Buone Feste!

Slowing down for the holidays, Italian-style

Dec 22, 2024

Montalcino is all dressed up for the holidays. Photo credit: Irina Gaj, MontalcinoTuttoAttorno

We’ve been ready to order the windows for our Montalcino house for a few weeks, but we still haven’t received the autorizzazione paesaggistica - the authorization for exterior modifications required under the local historic preservation ordinance.

We updated Angela, our contact, in mid-December that we expected a response by the end of the month. Her email response made me smile:

Closed for two weeks over Christmas and New Year! That sounds lovely.

Here in Ameri-ha, as the Tuscans pronounce it with their soft “c,” most businesses close for just a day, maybe a day and a half. It’s particularly challenging this year, with Christmas and New Year falling in the middle of the week.

Our family gathering has been complicated by several of us having to work on Christmas Eve. Stefano is used to taking calls and messages of happy Santo Stefano from work on December 26th, confusing his well-wishers, as it’s an actual holiday in Italy. We’re hosting a gathering of friends on New Year’s Eve, and I’m already a bit stressed about having everything ready by the time guests arrive, given that our business will be open that day.

We look forward to the day when we, too, can take extended time off holidays. But while cannot close our company for two weeks, we will take a short break from Due Spaghetti over Christmas and New Year to rest, recharge, and spend time with friends and family. We look forward to returning in January, rejuvenated and eager to share more of our favorite recipes and stories with you.

Our Christmas Menu

In Italian tradition, the Christmas Eve meal is fish-based, while pasta and meat are eaten on Christmas Day. We’re following that protocol with a seafood meal on Christmas Eve featuring our favorite antipasti, a creamy risotto for primo followed by a seafood soup with crostini for secondo.

On Christmas Day, I’ll make Stefano’s mom Maria’s lasagne - even though mine never turns out quite like hers - and then Stefano will take over with lamb chops, oven-roasted potatoes, and broccoli rabe for secondo. Dessert will be panettone, salame al cioccolato, tozzetti, and panpepato.

We haven’t finalized our New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day menus yet, but they will look similar, with more fun antipasti on New Year’s Eve thanks to the contribution of friends, such as insalata russa, a distinctly Italian potato salad, and the obligatory lenticchie e cotechino, lentils, and pork sausage at midnight. The lentils, meant to symbolize coins, represent all the good fortune that will come our way in the new year.

As the beverage director of the household, Stefano is in charge of the wine. It will probably include a few of our favorites - an Etna Bianco, Falanghina, or Greco di Tufo with the seafood, a Brunello or Barolo with the lamb, and most definitely a Franciacorta to brindare, or toast the occasion.

Holiday Recipes

We’ll leave you with a sampling of our favorite recipes for the season from our Substack and the Due Spaghetti website. Wishing you happy memories in the kitchen and around the table this holiday season!