The Christmas decorations sum things up. There are things I have brought back from Britain, Vincenzo from Sicily, and then bits from Rome – some sacred, one rude. A few are old and significant, but most twinkling and cheap, and one – my favourite – a huge pom-pom, I found. Most years a new decoration is added, and at least one lost or broken. This collection is put up differently every year: on a tree, on shelves, or dangled from the inherited candelabra-style light fitting (in which case they may stay up for the rest of the year, the pom-pom bonking tall people on the head).
Our Christmas food and traditions are much the same as the decorations: lots of things, from three places, that we arrange differently each year, hopefully without getting too precious. In the past I have made a traditional English Christmas lunch in Rome: faithful recipes, mostly from Jane Grigson’s English Food, adding fresh bread sauce smudges to page 237 annually. But these English meals have always had Roman and Sicilian trimmings, and vice-versa.
Last Friday morning, as a neighbour hammered a Babbo Natale (Father Christmas) figure to her front door as if he had offended her, Vincenzo’s parents dropped by to talk about this year’s arrangements. I’d planned to open the last jar of 2014 mincemeat – now so seasoned it is boozy – and make mince pies. Instead we worked through a bottle of prosecco and a family-sized bag of crisps while we made plans.
This year for Vigilia – Christmas Eve – as is traditional in Sicily, we will have baccalà (salt cod), but also Roman-style fritti – artichokes and anchovies. Then on Christmas Day, after mushroom paté on hot buttered toast, we’ll have another Sicilian family tradition: a big baked pasta. In essence, this pasta will be rather like Cinzia’s recipe published earlier this year, only enriched for a celebration with more sauce, tiny meatballs, peas and hard-boiled eggs, their yolks glowing richly.
There will be Christmas cake and its Roman counterpart pangiallo (yellow bread), a dense mass of dried and candied fruit, nuts and spices, painted with saffron glaze and baked. It looks odd, but is delicious – an ode to dried, wrinkly fruit, and excellent with sharp cheese.
At some point in the holidays I am going to put on Radio 6, pour myself a large sherry (cheers Grandma Roddy) and make my friend Carla’s pumpkin ravioli, a pasta case around a soft, blazing pillow of roasted pumpkin, ricotta, parmesan and crushed amaretti – so it is both savoury and sweet – served in a pool of sage butter.
We are also going to make porchetta: a piece of pork belly seasoned vigorously with salt, rosemary and fennel seeds, then rolled, tied and roasted until the meat, protected by swirls of fat, is incredibly tender and the skin ruptured into crackling that could cut your lip. Porchetta isn’t traditional in Italy at Christmas, but it’s straightforward to make, celebratory and generous, either feeding a crowd or lasting for days. Braised lentils are a happy sidekick, mellow and earthy. Lentils are traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve in Italy, their shape reminiscent of coins, the idea being the more you eat, the more prosperous a year you’ll have. Sicilian-style spinach (with raisins and pine nuts), and Roman sweet and sour onions, like shiny baubles, make good companions.
Like decorations, the recipes included here are hung all over Christmas, but you could string them together into a single feast – in which case I would like an invite.
Of course, in all these plans something will get lost or broken. As a wise friend of my father’s used to say: “Keep expectations flexible.” It is sound advice – especially in times of joy and sorrow. I say: you can always buy the cake. However you hang your decorations and whatever you eat, I hope your Christmas is as happy as can be.
Mushroom paté
Once made, this paté will keep for several days in the fridge.
Serves 6-8
125g butter
2 large onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1.4kg mushrooms, very finely chopped
125ml white wine
Salt and black pepper
2 tbsp parsley
A pinch of dried thyme
A grating of nutmeg
Bread, to serve
1 Melt the butter and fry the onions and garlic until soft. Add the mushrooms, stir, add the wine, season, and cook until very soft. Drain the liquor from the mushrooms, reserving the mushrooms and onions, into another pan, and then reduce this liquid to a thick syrupy texture.
2 Pass the mushrooms through a food mill or chop finely, then add back to the thick liquor. Add the herbs and nutmeg. The consistency should be firm. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve on top of crostini, slices of baguette or toast.
Pumpkin ravioli
You will need a pasta rolling machine. The secret is rolling the pasta as thin as you can, and then easing the air from each pillow as you would air from a hot water bottle.
