Celebrating Easter means transcending borders and desiring the unity of different peoples, traditions and cultures. The Resurrection represents the desire for peace and brotherhood and for this reason it is embraced with the same intensity in Europe as in the Americas, Asia and Africa.
Europrodotti guides you through how Christian communities around the world celebrate the rebirth with a universal language of symbols, scents and flavors that finds its ultimate expression in Easter food and specialties.
The scent and taste of Easter
Every culture celebrates Easter through ingredients and recipes rooted in its history and the resources that the land and trade offered to its people. Originally Easter foods were simple everyday dishes enriched for the occasion with aromatic herbs and especially spices, once an ingredient as precious as gold.
Culinary habits repeated first for years, then for decades and finally for centuries have so elevated the dignity of foods like lamb or fish making them fully-fledged protagonists of the ritual of the Feast of the Resurrection. Let's see together how, at different latitudes and longitudes people of not only Christians but also other faiths celebrate Easter at the table.
Africa: one of the liveliest Easters in the world
In the Christian countries of sub-Saharan Africa Easter is a celebration that sees great community participation with intense liturgies and ceremonies accompanied by songs and dances.
The most striking example is that of Ethiopia where the Orthodox Easter, called Fasika, is celebrated with a long fast, then with a solemn celebration on the eve of Easter and finally with a banquet with rich and spicy dishes.
The traditional dish here is the doro wat, a chicken and egg stew seasoned with berbere, a spicy blend of chili pepper, ginger, garlic and fenugreek.
In Egypt the Coptic Christian community celebrates Easter, which they call Eid al-Qiyama, with an initially strict ritual that includes abstinence from meat, dairy, eggs and fish during the days of Lent and a virtually vegan diet. But after weeks of deprivation meat is abundant at the Easter feast.
The signature dish is the fatta, a convivial dish consisting of layers of croutons, white rice and lamb or beef boiled with onion, cardamom and bay leaves then sautéed in butter. This is then poured over with daqqa, a sharp, acidic sauce made with minced garlic sautéed in butter, white vinegar and tomato sauce.
On Easter Monday, the Sham el-Nessim, the feseekh is served. Feseekh literally means stinky fish and its pungent odor clearly divides opinion: you either love it madly or you hate it completely. The main ingredient is sun-dried mullet, salted and fermented for at least thirty days in a sealed container. Spices play a key role when it is served: paprika and black pepper balance the strong odor and cumin aids digestion in a dish that can challenge even the strongest stomachs.
Asia: Easter in the homeland of spices
In Asia Christianity is a minority but even where communities number just a few thousand Easter is a deeply felt holiday.
The Philippines is one of the few predominantly Christian Asian countries on the continent. Celebrations here are spectacular and one of the most emblematic moments takes place at dawn on Easter Sunday with the procession known as Salubong, a term that in the Tagalog language means "meeting" or "welcoming”.
The king of Filipino feasts is the crispy pata, a whole pork shank first boiled and then fried until the rind is crispy. It's served with sawsawan, a sauce made of apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, onion, garlic and chili pepper that lightens the pork's fat.
A king always has a queen at his side, which in this case is the pancit bihon. Its ingredients are noodles, the rice flour noodles ubiquitous in Asian cuisine, pork and chicken strips, shrimp, matchstick vegetables, garlic, onion and black pepper. Sauces play a key role in this dish: soy sauce that replaces salt, oyster sauce that adds a hint of seawater and patis, a fish and salt-based sauce very similar to the legendary garum of the ancient Romans.
In India Christian communities have a limited presence but a rich historical tradition dating back to the arrival of the apostle Thomas in 52 AD. The largest presence is in Goa, Kerala and the northeast.
The typical Easter dish in India is the pork sorpotel. As we all know every part of the pig is used, and in fact in addition to the meat, the liver and heart are also used. In the past blood was also added. The meat is first boiled, then cut into small cubes, fried and finally stewed with cinnamon, cloves, cumin and palm vinegar. Once cooked it is left to rest for two or three days to fully absorb the flavor of the spices.
Sorpotel originated as a humble dish. On the other hand the Lamb biryani, another Indian Easter specialty, belongs to the Mughlai tradition. This term refers to the cuisine that originated in the courts of the Mughal Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries.
The lamb is marinated overnight in yogurt with ginger and garlic. This process causes the lactic acid to break down the fibers of the meat, making it so tender that it melts in your mouth. The meat is then cooked in a pot, alternating with layers of basmati rice, and seasoned with cardamom, saffron, cloves, star anise, bay leaves and fried onions.
In Lebanon and Syria Christian communities have an Easter Sunday lunch based on ouzi, also called ghouzi, a platter of rice and pieces of lamb seasoned with a spice mix called baharat, or the Lebanese seven spices, which includes black pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, cardamom and cumin.
Even in the West people are finally beginning to appreciate Arabic sweets. Easter can therefore be an opportunity to discover the maamoul. This small masterpiece of Middle Eastern pastry is a truly ecumenical dessert because it is prepared by Christian families for Easter, by Muslim families for Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan) and by Jewish families for holidays like Purim. Maamoul is a shortbread cookie filled with dates, pistachios or walnuts. It is spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg and mahlap, a unique spice obtained from the stones of a particular type of cherry, the Prunus mahaleb.
