…focaccia with tomatoes, asparagus and parsley, nasturtiums, rosemary and chives from the vegie patch. A joint effort between Roger and me this time (he being the bread baker, me the gardener). My focaccia decorating skills didn’t turn out quite as pretty as I’d hoped – and one tray copped the hotter side of the oven – but sprinkled with olive oil and salt and eaten while still warm, that didn’t seem to matter in the end! Buona Domenica!
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Whether this time for you is about faith, new happenings or taking stock with the changing of the seasons, I hope it brings you much happiness.
This article (pictured) appeared in a magazine a few years back in a feature looking at how French, Greek and Italian Easters were celebrated in Australia. I always feel a bit shy having my photo taken for these things and the main part of this photo is the Colomba, or Italian Easter cake in the shape of a dove that sits on the table in front of me. (I recall the photo shoot was weeks before Easter and it was difficult to get hold of one then!)
Colomba cakes are mostly bought and Nanna Francesca used to make a more modest Easter bread with hard-boiled eggs baked into it. This year I broke with tradition and made an ‘Easter lasagne’ for the family. It has been a rainy day so it seemed the thing to cook.
As for the rest of the Easter weekend, after it being very busy so far and with more rain to come, hopefully it will be dolce far niente, ‘the sweetness of doing nothing’. 😉 Tante belle cose! Zoe xx
Brutti ma buoni (ugly but good – hopefully!) 😄
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With Easter coming up, I was asked about my Italian family’s gatherings for part of an article in the latest issue of Brisbane News. In the photograph, I have in front of me a Colomba di Pasqua, an Easter dove cake similar to the Italian Christmas panettone.
I also fondly recall Nanna Francesca making Pane di Pasqua, Easter bread, with whole eggs in their shells tucked among the plaited dough (the eggs became like hardboiled as the dough baked).
By the way, to the left in the photo is her Sunflower coffee set, which I treasure. It is now almost 70 years old!
Buona Pasqua!
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Home-baked focaccia with rosemary from the garden and Australian-grown garlic and olive oil. Although I had a very brief knead of the dough, the credit all goes to Roger for this one. A lovely way to eat it is to make tramezzini by slicing the focaccia in half, spreading the inside of each piece with basil pesto and then for the filling, adding pieces of grilled haloumi, slices of barbecued eggplant marinated in olive oil, ripe tomatoes, a handful of rocket, roasted capsicum and thinly-sliced, roasted pumpkin.
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Zoë Boccabella 