My repertoire of Ligurian recipes for Easter
10 Ligurian recipes you may consider for your Easter feast!
Ciao!
Any plan for your Easter menu yet?
Maybe you have already started looking around for ideas, so today I share with you my family repertoire for Easter, just in case...
✨ Starters
Fava bean pesto - a fresh spring cream to spread on croutons or on boiled eggs made with fresh fava beans, pecorino cheese and fresh mint. I's traditional of Cervo Ligure, the place where my grandfather came from.
Panissa fritta - it's a cheek pea tart, cut in pieces and deep fried.
✨ First courses
Pansoti with walnut sauce - this is the second most famous stuffed pasta of Liguria. The filling is made of green leaves vegetables and few cheese. The seasoning a yummy creamy sauce made with walnuts.
Piccagge verdi (green fresh pasta) seasoned with dry mushroom sauce.
✨ Main Courses
Torta Pasqualina - a savory pie with a filling of artichokes and chards, cheese and whole eggs inside (the one in the above picture). This is the most iconic Ligurian dish for Easter, the pie that all families prepare since centuries to celebrate the rebirth of Jesus. Pasqualina indeed comes form Pasqua, Easter in Italian. On the blog you can find the recipe of this savory pie with artichokes.
Lettuce in broth (Lattughe ripiene in brodo)- These are leaves of lettuce stuffed with meat and boiled in broth. It can be a main course or a first course, as well, though there is no pasta or cereal inside. This is a very common dish for Easter here in Genoa. (My recipe is just in Italian on the blog for the time being, need to translate it !!)
Lamb with artichokes- Lamb is the symbol of Easter. In our family is common to have them stewed with artichokes (a wonderful savors matching!), though you can eat also lamp ribs deep fried (agnello fritto) or lamp stewed with scramble eggs (agnello in fricassea)
Cima ripiena – stuffed veal belly,
✨ Side dishes
A salad, made of green leaves veggies and if possible some edible flowers!
✨ Desserts
Quaresimali - the small cookies made with marzipan and flavored with orange blossom water, consumed here along all the Lent period.
Cavagnetti - these also are traditional Ligurian Easter pastries, cookies made like nests with a whole egg inside (picture below).
And then of course big chocolate eggs that kids love breaking to find the little surprise inside!
To seal the feast, needless to say, coffee and limoncello!
That's all for now by my side. Hope to have given you some inspiration for this upcoming Easter!
If you have a Liguria Easter family dish to share, please let me know!!
Ciao!!
Enrica
Maybe we do not know me very well? Let me introduce myself again.
My name is Enrica, I was born and bred in Genoa, the capitol of the Italian Riviera.
I’m a culinary researcher and experience curator in Liguria.
After 15 years as an International lawyer I decided to change my life and started following my skills and interests: cooking, studying, making researches, writing and discovering Liguria.
In 2016 I opened my food blog in Italian and in English, A Small kitchen in Genoa, where I share traditional, reliable, family recipes and food stories from the Italian Riviera.
My mission is to preserve the Ligurian culinary heritage from the dust of time.
I do it though historical researches, visiting the remotest corners of my Region, talking to old people (our living patrimony), discovering local producers and artisans.
And then share all of it with you:
-I write about Ligurian cuisine through my blog and my upcoming book.
-I organize regional cooking classes in my home kitchen or in private villas.
-I organize food tours in Genoa and Portofino area.
-I give online cooking classes via Zoom.
- And sometimes I consult as Ligurian food travel designer.
If you wish you can follow my Ligurian food adventures also on my Instagram Account!