Smart Bunnies
Bunnies don’t belong to the Italian Easter tradition, we have sheep and doves instead which derive from Christian symbology. Our Easter national cake, ‘Colomba’, is, in fact, in the shape of a dove and it’s a cake, like ‘Panettone’, which we don’t bake at home, they’re mostly industrially produced. I did try to make a ‘Colomba’ a few years ago, but I can't say it was a success: the cake I made tasted very different... Was it the recipe which wasn’t good or was it me? I don’t know, maybe the two of them, but I was so disappointed that I've never tried again.
In Sicily they make marzipan sheep for Easter and there’s always been one on my table on Easter day, my aunt sends us one every year. Anyway since I like to borrow recipes
from other countries’ traditions you’ll find bunnies in all shapes on my Easter table. We don’t see hopping bunnies in Spring in Italy, they don’t live in the wild, but they’re usually bred in cages to be sold and eaten, a rather prosaic vision of this sweet and docile animal! I’d rather picture it through Beatrix Potter’s stories and drawings and love to identify them with Peter Rabbit and his little siblings. The colourful ribbon around these rabbits’ necks is my homage to Peter Rabbit in fact!
Song: Piggies
Have you seen the little.... rabbits hopping in the park?
See recipe:
