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Published: April 10th 2007
Looking Dapper!
Getting ready to make the Easter Sunday rounds... Yesterday Beth and I attended our first family BBQ - Italian Style. The occasion was “La Pasquetta” or “Little Easter.” This is the day after Easter Sunday and is a national holiday. School is still on spring break and everyone gets together for a celebration of the 2nd official religion in Italy - Eating!
Easter week is a week-long combination of tradition and religion. Last Tuesday we attended a reenactment of the Passion. Unfortunately, it was so crowded that we were unable to see much. But we did end up at Vincenzo’s cousin’s (Mino) house for dolce and caffe; I had a small glass of cognac and dolce. We ended up accepting an invitation to their BBQ on Pasquetta.
The BBQ was held at a small plot of land outside of Brindisi. The land belongs to Silvia’s (Mino’s wife) father. It is about 2 acres and is completely walled in and is primarily a large garden for raising vegetables for the family and relatives. There was a small ramada with grass in one corner on the property.
The day was sunny, bright, and just a bit windy. Fortunately the walls acted as buffers against the wind. As the day went
Sunny but windy
Getting ready for the ritual of the firemaking. on it did get a bit warmer. In attendance at this event were the following people: our good friends Vincenzo & Sara, Mino (Vincenzo’s cousin) & Silvia and two daughters Alice & Christiana and the dog Fox, Giuseppe & Olga (Vincenzo’s cousin) and two daughters Ludovica & Mino and the dog Briciola, last but not least, Francesca (also Vincenzo’s cousin, Francesca, Olga, and Mino are brothers and sister). Briciola and Fox are not related. Hee hee hee.
Ok, moving right along, unlike American style BBQueing, Italians have a much simpler approach. Americans have a wide variety of dishes to accompany the main meat course. Americans also use lots of BBQ sauce before or after the actual searing of dead animal flesh. I think Italians might find that whole debate about “wet” or “dry” BBQ technique to be a bit over the top.
No, Italians cut right to the chase and the BBQ event is all about the meat, or should I say meats. To be fair, we did have a slice of pizza as a kind of antipasti then we proceeded to gorge ourselves on horse, donkey, pork sausage, pork ribs, pork chops, and little sausage shaped rolls of chicken
Checking out the crops
Vincenzo letting me sample some of the fresh stuff...Silvia, Francesca, and Beth looking on... livers, hearts, and parts. There must have been about two pounds of meat for everyone. This ain’t no place for a vegetarian, or perhaps only of the most pretentious variety.
“The guys” instructed me on the proper etiquette of belching - an accepted practice to make room for…yes, more meat. All of which is to be washed down with vino, of course; followed by the traditional Easter dolce “Colomba.” This is a form of bread that tastes suspiciously like the Christmas season bread. They both taste like cinnamon bread. So there you have it: meat, wine, dessert…who could ask for anything more?
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