THE "WHAT I ATE AT XMAS" POST!

It had to come, folks, and here it is!

At Raffaele's on Thursday there were these treats on offer - and yes, I was servita after minimal waiting this time!

Later on Christmas Eve I was invited to eat focacce with Irma and family.

Irma made this lovely table decoration.

Focacce are traditional on Christmas Eve in Sicily and Irma, like most Sicilian women, makes her own:

This one is filled with patacche [or topinambur in dialect] which are Jerusalem artichokes:






This one is filled with sausage



and the middle one here with ricotta:




Broccoli [cauliflower] is the most traditional filling for the vigilia:

This one has a meat filling, though some Sicilian families do not eat meat on Christmas Eve:



My contribution to the feast was my "quickest-ever lemon cake" and I'll be posting the recipe later or tomorrow!

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Irma had made cobaita



and a friend had made and brought her these wonderful biscuits the day before. [Irma must have more will-power than me as she'd kept them!]



Grazie per la bella festa, Irma!


OK, Christmas Day at 1pm and it's off to Gina's mother-in-law's home for another feast!

Just look at this pretty presentation of the antipasti



and then there was a surprise as the pasta was served al cartoccio:



After that there was spicy sausage



and fennel salad



and polpettone made by Gina



followed by a dish of meltingly tender pork



served with a green salad and an aubergine salad:



My "quickest-ever lemon cake" became a "quickest-ever orange cake" as I'd run out of lemons



and then there was my favourite Sicilian dessert, gel al limone:



And to finish there was mouthwatering fruit:

I must tell you that only in Sicily would the men, during Christmas lunch, have a jolly conversation about which cemetery plots they had purchased and only in Sicily would two women produce a meal like that and, when thanked, shrug their shoulders and say,

"Oh, it was just a family meal - nothing special."

Grazie, Gina e grazie alla signora!