Pancake Day!
Today is Shrove Tuesday and I will be having pancakes for dinner. As a kid, we always celebrated fat Tuesday, but not with pancakes. My aunt would throw a party and we would have a mini carnival in her unfinished cement basement. We would have a homemade pinata tied to a sturdy rope, strung over the wooden rafters and operated by one of the uncles. There was also a game where the participants were blindfolded and given a large kitchen knife. You sat in front of a rolling hard boiled egg and had to try to cut it in two – the kids always marveled at how Nonna could do it it one fell swoop of the knife! There were also card games and all kinds of homemade treats. My favourite treats are called ‘strucche’ and they are small balls of dough that are boiled and then baked. They’re usually eaten with salt or covered in honey.
I can’t say that we have continued this lively tradition as adults, as busy lives make weekday party throwing a bit daunting. But I will still be going to my sister tonight to share pancakes and sausages with her family, and we will talk about being kids and eating honey covered strucche at Zia Pina’s house.
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Hi Christine! A comment and a question:
1. I remember those shrove Tuesday festivals like they were yesterday! Just for the record, the treats we ate were called “lo strùsce” and are a close cousin to the southern Italian treat most North Americans know as “struffoli”. Wouldn’t it be yummy to have a handful of them RIGHT NOW?!!
2. My kids want to know why pancakes are traditional today and I don’t know the answer. Do you?
Yes I do know. The reason we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is because in the christian tradition this day marks the beginning of Lent which is a period of fasting, pancakes were made to use up eggs, fat and milk that would be prohibited during Lent.
It’s also the day before carnival starts! It gives you the opportunity to celebrate and to use up special foods before Lent. During Lent, no parties or other celebrations were held, and people refrained from eating rich foods, such as meat, dairy, fats and sugar.