Come with me to discover a typical Easter lunch in Rome, imagine sitting down with your family for this celebration and enjoying the local delicacies.
Are you ready for this culinary tour de force? Only the bravest will make it to the last course!
Let’s start with the fundamentals, Easter is celebrated with the family, big or small, that’s the way things are. You might be able to celebrate with friends, but if you have a grandmother like mine you won’t be allowed to. If you want to be with friends, there is Easter Monday, where we usually have a barbecue in the park, always threatened by the misfortune of rain. This is not a euphemism if you are in Rome on Easter Monday you can be sure that it will rain 100%….
The typical Easter breakfast in Rome
I should mention that before lunch we have our Easter breakfast, which is usually very rich and includes a large number of dishes ranging from sweet to savory: cold meats and sausages of all kinds, including the typical Corallina, hard-boiled eggs, savory pies, hot homemade bread or toasted bread and the famous beaten pizza.
Already tired from breakfast, now the main meal of the day awaits us.
Authentic Easter lunch in Rome
Every authentic Easter lunch starts with an appetizer, and in Rome artichokes are a must, usually accompanied by hard-boiled eggs and a variety of cold cuts. Traditionally, there is also stracciatella, a meat broth in which beaten eggs are cooked with salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and nutmeg.
For the first course, people often prefer fresh pasta, usually homemade, following the rule of 1 egg for every 100g of flour. If you prefer, you can also buy it, there are plenty of pasta factories, no one will notice the difference, and you may even receive compliments, even if undeserved.
Alternatively, we eat lasagne or cannelloni, great classics of Roman Sunday lunches, with meat sauce or stuffed with artichokes.
The real protagonist of Roman Easter is “abbacchio” the baby sheep that is fed only on its mother’s milk, this makes it particularly tender and sweet meat.
Baked with potatoes, grilled, fried, there are dozens of ways to prepare and enjoy lamb, and they are all delicious.
By now you will be very full, but it’s not over yet….
There is a set of cakes waiting to be eaten!
From the classic colomba, artisan or bagged, the choice is yours, it’s still good.
Even if it is not really part of the Roman tradition, the pastiera, a typical Neapolitan traditional Easter cake, made with shortcrust pastry, wheat, ricotta cheese, eggs and the intense scent of orange blossom, is very popular.
At the end of the meal, the little ones open the chocolate eggs, and you certainly can’t resist trying a piece of it.
At this point I imagine you full and satisfied, with your trouser belt loosened, enjoying a good bitter to digest.
Are you ready for another round? Join us for one of our Rome Tours and get the chance to taste on of these delicacies!
