Trust it that when the finer weather is supposed to be promised it starts raining! Today, although the temperature is definitely mild, hovering between 15 and 20 degrees centigrade, the atmosphere is particular misty and murky with a persistent drizzle. However, this is Easter week and, with Christ’s Resurrection, one trusts the spring will return to its promised brightness. Meanwhile our garden is enjoying a welcome natural watering and we are also relishing a respite from the hose we’ve had to use since January.
How was our Easter lunch? And how was yours? Here in our sweet new Apennine cottage Sandra prepared a delicious cornucopia of things including antipasto with biroldo (brownish-red, soft-textured Tuscan blood sausage about 4 inches wide made from parts of the pig, offal such as heart, lungs and tongue, that wouldn’t be used for other sausages), olive taggiasche paste and sopressata (an Italian sausage made from a mixture of coarsely ground or chopped lean and fatty pork that is typically seasoned with hot chili peppers or peppercorns):
This was followed by lasagne baked marvellously in our cucina economica:
The second course was agretti (saltwort – lucky to find them as their season is now almost over) mashed potatoes and a token piece of lamb. I say token because traditionally Italians must have their ‘agnello’ (lamb) for Easter but for many of us the thought of digging into a force-fed prematurely killed sweet little animal isn’t too appetizing.
Dessert was, of course, headed by ‘la Colomba’ the traditional Easter cake baked in the form of a peace-bringing dove. Sandra contributed her own delicious version of Tiramisù. My chocolate cake somehow fell flat but, as a suet pudding tasting concoction was still acceptable fare – if we had any room left in our stomachs. And, naturally there was the chocolate Easter egg:
To ‘smaltire’ (digest) our lunch we headed for the surrounding woods joined by our cats who had fun climbing up trees while and enjoyed a ‘scampagnata’ or ramble in the wonderful nature which surrounds us.
As Pope Francis sadly reminded us this Easter which should be a time of peace and love and hope is still so wretchedly stained by the obscenity of war in our own continent. No Easter truce had been accepted by the muscovite thugs and sadly there will not even be a truce for the Eastern Orthodox Easter.
This week has also given us the opportunity of inaugurating our barbecue and Sandra produced some very tasty ‘spiedini’ (skewers) for our delectation. Let us hope that a time will come when fire will again be principally thought of not as the bringer of destruction but as ‘Fratello fuoco, attraverso il quale illumini la notte. È bello, giocondo, robusto e forte.(Brother Fire, through whom you light up the night. He is handsome, playful, sturdy and strong)!
