THE CULINARY TRADITIONS OF CHRISTMAS IN CATANIA

If you are planning a holiday in Sicily for the upcoming Christmas holidays, beyond to culture and traditions, get ready to enjoy the many culinary specialties. The island offers visitors dishes with unforgettable flavors and aromas. Each province is distinguished by its delicacies. A Catania, during the Christmas period, there are many culinary traditions that can be tasted. Here are some of these dishes.

 

KEEP OUT

It is a focaccia of leavened dough flattened at the edges and proposed in numerous variations. The traditional one is stuffed with tuma, poached broccoli and olives, to which you can add the sausage, but it is also found topped with ham, tomato, tuma and spring onion or with cauliflower, olives and pepper. A must on the Etnean tables on the evening of Christmas Eve.

 

FRIED COD

Another specialty in Catania is fried cod. Small pieces of cod, passed in batter and then fried. A simple but very tasty dish. To be eaten still hot when it keeps its crunchiness intact. It is a classic of Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas lunch but is also found at New Year's Eve dinner.

 

FALSOMAGRO

 

Among the culinary traditions of Christmas in Catania there is falsomagro, fassumauro in Catania. E’ a large slice of veal filled with cold cuts, egg, cheese and then rolled up. It is usually served with sauce and peas although there are several versions.

 

CRISPELLE

Crispelle with anchovies and ricotta cannot be missing on the tables of the people of Catania, especially for the Christmas Eve dinner. They are prepared with flour and brewer's yeast, then fried and stuffed with the two main ingredients. Also in this case there are several variations.

 

DRIED AND SEASONAL FRUITS

 

The variety of dried fruit present in Catania during the Christmas period is infinite. Give him the inevitable dried figs, with toasted almonds, from peanuts to pumpkin seeds, up to the Bronte pistachio. For seasonal fruit, the queens of the table are oranges and mandarins.

MUSTAZZOLI OR MOSTACCIOLI

 

They are biscuits prepared with a thin pastry, baked in the oven and stuffed with a mixture of cooked wine and dried fruit and then flavored with cinnamon, cloves and orange. They would even date back to the eighteenth century when the nuns of the cloistered convents created them for the holidays..