Serves 4
For the filling
1kg pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and sliced
300g ricotta
80g parmesan
4 amaretti biscuits
Salt and black pepper
A grating of nutmeg
For the pasta
400g 00 flour
4 eggs
For the sauce
10 sage leaves, finely chopped
150g butter
1 Make the filling by roasting the pumpkin or squash until soft and ever so slightly caramelised. Mash with the ricotta, parmesan, crushed amaretti, salt, pepper and nutmeg
2 On a clean work surface, make a mountain of the flour, then swirl your fist in the centre to make a wide crater. Break the eggs into the crater, use a fork to whisk them and then start mixing the flour into the egg. Once half the flour is mixed in, use your hands to bring everything into a rough ball. Knead the dough using the ball of your hand, rotating as you go until the dough is smooth and soft as a baby’s bum – about 8 minutes but maybe more. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes under a bowl.
3 Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Set the pasta machine to the widest setting, pat one quarter into a flat patty and pass through the machine, twice, then lay on a floured board, rubbing the sheet with flour. Do the same with the other three quarters. Reduce the setting by one, and pass all four sheets through again. Repeat until you have passed all four sheets through all settings – for ravioli you want the thinnest dough. You want sheets 10cm wide and a manageable length so cut them if necessary.
4 On a work surface dusted lightly with flour, lay out the pasta sheets. Using a teaspoon, put acorn-sized mounds of the filling mixture at 3½cm intervals until you have covered half of each strip of pasta. Fold the other half of the pasta sheet over to cover the heaps of filling and then firmly press your fingertips between and around the mounds to seal them. Cut the ravioli apart with a wheeled cutter, then put them on a clean tea towel or flour-dusted tray, making sure they don’t touch each other or they will stick.
5 To cook the ravioli, bring a large pan of water to the boil, add the salt, stir and then carefully drop the ravioli into the pan a few at a time. Depending on the thickness, ravioli takes anything from 4–6 minutes. Test for doneness by eye, pinching the edge of the pasta and tasting. Don’t leave it unattended.
6 While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a small saucepan or frying pan over a low heat. Increase the heat and add the sage leaves and allow to sizzle gently. Pour over the ravioli.
Porchetta
Make sure you rest the meat according to the instructions – rest is key here.
Serves 6 generously, with leftovers for sandwiches
1 x 3kg porchetta joint – a rectangular piece of pork belly (with skin)
Salt
1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
1 tsp peperoncino (dried chilli flakes)
2 tbsp rosemary, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground fennel seeds, or fennel pollen if you can find it
1 Put the pork skin-side down on a clean work surface, season it generously with salt, then massage the salt into the flesh with your fingertips. Sprinkle over the black pepper, chilli flakes, rosemary, garlic and fennel and massage again. Roll the pork up as neatly and tightly as possible. Tie it at 2cm intervals with kitchen twine. Prick it all over with a larding needle or the tip of a very sharp knife. Cover the pork first with greaseproof paper, then with foil, and leave it to rest for at least 12 hours in the fridge.
2 Remove it from the fridge at least 1 hour before roasting and preheat the oven to 160C/325F/gas mark 3. Use a clean, dry cloth to pat the meat very dry, rub vigorously with a handful of coarse salt, and put it on a rack over a large baking tray. Slide the pork into the middle of the oven and roast for 4½ hours. For the last half an hour, crank the oven up to maximum to crisp the skin, so that it almost ruptures into deep golden crackling. The meat inside will be soft and succulent. Leave the meat to rest, uncovered, for at least an hour before eating.
Braised lentils
Serves 6
500g small brown Italian lentils
2 bay leaves
An onion, peeled and finely diced
A carrot, peeled and finely diced
A stick of celery, peeled and finely diced
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to finish
Salt and black pepper
A handful of parsley, finely chopped
1 Rinse the lentils and check for stones. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the lentils and bay leaves and cook until the lentils are tender, but not mushy. Drain.
2 In a large, deep frying pan over a medium-low heat, fry the diced vegetables in the olive oil, with a pinch of salt, until very tender.
3 Add the lentils, season boldly, and stir. Leave to rest for at least 30 minutes. Just before serving, reheat gently and add the parsley and another couple of tablespoons of olive oil for shine.
Spinach with pine nuts and raisins
You only want the leaves to wilt initially, and lose some water. In the second pan, stir until each leaf glistens.