Latin America: an Easter of great devotion
In Central and South American countries the Holy Week is celebrated with great devotion involving the abstinence from red meat not only on Good Friday but also in the days leading up to it. Fish thus becomes the undisputed star of the Lenten menu.
In Mexico, Brazil and the Dominican Republic salted cod is prepared, a legacy of Spanish colonial rule.
In Ecuador kitchens smell of fanesca, a thick soup made with dried cod and twelve types of grains, one for each of the apostles.
In Peru and other coastal countries baked or grilled fish and seafood soups completely replace meat-based recipes.
North America: the great Easter tables
In the United States Easter is a time when families gather around a large table laden with all sorts of goodies. Protestants are less strict about meat consumption than Catholics and in fact their symbolic dish is the Easter ham, baked ham glazed with honey or brown sugar. It's served with a side of baked potatoes covered with cheese sauce, steamed asparagus and glazed carrots.
Eggs are also present, in this case the deviled eggs. These are hard-boiled eggs stuffed with the yolk crushed and mixed with mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, salt, black pepper and sweet paprika.
Eastern Europe: Easter cuisine between spirituality and intensity
In Eastern European countries such as Poland, Romania and Hungary Easter is deeply connected to both religious and social dimensions.
The celebration becomes the moment when extended families gather together first in church, where the dishes are brought in a basket to be blessed, and then they sit down at the table.
In Poland when the baskets are opened they reveal the biała kiełbasa, white sausages made from pork shoulder and belly, boiled or baked and seasoned with garlic, marjoram, salt and black pepper. Curiously ice water is also added to the mixture during preparation, a trick to make the meat less sticky and easier to stuff. The sausages are accompanied by the zurek, a sour rye soup.
In Hungary the húsvéti sonka, literally meaning Easter ham, is served. It is a whole pork leg marinated for several weeks in a salt and spice brine and then smoked over beech wood. On Holy Saturday it is soaked in cold water to mellow its flavor and then boiled over low heat following the rule that the cooking hours must be equal to the kilos of meat. It is eaten thinly sliced with hard-boiled eggs and kalacs, a sweet braided bread.
In Romania the preferred dish is the drob, a meatloaf made from lamb liver, lungs, heart and spleen baked in the oven. The offal is boiled and roughly chopped with generous amounts of fresh spring onions, green garlic, dill, parsley and fresh eggs. Drob is served strictly cold with a side of raw spring onions, radishes and a glass of tuică, a plum brandy that serves as an aperitif.
Western Europe: ancient rites and festive cuisine
In France Easter combines devotion, sense of family and refined gastronomy. From Holy Thursday to Holy Saturday church bells remain silent as a sign of mourning. Then on Sunday, after mass, people return home to enjoy the gigot d'agneau. This dish, very beloved by our French cousins, is a leg of lamb roasted in the oven with generous doses of garlic and rosemary. It is served with a side of flageolets, small green beans, or with a platter of gratin dauphinois, sliced potatoes cooked in milk and cream.
At least once in your life you must witness the giant omelette prepared on Easter Monday in the town of Bessières. In this southern French town, an omelette with as many as 15,000 eggs is prepared. Legend has it that this tradition began after Napoleon ate an omelette here and found it so delicious that he ordered it made for his entire army.
In Germany Ostern sees a mix of current Christian symbols with ancient pagan rites, such as the large open-air fires that symbolize the end of winter and the victory of light over darkness.
On Maundy Thursday green foods are traditionally eaten. One of these is the Frankfurter grüne soße, or Frankfurt green sauce, made with borage, chervil, watercress, parsley, burnet, sorrel and chives. It is used as a condiment for boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs.
The lammbraten is a roast lamb served for Sunday lunch. Its meat is tender and aromatic thanks to an elaborate process of marinating with garlic and rosemary, browning and slow cooking in the oven. It is served with bratensoße, a caramelized sauce made with vegetables, tomato paste, red wine, juniper berries, bay leaves, black pepper, cloves and garlic.
In Spain the Catholic faith is deeply rooted and widespread. Here the Semana Santa is celebrated with spectacular processions and a rich cuisine.
As in Latin America people abstain from meat favoring fish-based dishes. The recipe most closely associated with the Easter table is the potaje de vigilia, a thick and nutritious soup made with desalted cod, chickpeas, spinach, onion, garlic, bay leaves and pimentón dulce, a sweet smoked paprika.
Those who prefer the crispy experience of fried food can choose a steaming tray of buñuelos de bacalao, fried cod balls flavored with minced garlic and parsley.
In the United Kingdom Easter is influenced by medieval traditions such as the organization of fairs and outdoor games and the Maundy Thursday ceremony, where the sovereign bestows silver coins on men and women who have distinguished themselves through their social and religious commitment.
The Anglo-Saxons love meat and in fact the Easter Sunday dish is the roast lamb flavored with garlic and rosemary and served with potatoes roasted in goose or beef fat. The lamb is accompanied by mint sauce, a sour sauce that helps cut through the fat in the meat.
For dessert there are butter and raisin biscuits flavored with cassia oil, made with cassia cinnamon which has a stronger, more pungent and slightly peppery flavor than traditional cinnamon.
Easter means peace. One step toward peaceful coexistence among people can be learning about other traditions, including food traditions. Europrodotti invites you to discover the Easter foods of other communities for the upcoming holidays. Because every dish is a bridge to every people.
Happy Easter from Europrodotti!