Easter Monday Traditions Live On, Covid-19 or Not!

Italy’s RAI TV news programs on Easter Monday reported cars on the autostrade stopped by police, irresponsible Italians being heavily ticketed for trying to deny lockdown regulations which have confined us to an area not more than 200 m. from our homes since March 11, 2020.

Anyone tuned in to the news knew where they were headed: with their families for the traditional Easter Monday picnic in the countryside or at the seaside.

Watching the news, sparked an idea: we’d have our traditional Easter Monday picnic – legally – just a couple meters from our dining room door.

Preparing it and sharing it together proved a sure way to ward off a possible CPA (Coronavirus Panic Attack).

The menu revolved around whatever we had in our home: Peppa’s cheese bread from our Easter Sunday breakfast, Sicilian marinated zucchini (that I had in the freezer), salad from our garden, some of Pino’s capocollo, a frittata made with our chickens’ eggs and parsley from our garden and a potato salad topped with our chives.

And then Pino added a surprise dish: he decided to grill the remaining marinated goat ribs we’d had for Easter Sunday lunch:

While Pino grilled, I headed to our garden to cut a generous bunch of parsley for la frittata:

After whisking 6 eggs with salt and pepper (q.b. “quanto basta” or “as much as you need”), I chopped and finely diced the parsley, using our beloved mezzaluna (literally, “half-moon”)….

….and also diced half an onion:

After washing four potatoes and putting them on to boil in salted water,

….. I continued with la frittata. After covering the bottom of a non-stick frying pan with our olive oil, I added the diced onion when oil was hot.

After simmering onions on low heat just a few minutes, I poured in the beaten eggs and sprinkled in the parsley as the eggs just began to set.

I sliced a soft cheese we had in the fridge, putting the pieces in the dish where the eggs had been beaten, to absorb remaining egg:

I added that cheese to the frittata…..

…..and then a bit of breadcrumbs (about 1/4 c) and a few spoonfuls of parmigiano:

The frittata was soon set and it was time to flip it, using my favorite “flipping lid,” a treasured battered aluminum lid given to me in the 1970’s by a farm woman neighbor, Mandina, when we owned just a few pots:

I use it just for “frittata-flipping” as it’s nearly a perfect fit to my frying pan.

I flipped the frittata onto the lid….(and you can see me here, flipping a frittata)

…..and then slid it back into the frying pan (for browning just a couple minutes on the other side):

And then onto the plate for slicing, that golden frittata.

After the boiled potatoes (cooked in salted water) had cooled, I peeled them and added diced fresh chives, olive oil, wine vinegar, salt, pepper (all ingredients, q. b.):

I diced a red onion……

….. and added it to our garden salad…….

….seasoning the salad with salt, wine vinegar, olive oil (in that order – and each ingredient, q. b.).

As I finished these dishes, Pino called to let me know the grilled goat was ready.

The table was set (paper plates) and Pino’s vino rosso was on the table….

….as well as the eggs and capocollo we had enjoyed for the traditional Umbria Easter Sunday breakfast…

….and the Sicilian zucchini/mint antipasto as well as a topping of sun-dried tomatoes/olives for the grilled goat ribs:

An ample and abundant Easter Monday picnic…

….that concluded with a dessert: the rabbit cake I’d made for Easter Sunday lunch….

…but by Easter Monday and our picnic lunch, the rabbit’s ears were missing…..

……and gratefully, any thoughts of our obligatory coronavirus lockdown had disappeared, too.

Click here to see Mandina (in the late 1970’s) who gave me my treasured “flipping lid”

Click here to see me flipping a frittata on YouTube

Click here for the recipe for Sicilian zucchini marinated with mint

Read about frittata-making at one of my US cooking classes

Click here for a baked pasta recipe for Good Friday this year as a “coronavirus diversion”

Read about an Umbria Easter Sunday breakfast

Click here to see Pino and his goats