Casa Verde Blog

This is the Lent Season around Europe, Lent is old English for Spring, and many different areas have varying traditions. We have, elsewhere in these blogs, talked about the Carnivale season in Italy. Sadly, the pandemic has meant that many of these have been cancelled this year. Still there are the food traditions that cover this period. In the open stalls in town and cities there are the traditional festive foods for sale. Brightly coloured pastries and sweets that attract children, along with the fancy dress costumes that they like to wear. This is a familiar sight in these early spring days after the darkness of winter. Don’t forget that in many countries ‘Martedi Grasso‘ {Fat Tuesday) is a national holiday. In the UK it’s Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, where Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and were “shriven” or absolved from their sins.

According to the legend, the first Brigidini were made by mistake by St Brigida’s nuns while preparing some food or even ‘hosts’ for the Mass, in the 13th century. The name derives from the saint, (that’s the Swedish Brigitta not the Irish one apparently}. They are simply very thin biscuits, a little like waffles and often come in long strips and served in long paper bags. They symbolise the beginning of lent, rather like pancakes do in other countries. The using up fat and flour before the fasting of the Lent period.

Should you get the urge you can try making them with this recipe. This may be useful if at this time of the year if you can’t be there in Italy. Enjoy them anyway and we hope to see visitors in Tuscany some time in the new few months.

These treats originate from a small town near Casa Verde called Lamporecchio (very close to Vinci the birthplace of Leonardo!)

Try Making Your Own Brigidini

Ingredients for 60 Brigidini

• 400 gr baking flour
• 200 gr sugar
• 50 ml olive oil
• 6 eggs
• 1 tablespoon aniseeds
• pinch of salt and vanilla extract

Preparation

Beat eggs until frothy, then add sugar and aniseeds. Work the mixture vigorously adding flour, salt and vanilla until you get a fairly smooth and soft dough. Let the dough rest for 1 hour in a dry and cool place. When the 60 minutes are up, cut the dough into small pieces and make many balls as big as nuts. Roll them out thinly, to make the wafers. Place onto a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper, allowing room for the wafers to spread. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C and bake Brigidini for about 15 minutes.

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