We definitely pigged out at the Nastri house, hooray!! The Easter meal is something that is very special and traditional. We look forward to somethings only that one time per year. I’m so fortunate to have such a generous & inspiring grandmother– her cooking is out of the world and she lives so close!
On Good Friday we have the coveted “Onion Pie.”
Deeply sauteed onions, spinach, kalamata olives, garlic and lots of oil. The strong briney olives flavor everything, the spinach is so wilted but it kind of holds it together. And the onions and garlic are melt in your mouth happy. It’s all sanwiched in a pizza dough crust- layer on the bottom, a layer on top & sealed closed. The dark filling is so strong and flavorful. This is a personal favorite. I can’t give my grandmother credit for this one, my father is the one who actually slaves away on this piece but once per year, it is brought to my Grandparent’s house and cut up on the center island and enjoyed with lots of conversation, continuously interrupted by the suggestion that we save some onion pie for whichever poor soul isn’t present and could miss out.
Easter Day– we don’t do brunch, and spoil our selves for the feast that will come later in the day. For weeks, homemade sausage has been drying out in my Grandparent’s attic, getting ready to become “Sausage Pie.” Unlike the onion pie, the sausage pie is poured over a pie crust, in a big rectangle pan. Obviously scratch crust. Eggy filling and loaded with the salty, dried sausage. Another love of mine I only see once annually.
Spitzad, the famous, the glorious, the-get-it-while-you-can, soup. For about 90 minutes straight, every time the door opens and new face pops in, you hear “You gotta get spitzad before it’s gone!” Spitzad, pronounced phonetically is a standing tradition in the Nastri house on Easter Sunday. And we try, try, TRY, to save some for everyone, but it doesn’t always work that way. It’s an Italian egg drop soup, infused with lemon and full of tender lamb bits and flavorful asparagus. Traditionally we do not add any pasta to it, it’s just a stewy broth of lamb meat and asparagus. Yummy is an understatement.
There is more: the lovely homemade bread, the tender & perfectly cooked leg of lamb, and other specialties–But these traditions are most special to The Nastri Family.
