The 7 Course Dinner at the Evening before Christmas Eve

Stef Smulders — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 19:42:15 +0000

In our region, the Oltrepò Pavese, exists a tradition from medieval times, called la cena delle sette cene, lâ sénâ di sèt sén in dialect, the meal of seven courses. It consists of a dinner with seven fixed dishes, served on the evening of december 23rd. This is the so-called antivigilia di Natale, the pre-Christmas Eve wake. It is also an old tradition to fast on Christmas Eve, la vigilia, the 24th and for the hardworking farmers to survive they needed a good meal on the 23rd. The meal is abundant but also lean, as there is no meat involved, only fish and egg vegetables.

The symbolic meaning of 7

The number 7 of dishes has all kinds of symbolic meanings, as always with these type of traditions. God took seven days to create the world, there are seven deadly sins, the day has seven hours of daylight in winter. There is also a connection with the classical Saturnalia feast that lasted 7 days from the 17th of december.

The seven courses are:
1. Insâlàtâ âd bidràv, püvrón e inciùd – Salad of beet, anchovis and peppers
2. Turtâ d’sücâ – Pumpkin tart
3. Sigùl cul pen – Filled onions
4. Fas dâ Bâmbén cun l’âjà – Baby Jesus’ diapers with garlic (pasta)
5. Mârlüs cun l’üvâtâ – Cod with an egg
6. Furmâgiâtâ cun mustàrdâ – Cheese with mustard
7. Per giâsö cöt cun i câstégn – Cooked pears with chestnuts

Each of the ingredients has a symbolic meaning as well, the yellow-orange pumpkin represents the sun, onions and garlic are supposed to scare away evil spirits, the broad tagliatelle of the 4th course are called the diapers of the baby Jesus. The cod is in fact stockfish, brought from the Mediterranean dried and conserved in salt along the Salt Roads.

An Italian meal is always accompanied by bread and this holds true for the cena delle sette cene as well. The head of the family would put a large piece of bread, the miccone, on the table to hand out pieces of it at the end of the dinner as a protection against sicknesses.

A few years ago we were invited by Italian friends to share this meal with them. A very special occasion indeed!

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UNESCO recognizes the Italian pizza of Naples

Stef Smulders — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 15:36:50 +0000

The UNESCO not only recognizes World Heritage Monuments but also handicrafts and popular traditions, as I learnt from the Dutch news agencies. The very Dutch profession of the miller had joined one of the several hundreds of already existing heritage crafts! And as my name is Smulders which signifies ’son of a miller’, I was especially pleased. And now the Italian pizza makers are also happy.

Italian handicrafts

The miller profession is the only Dutch one recognized by UNESCO till now, but Italy already has several heritage crafts on the list. This week, the profession of the Neapoletan pizzaiuolo or pizza maker or baker was added to the list! If there would be a list of heritage words Italy would probably record holder and pizzaiuolo would definitely be on it. And what to think of fruttivendolo? In any case, the UNESCO has now explicitely determined that Napels is the real home of the pizza. It was already protected by law by the European Union in 2010.

The pizza of Naples

The first written testimonials about the existence of the pizza are of about 300 years ago. The pizza of Naples is peculiar as it has a cornicione, a thick edge of 1 or 2 cm, in contrast to the most pizza’s made elsewhere in Italy. In all cases the center part is very thin, 3 mm. In the most strict definition there are only two types of Neapolitan pizza, the marinara and the Margherita. The first one is called marinara not because it had a topping of seafood but ingredients that could well be conserved for fishers to prepare on long journeys. The story about the Margherita is well known. The pizzaiolo who invented it thought that a topping of the colours of the Italian flag, tomatoes-red, mozzarella-white, basilicum-green would be a nice surprise for queen Margherita.

Other Italian crafts and traditions on the UNESCO list are the Sicilian puppet theatre, the Sardinian pastoral songs, the Mediterrean diet, the violin making craftmanship of Cremona, falconry and some other things, to a total of eight.

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