Christmas is a time of tradition. Many families have rituals, some have strange games, or specific foods they share together to mark the day. In Italy, often there are trips to mass and pasta making, but more modern Italians like Linda in our team watch American movies instead of going to church. We’ve rounded up a few things we seem to do every year in the blog post below.
What traditions do we have?
Vicky
My Christmas traditions have been in flux since my father died. Pops was safe harbour and home, while Christmas meant a homecoming from wherever I was in the world. Flux is not a bad thing; it means the novel and the new: family, friends, food and even foreign lands. I’m trying to establish a tradition with my husband that we depart for somewhere sunny after the festivities. This year we are going to Cape Town. I’m not a beach person; I love finding food producers and their stories, even though I’m on holiday.
Food-wise, the one constant at Christmas, with whomever we’re celebrating, is smoked salmon. Not any old smoked salmon; my family have been buying a side from the Hebridean Smokehouse for the last 40 years. It’s all you need!
Livia
I take a short break from Granny Finding for the few days over Christmas, but never a break from pasta!
In my family Christmas starts with cappelletti. Here in Faenza, in Romagna, our tradition is to make them with a simple cheese filling and serve them in broth on Christmas Day. In the evenings before Christmas Eve, we all gather in the kitchen: my mother prepares and rolls out the dough, my father mixes the filling, and together we fold the cappelletti as quickly as we can so the dough doesn’t dry out. The broth — always made with capon — simmers for hours and is a flavour I immediately connect with Christmas.
Christmas Eve is different, because in our area it’s customary to eat fish. We usually drive to the Adriatic coast to buy it fresh, then make tagliolini ai frutti di mare and roast a whole fish for the main course. And every year, without fail, we buy our panettone from the same local patisserie.
To me, Christmas isn’t about stockings or gifts; it’s mostly about nimble fingers and conversations that only take place while rounding off and filling tiny little Santa hats of pasta.
Linda
My mum hasn’t changed the Christmas Day menu since before I was born — she’s a firm believer in tradition. For antipasti we keep things simple, because my mum knows that if we overdo it, no one will have room for the precious tortellini. So we start with a few smoked-salmon tartelettes, followed by some local salumi, like salame di Varzi and coppa.
The piatto forte is tortellini in brodo di cappone, which we buy from a local pastificio and have to order well in advance. When my aunt was still alive, she used to make them by hand. As a second course we have cappone with roasted potatoes. And for dessert we have both pandoro and panettone. I’m outnumbered at the table; everyone else is team panettone, while I will forever be loyal to pandoro!
Our timings are a bit wild — we usually sit down around 1:30 and don’t finish until about 5. Afterwards, my dad has his own tradition of walking to the local bar for a coffee (a corretto, of course), while we stay home and put on a Christmas film — Home Alone is always the go-to.
We’re not big fans of games like tombola, but we do love a card game or a bit of chess, so that usually keeps us entertained. Mostly, though, we just relax: drink, chat, snooze (we need to after all that food), and then maybe watch another film.
Michaella
My mum’s side of the family are Italian from Tuscany. And everyone on my mum’s side of the family seemed to marry someone British. What does that mean for me? The best of both worlds.
Every year, there’s a primo of pasta before our turkey and all the trimmings. The pasta varies, but the one thing that is consistent? It’s a porcini funghi sauce, usually cooked up by the most senior (and important member) of the family.
Historically, this was always the responsibility of my late uncle, but now it tends to alternate between my cousin (a chef by trade) and my mamma (a great pasta chef; her secret is just a small amount of panna di cucina which she brings back from Italy every year).
Some other family members might have been involved in the foraging of the mushrooms. They tend to be dried, packaged and posted to one another at first haul. One thing is for sure: we’re absolutely all involved in the tasting of it.
Have you got any of your own family traditions? We’d love to know: hello@pastagrannies.com