Serves 4–6, as a side
30g raisins or sultanas
500g spinach leaves (not baby spinach)
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
20g butter
30g pine nuts
1 Soak the raisins in warm water for 10 minutes. Rinse the spinach well, discard any wilted or bruised leaves and trim away any thick, woody stalks. Put the spinach in a large pan with nothing but the water that clings to the leaves, cover the pan and cook over a low heat until the spinach has collapsed. This should take about 3-5 minutes, depending on the freshness and age of the spinach.
2 Drain the spinach in a colander and press gently to get rid of excess water. Peel and crush the garlic cloves with the back of a knife. In a large frying or sauté pan, cook the garlic gently in the olive oil over a medium-low heat until it is fragrant, then remove and discard it.
3 Add the butter, let it foam slightly, then add the pine nuts and turn them in the oil before adding the spinach and a pinch of salt. Cook for 2 minutes, or until the leaves glisten. Drain the raisins and add them to the pan, turn the ingredients a couple more times and serve.
Roman-style sweet and sour onions
Sticky and delicious, these onions also make an excellent antipasti.
Serves 4–6, as a condiment
600g very small onions or shallots
1 garlic clove
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt, to taste
2 heaped tbsp sugar
Red wine vinegar
1 Peel the onions. Chop two of them very finely along with the garlic and cook them gently in the olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan.
2 Once the onion and garlic are soft, golden and translucent, add the rest of the whole onions, stirring so that they are all well-coated with oil. Sprinkle with salt and sugar, then almost cover them with a mixture of half water and half vinegar – the amount will depend on the size of your pan.
3 Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Half-cover the pan and leave it to bubble gently for about 1½-2 hours, turning the onions every now and then. They’re ready when all the liquid has evaporated and they are very soft, sitting in dark, shiny, sticky sauce.
Caramel oranges
Elizabeth David’s introduction to these oranges in Italian Food is as delightful to read as they are to eat.
Serves 4
4 large unwaxed oranges
100g caster sugar
1 Using a vegetable peeler, carefully pare away the zest from 2 oranges, taking as little pith as possible. Cut this zest into matchstick-sized lengths and cover it with cold water in a small pan. Bring to the boil and cook for 7 minutes to remove the bitterness, then drain.
2 Now, working with a sharp knife, pare off the white pith from the zested oranges, and remove the peel and pith from the other ones. Set the oranges aside.
3 Make a syrup by dissolving the sugar in about 250ml water over a low heat, then increasing the heat and boiling until it reduces and forms a syrup that coats the back of a spoon. Roll the oranges in the syrup, then let them sit for about 5 minutes, turning and rolling from time to time so they soak up as much as possible. Arrange the syrup-soaked oranges on a serving plate.
4 Put the blanched zest matchsticks in the syrup over a medium heat, bring to the boil and cook until they are translucent and just beginning to caramelise. Arrange a little pile of zest on top of each orange, pour the syrup over each one, then chill before serving.
Pangiallo – yellow bread
Use wet hands to shape the pangiallo, moulding and pressing it into a flattened ball. Pangiallo gets better with time, so, if you can, make it at least a few days in advance.
Makes 2 small cakes, or 16-20 slices
100g sultanas
100g dried figs
150g candied fruit or peel
200g mixed nuts, such as almonds, pine nuts, hazelnuts and walnuts
100g plain flour
½ whole nutmeg, grated
A pinch of cinnamon
½ tsp black pepper
150g honey
80g icing sugar
For the glaze
A few threads of saffron
2 tbsp warm water
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 Soak the sultanas in a little hot water for 10 minutes. Chop the figs into eighths and dice the candied fruit if it is in large pieces. Once the sultanas are plump, squeeze out any excess water.
2 In a large bowl, mix together the dried fruit and chopped nuts, then add the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper and stir again or toss with your hands so that each piece of fruit or nut is well coated.
3 Preheat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3½ and line a baking tray with baking parchment. In a small pan over a medium heat, warm the honey with 1 tablespoon water, add the icing sugar and stir until it bubbles at the edges. Pour the honey mixture over the fruit and nut mixture, then use a spoon to mix the ingredients until you have a lumpy and sticky but consistent mass. Divide the mass in half, then shape it into 2 round loaves about 3cm deep and 15cm wide. Sit them on the prepared baking tray.
4 Make the glaze by dissolving the saffron in the warm water, then add the yolks, flour and icing sugar. Beat well until they form a yellow paste, then brush over the tops of the loaves.
5 Bake for 30 minutes, or until they are firm and golden at the edges, and the glaze is bright yellow.
Rachel Roddy is a food writer based in Rome, the author of Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome (Saltyard) and winner of the André Simon food book award
