EASTER, ITALIAN STYLE Part 1

Pasqua -- Easter -- is the most important religious holiday in Italy, much bigger and more solemn than Christmas. It’s so big that I’m devoting two columns to it. The Monday after Easter (Lunedi dopo Pasqua) -- sometimes called Monday of the Angel (Lunedi dell angelo) -- is also a national holiday in Italy, and everything stays closed. A third official holiday is the Day of Ascension (L’Ascensione). The actual date is 40 days after Easter. It’s observed on the following Sunday, and again everything is closed.

There aren’t any egg hunts or Easter baskets in Italy, but Italians do give each other chocolate eggs. These are often an elaborate affair with gifts contained inside, and may be as large as three feet tall. You can find the ones made by Perugina in Italian specialty stores in the United States. Small ones cost about $15. There is recent concern by Italians over candy quality, as E.U. restrictions have limited the amount of coca butter in their chocolate.

Food plays a large part in the holiday, of course -- it’s Italy! It’s also the end of Lent and the fasting deprivations that go with it. Lamb is the preferred main course for the Easter dinner, being symbolic of spring and also of religious sacrifice. When I was a new bride in an Italian neighborhood in New York City, my husband’s best friend sent me to the local butcher to procure something that sounded like gabbatzelle (probably actually abbacchio or capp’abbacchio). I had no idea what it was, but simply ordered it by the name he’d given me. A little while later, a butcher came out holding a brown bag and asking, “Who gets the lamb’s head?” Ick, I thought. But strangely, the counterman was pointing to ME. “Oh, no, I asked for a gabbatzelle,” I insisted. “Mi scusi, signora,” they explained patiently. “But that IS a lamb’s head.” Especially prized for the eyes and cheeks, as it turns out. This is one Italian delicacy I’ve never acquired a taste for!

Special Easter breads are baked, some formed into a large braid with eggs (whole, in their shells) baked into the braid. A sweet bread called Colomba Pasquale is shaped like a dove and decorated with crystallized sugar and whole almonds. The cities of Milan and Pavia both claim credit for inventing it. In Umbria, they bake an Easter cheese bread called Crescia al formaggio in flower pots. There is a wonderful pie made from soaked wheat -- Pastiera di Grano -- that I haven’t had for 25 years but can still taste.

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