Celebrate Easter the Tuscan Way

How to Celebrate Easter the Tuscan Way

It’s so lovely that spring is finally here with its warmer weather and colourful flowers popping up everywhere. Next month, Easter will be here too and it’s always a fun holiday to celebrate with the family.

Have you planned your Easter celebrations yet? In this article, we will look at how to celebrate Easter the Tuscan way so if you’re interested in learning about Italian Easter traditions, keep reading.

Tuscany is predominantly Catholic so Easter is one of the most important festivals of the year with lots of people coming together to celebrate. Like most Italian celebrations, Easter too is one that features lots of good food and good wine. 

Here in the UK, we have chocolate eggs for Easter, but the tradition in Chianti, Tuscany, is different. It’s still egg themed but instead features chicken eggs that you boil and peel on Easter Eve, then bring them to a midnight mass to be blessed.

The eggs are placed in a basket, protected with doilies, and put on the side altar dedicated to the Madonna. The next day, each family takes their eggs home to eat at the start of the Easter lunch. Everyone recites a short prayer, then eats their egg.

A traditional Tuscan Easter lunch is a true feast! After the eggs have been devoured, it’s time to enjoy the starters – charcuterie, liver spread on crostini and Pecorino cheese. The next course is chicken soup – Zuppa Toscana is a traditional Tuscan soup with chicken, sun dried tomatoes, spinach and Parmesan cheese. 

Next up, the traditional Easter roast which is either lamb or pork served with lots of vegetables and, of course, wine! Wine is an important part of many Italian meals and celebrations and Easter is a great opportunity to select the best bottles of wine. Chianti Classico is a great choice to accompany Easter lunch.

Below are a few brilliant options available from Independent Wine:

• Castello di Radda Vigna il Corno Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2015 – rich and complex with flavours of cherry, blackberry, smoke, dried fig and chocolate. Winner of Gold medal in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2020. 
• Castello di Radda Chianti Classico Riserva 2014 – rich, deep and smooth with flavours of dried red cherry, leather, herbs, vanilla, spice, tobacco and forest. Winner of Silver medal in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2019.
• Castello di Radda Rosato 2019 – a lighter option, this rosé is youthful and fresh and ideal for the sunny spring weather with its flavours of raspberry, strawberry and red grapefruit. 

Celebrate Easter the Tuscan way with great company, great food and great wine! Buona Pasqua! (Happy Easter in Italian)

Looking for an Easter themed dessert to impress your dinner party guests? Check out this Biscoff Cheesecake Easter Eggs recipe!

Collaboration.