CARNIVAL

Carnival is a Christian festival, but its origin is probably pagan. The name “Carnevale” comes from the latin words “ carnem levare”, which mean “ excluding meat”. That’s because this festival is celebrated in the period before Lent, when the ancient Christians weren’t allowed to eat any meat until Easter. The length of this festival can change in the different countries, but the true celebration lasts six days, from Thursday before Lent to Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. In Italy we have a lot of cities and towns celebrating Carnival in different ways, but there is a common theme for all of them: forgetting everyday problems, joking and having fun. So people wear masks and fancy dresses, (especially children), take part in parades and dancing parties, play jokes. A classical Carnival sentence is “ a Carnevale ogni scherzo vale”, whose translation is “ at Carnival every joke is allowed”. The most famous Italian Carnivals are in Venice, where people wear wonderful costumes, and in Viareggio, in Tuscany, where you can admire parades of floats. But in Sicily too we have great Carnivals, and in our zone the most interesting are in Acireale and in Misterbianco. Carnival of Acireale is known as “Il più bel Carnevale di Sicilia”, (“The most beautiful Carnival in Sicily”). The peculiarity of this Carnival is the wonderful floats made in papier – maché by clever artisans. Each float represents caricatures of famous people, especially politicians, moving by hidden works and brightened by several lights. There are some floats covered with flowers, too. In Carnival time, in the streets of the town centre, there are parades of these floats, followed by people joking, dancing and throwing confetti, while a cheerful music is heard all around. On Shrove Tuesday , at midnight, a price is won by the best float. Carnival of Misterbianco is based on parades of parties wearing costumes. Each party, made up of hundreds of people, represents a theme , and each person wears a splendid and elaborate costume. The masked parties dance on parade through the streets of the town centre, admired by the crowd around them. At Carnival Sicilian people cook special dishes. (In this period people eat a lot…). Three typical Carnival recipes are “Chiacchiere”, “Ciambelline fritte” and “Maccheroni di casa”. Happy Carnival !!!

Le maschere di carnevale The Italian Carnival masks

Costruire maschere dei cartoons

Making cartoons masks

material: paper plate (orange) glue scissors colors

model Paperina

Model Paperino

Making a carnival puppet (ARLECCHINO)

FRONT

BACK

Ricette di carnevale

Maccheroni di casa.

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

½ Kg durum wheat flour;

Water (what is necessary).

PREPARATION:

Knead the flour with the water, work it until you have a uniform and consistent dough. Take a little dough, roll it until you have a cord with a diameter of about 1,5 centimetres. Cut it into cubes about 1,5 centimetres long. Then use a piece of iron obtained by a broken umbrella or a wooden spit to roll each cube around it until you have the “maccherone”. Take gently it off the spit , lay all the maccheroni on a white canvas and, if it is possible, let them dry about 12 hours.

Cook the maccheroni in lavish salted water. Strain and serve them preferably with some meat sauce. ( In Italy we call it “Ragù”).

Enjoy your meal!

Frittelle di Carnevale Carnival Fritters

Many traditions are vanished or changed, but fried pastries are still the protagonist of the Fat Tuesday cookery.

2 oz (50 g) corn starch 1 cup (150 g) flour 1 1/4 cups (300 cc) water 2 oz (50 g) butter pinch of salt 2 oz (50 g) sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla powder 6 large eggs 1 tablespoon baking powder 2 apples, cores, peeled, finely diced 3 oz (100 g) raisin 2 oz (50 g) pine seed Powdered sugar for finishing

PREPARATION:

In a bowl sift together the flour and corn starch.

In a saucepan on medium heat place water, butter, and pinch of salt.

As soon as the water starts boiling, remove from heat and add the flower mixture.

Stir vigorously to combine.

Place the pan back on the heat. Stir until the dough will appear dry and comes off the walls of the pan.

Remove from heat. Add the sugar, vanilla. . . and one egg.

Stir very fast to combine the egg.

Repeat the step of adding the eggs one at a time, and stirring, until all the eggs are incorporated to the dough.

At this point add the baking powder to the dough, and . . . combine raisins and diced apple.

In a skillet bring the oil to frying temperature. Place the dough in the hot oil one tablespoon at the time.

Fry them until the fritters are golden.

Remove the fritters from the skillet and place on kitchen paper to drain the excess oil. Top with powdered sugar, and serve at once when still hot.

Chiacchiere recipe

(a classic Carnival treat)

Chiacchiere basically means chit chats, the idea is because they are crunchy and when you eat them they produce a noise that make you think of chit chatting. In some parts of Italy they are called bugie (lies) or frappe or crostoli.

500 g Flour 00 type

50 g sugar 50 g softened butter 3 small eggs a small glass of grappa (or white wine) a pinch of salt

PREPARATION:

Work the ingredients adding the grappa a little at the time to adjust the necessary liquid content to get to a smooth, pretty stiff dough. Should be like a pasta dough.

Let rest covered for one hour. After the resting time, on a work surface generously sprinkled with flour, use a rolling pin to flatten the dough until it is very thin.

With a pastry wheel Cut the flattened dough in rectangular shapes, approximately 4 x 2 inches (10 x 5 cm).

In a large skillet, bring the oil to frying temperature. Fry no more then 3 chiacchiere at the time and turn them after few seconds, they should be of a nice golden colour, not dark.

Transfer to a serving plate and sprinkle generously with powdered sugar.