The sweets of the Epiphany
Family memories, Epiphany menu and a recipe for my chocolaty tartufini (truffles)
Not easy to fly without wings
(Tito Maccio Plauto)
Thank you for reading and sharing.
I’ll be eternally grateful for your support.
Grazie, Monica
Let’s keep the conversation going.
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Dear reader, I am taking a small break to organize work, write the first podcast and book index, and combine the editorial plan for the blog and that for the newsletter. Furthermore, in the next few months, I will have to deal with the move and follow the renovation of our apartment.
I will keep you updated and see you back here in mid-January.
Before reading my latest Holiday newsletter, where there is also the recipe for my chocolaty truffles, which, may I say?, are soooo good, I have a question for you.
Your answer will be a great help in organizing the work.
It isn't the first newsletter of the year, but the last one of the series about the holiday season that, in Italy ends with the arrival of the Befana.
Epiphaenia, from ancient Greek: epi -from above- phanein -appear.
In ancient Greece, the Epifania (plural) were festivals dedicated to the manifestation of deities. Today, Epiphany refers to the myth of the Three Kings and that of the Befana, a vocal corruption of the original phoneme (bifania, befania).The Italian term is synonymous with revelation (generic, not necessarily divine).
The Epiphany day is a national holiday across Italy, with public offices closed, and marks the official end of the Christmas season.
In the Bible tradition, the feast of the Epiphany is when the Three Wise Men arrive in Bethlehem, bearing gifts for Baby Jesus on the 12th day of Christmas. The story tells that on their way to see the infant, the Magi stopped to ask Befana for directions and asked her to join them. She initially told no, but when she tried to find Bethlehem, she didn't find it. For this reason, she decided to give the gifts she had brought to other children.
The Befana has been a holiday tradition in Italy since the XIII century. Her legend arose in the 13th century, and for a long time, la Befana was a tradition confined to Rome and the surrounding regions. In recent times, the festival has become popular across all of Italy over the last hundred years. Before Santa Claus, she brought gifts to the Italian children for Christmas on Epiphany Eve. She travels on her broomstick every year during the night before the 6th, looking for good children. They receive sweets and black rock candy.
The Befana and I
I have already written about my clear memories from age 3 (Something Personal).
At that time, we lived in an apartment with a narrow kitchen and a small window facing the rooftops, almost always open.
Grandma considered that space dangerous for me.
Especially when she was busy and the stove on.
For that reason, she used to tell me not to go inside or the Befana might kidnap me. Knowing she had a broomstick, I took this threat very seriously.
Santa Lucia first, then the Befana, brought gifts to many generations of Italian children. But in the 1970s, when I was a child, Santa Claus had already won the gift contract. I will say no more except that it is a page with many shadows yet to be clarified and where elves played an ugly role.
(I'm kidding, you know).
Coming back to us, I could afford not to love the Befana.
When we moved to the new home, the threat of kidnapping also ceased.
Time a few years, and thanks to a few well-stuffed stockings, I started to love her.
At home, the Befana were my father and maternal grandmother.
And when Grandma passed away, he continued to choose the stockings, fill them, write the notes, and place them in the fireplace accompanied by a sorghum broom.
He did this until a few years ago.
Then he said it seemed to him that we were elder for stockings, and I could not argue otherwise. Suppressing a sigh, I replied: ok, stop with the Epiphany stocking.
The truth, however, is that I would still like to sit in front of the fireplace, discover its contents, laugh at the impossible things my dad always managed to stuff in it, and steal -unseen- the sachet with my sister's money (always returned, of course).
I have some memories of Epiphany stockings filled with homemade sweets: pralines wrapped in shiny and colorful papers, peanut brittles, and cookies. Again, tangerines, peanuts, candy coal, and small toys. But it is a fleeting memory. Then, I found only industrial sweets.
Although, the imagination of those who filled them, at least in my case, always made a difference.
Does anyone have a memory related to the Epiphany?
On Epiphany Day, we celebrated the end of the Christmas season with one last festive family meal.
I remember it was a day marked by rigid habits: wake up early, Befana's stocking, breakfast, mass, and family lunch.
The menu almost always included lasagna, twice-cooked meat dish, and dessert.
Among the typical lasagnas for the Befana lunch, I remember the green one a la Bolognese. Another possible option was the white one with cheeses. Or, with mushrooms and béchamel sauce.
The twice-cooked meat (lesso rifatto), an Artusi recipe, is the piece of beef cooked in broth and then cooked again.
So far, I have not mentioned dessert. Although, of course, the meal would end with it. This menu item changed every year, but the recipe was always sumptuous.
I thought of a Befana menu for you:
carasau bread lasagna. I prepared this dish with carasau bread instead of the traditional pasta dough (sfoglia). You know, it’s very quick! Carasau bread is a thin flatbread made of flour, semolina, water, salt, and yeast. Baked twice, in the end, it is super crispy.
Burritos are a good alternative.twice-cooked meat, I love it.
stuffed pandoro, a dessert suspended between the ordinary and the extraordinary, the festive and the every day, the spoon and the fork.
I serve it to you with a Christmas story.
At the bottom, after the menu, find a recipe exclusively for newsletter readers, that of my chocolaty truffles.
Befana’s menù
Pumpkin carasau bread lasagna with provola cheese
serves 4
rectangular baking tray 26×19
Ingredients
carasau bread, about 250g
cooked flesh pumpkin, 600g
smoked provola cheese, about 350g diced or thin sliced
grated Parmigiano reggiano, 150g
shallots, about 10
grated nutmeg, salt, olive oil and butter to taste
Twice-cooked meat
serves 4
Ingredients
boiled meat, 600 g
carrot, 1
onion, 1 small
stalk celery , 1
salsa di pomodoro, 300g
water, 100 g
bay leaves, 3
Stuffed pandoro
6 serves
Ingredients
1 kg of pandoro
500 g of mascarpone cheese
100 g of heavy cream
70 g of icing sugar
70 g of chocolate drops
powdered sugar and fresh raspberries to decorate
Read the method (and the Christmas tale) on the blog.
Cocoa and chocolate tartufini (truffles)
for about 20 / 23 truffles
Ingredients
150 g dry cookies
30 g peeled almonds
10 g chocolate chips
50 g of bitter cocoa
40 g icing sugar
130 g mascarpone cheese
Method
Finely chop cookies, almonds, and chocolate chips in a mixer.
Pour mixture into a bowl, add cocoa and powdered sugar, and stir.
Add mascarpone cheese, knead with your hands until you have a shiny, firm, chewy dough, and form into balls.
Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Store in the refrigerator for several days.
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