Pecorelle di Pasqua 🐑

The Easter season brings a time of reflection, celebration, and new beginnings. For the past 5 years i have hosted my family for Easter dinner all while keeping on the old traditions and creating some new ones. One of the most important part of our meal is the cooked lamb however, i prefer the sweeter version of the marzipan lamb or “Pecorelle di Pasqua”. Lambs represent purity, sacrifice, and symbolize Jesus Christ (the "lamb of God") As such, the Easter sweet often comes with a flag bearing the sign of the cross, a symbol of victory over death.

But why marzipan?

Almonds come into season in October, and provide a highly nutritious, high-calorie food with a long shelf-life to see you through the winter. But in May in Sicily there’s a sudden abundance of fresh fruit that feels like nature going into frenzy. Nature comes back to life and nobody needs boring old nuts any more. So why not use them up with a celebration of Easter? It feels like a celebration of spring ending winter anyway, with its emphasis on resurrection.

This year I actually helped my nonna make her beautiful Pecorelle di Pasqua so I could learn the process and it was actually a lot easier than I thought. She started by melting sugar over ow heat, then added in the almond flour and some water. Mixed it together and we had marzipan or almond paste or “Martorana” like we call it in Sicilian. The fun part was molding the paste which we used nonnas 50 year old molds, made of plaster, that she brought from Sicily. We had to let them dry overnight so she could add the finishing touches and bring these sweet creatures to life! although it's perfect little body looks too good to eat, sometimes you just have to say a prayer and dig in! Buona Pasqua

"America is the land that gave me opportunity" - Angela Gigante

Here is a video from summer 2019 where we interviewed my grandparents...

Question:

What do you miss the most about Sicily when you are in New York?

Nonna:

"What do I miss? great question..I miss all of Sicily. My way of doing things, my family. But I have adapted and I cannot say anything bad about either place. This is my "Motherland" and I love it but New York gave me "opportunity". I was able to work, raise a family, grandkids. Thank you, I'm done! (LOL)

Nonno:

"I'm miss that as soon as we finished building our house, we left for America. and we can never lose the tradition of coming back to Castellammare. A Lot has changed, it has become more modern but here we are!

Cheers to that!

Question:

What word comes to mind when you think of Sicily?

Nonno:

For me, Sicily was "fun"! There was the owner of the "baglio", I would help him tend to the land. Then we would go to Mazzo Di Sciacca and we would drive the fresh water, and while I would drink, my teeth would freeze. It was really something special. Today everything is modern. Theres a ton of stores and restaurants, lots of bars and the people enjoy themselves. They come and go from the beach and the time passes.

Nonna:

"Are you done? For me what comes to mind is that Sicily is the most beautiful place in the world.

Nonno:

"Especially Scopello right?!

Nonna:

Scopello, Castellammare and all of it. My family is first and I hope to keep enjoying it with my kids, grandkids and great grandkids!

If Kiki doesn't love you, Nonna does!

Turn back time to Summer 2018 when Drake's "In My Feelings" was at the top of the charts and "The Kiki Challenge" was a thing! As we were enjoying a nice aperitivo before dinner al fresco one night, of course Drake's "In My Feelings" came on and my cousins and were trying to get nonna to do the "Kiki Challenge". And then it hit me, does it even matter if Kiki loves you? because does!

Does your nonna love you? Get your T Shirt here!