Issue 5 - March 10th 2008 - From my kitchen to yours - Easter special

Pasqua, or Easter-time in Italy is in many ways my favourite holiday time of the year. It is much calmer than Christmas, and in some ways more spiritual.

Normally it coincides with the first wave of warm spring weather (… so no chance this year!) and of course, another opportunity for the family to spend time together eating and talking and eating and talking… !

Easter Monday itself is normally the classical day per fare una gita - to go on a trip together. Maybe a picnic in the countryside, or even the first trip to the seaside of the year.

Perhaps my favourite memory though is that every year our local priest would come to bless our house, bringing with him an olive branch as a symbol of peace.

Not only would the priest bless our house, however, he would also bless a basket of hard-boiled eggs we had prepared, so we could then colour and paint them afterwards.

This was perhaps my favourite Easter activity, well, perhaps a close second after eating our uova di cioccolato themselves!

In this special Easter newsletter issue, I’d like to share with you the traditional Italian Easter gifts we have for sale.

As a ‘From my kitchen to yours’ newsletter reader you are entitled to a special 10% discount off any purchases you make from our Easter Gift range (see details below).

Buona Pasqua!

The Colomba Pasquale is the Italian Easter holiday equivalent of the much better known Italian Christmas dessert - panettone.

Our colombe are available in a series of strikingly-designed, re-usable rectangular metal tins that make fantastic gifts.

In addition to the full-sized version, we have a number of gift-wrapped mini-colombe that all have their own delightful terracotta figurines.

To find out about the legend of the Colomba Pasquale and see a full-size photo please either click on the image above or go to our Easter Gift Page.

The Torta Pasquale is a derivation of the Colomba Pasquale.

The Battistero Torte Pasquali are also available in a series of beautifully-designed round metal tins, much like their popular Christmas panettone.

Those panettone tins fast became collectors items as people wanted to collect them both to display and also to re-use e.g. to store other cakes or biscuits.

To see photos of the tins themselves please either click on the image on the right or go to our special Easter Gift Range page.