Italy In SF

During the month of February Carnevale celebrations follow each other. This is the time of the year when Venice goes in full costume during the weekends, and street parades take place every weekend in every other town, culminating on Fat Tuesday, Martedi’ Grasso, which this year falls on February 24th.

Traditionally, this is the time of the year when you start seeing chiacchiere in the bakeries, a sweet fried dough dusted in powder sugar that, while changing its name in each region is remarkably similar throughout the peninsula! Chiacchiere are also called bugie, sfrappole, frappe, risole, crostoli and many more, but they are always the delicious treat that is only on the table for the next two weeks! Same goes for castagnole, or zeppole, small balls of fried dough sometimes filled with egg custard. It is hard not to miss the Cranevale sweets this time of the year!

February is also a time of meat- in fact, the name Carnevale comes from the Latin carnem levare, which means “to take away the meat”. Historically, in fact, lent, which marks the end of Carnevale with Ash Wednesday, is a time of fasting and meat was not an “allowable” food during this time of abstinence. Carnevale, by definition a time of excesses, used to be the last time when you could eat meat. In addition to that it is during the winter months that pigs are killed and cured meats prepared, due to lack of refrigeration in the old times! Sausages are still made before the beginning of lent, in February, with some of them then let to dry for a couple of months to make salami. (Yum!)

If you’d like to try out some of the most traditional Carnevale dishes, Rosetta over at Cooking with Rosetta has a Carnevale class on Martedi’ Grasso where students will make their own sausages as well as chiacchiere. Please check her website for more info!

Filed under: Culinary Culture, Events