphany thirteen different dishes would be offered on the table, in a sort of crazy concoction that ended up in an actual food marathon; the meal would comprehend: fried zeppole and cauliflowers, stew stockfish, sausages with turnips, oiled lampasciuni, pasta al forno (similar to lasagne), spaghetti with anchovies and bread, small meatballs and ‘nduja (super soft and super spicy salami) and exquisite sweets such as turdilli and pitta mpigliata.
During Carnival season instead, tradition calls for maccheroni, meatballs and pork meat.
Easter is celebrated by eating roasted lamb and a typical sweet with a strong aroma of anise. The shape of this sweets reminds of a sort of braid with an egg on the centre: a delicious sweet that could be as well eaten every single day.
Easter is also famous for bringing on Calabrian tables those that are called “spiritual breads” or “u cullacciu”, testifying how much importance this land gives to religion and all sorts of rituals connected to it that have been implanted in Calabrian society so deeply and radically through the centuries, that they also have special dishes dedicated to them.
Furthermore, Calabrian cuisine also makes large use of vegetables and spicy chilli pepper. Much importance is given to preserved foods, such as anchovies (on oil and chilli pepper), cured pork meat (the already mentioned ‘nduja and Calabrian soppressata), cheese, oil vegetables and dried tomatoes that would allow people to survive during long periods of dearth and under the siege of Turkish pirates.
So, Calabria too, as the rest of Italy, has suffered the influence of external flows and has implemented foreign tradition and raw materials in order to survive. We are the product of the conquers and for this very reason our inclusive spirit is much more historic and has more background than what progress and modernity want us to believe.
In any case, we suggest that you visit our selection of typical Calabrian food products in which you will find peculiar ingredient that will make your table multicultural. Our products are chosen with much attention and collected from different firms that produce them respecting the high quality of the raw material and according to the tradition. That would be all for today! May you all enjoy the warmer days of Spring and the lighter mood they bring along!