Eggs are the true queens of Easter, also driven by the latest studies that recognize them as a healthy, balanced and “fat-cutting” food. An average egg contains only 78 kcal, but its high protein content is 6.5 grams, or 13% of an adult’s daily requirement. Eggs also qualify as a source of Vitamin A and B12.
Just as there is no shortage of sheep and goat meat cooked in various ways: from baked lamb to grilled kid, up to the leg of lamb with chestnuts and sheep stew. In Piedmont the sheep supply chain has 122 thousand animals for over 2 thousand companies, the goat sector has more than 67 thousand animals and over 3 thousand companies. In Piedmont, the Salame del Papa is also the most popular, a delicious chocolate salami, typical above all of the Alessandria and Langhe area, and is consumed during the Lenten and Easter periods.
According to a curious legend, in fact, in past centuries, during Lent, the consumption of sweets was prohibited, so chefs invented this singular salami to satisfy their customers’ desire for sweetness. The dough must be prepared by mixing soft butter with icing sugar and then adding cocoa, eggs, crumbled dry biscuits, Piedmont IGP hazelnuts and rum. After giving it the shape of a salami, it should be left to rest in the refrigerator for at least half a day and then it can be enjoyed.
However, there is also no shortage of Tirà, typical biscuits from Crescentino, in the province of Vercelli, rustic, similar to tiny loaves that children willingly dip in milk and adults in a fortified wine. Once upon a time, women prepared them in their own kitchens and then took them to be cooked in communal ovens.
“There continues to be a trend towards traditional Easter cuisine either on a farm or directly at home for those who choose to cook in order to reduce costs, which have been pushed through the roof by high prices,” they say Cristina Brizzolaripresident of Coldiretti Piemonte, e Bruno Rivarossaconfederal delegate”.
“From meat to eggs, the advice is to choose the company sales points and markets of Campagna Amica in Piedmont to bring only genuine, fresh food of safe origin to the table. Made in Piedmont eggs, moreover, benefit from a labeling system cutting-edge – conclude the two representatives of Coldiretti – through the stamping on the shell, they were among the first foods to have traceability thanks to the system that allows us to trace, for example, the type of farming (0 for organic, 1 for open, 2 on the ground, 3 in cages) and to the state in which they were placed (e.g. IT). A method that gives further guarantee to consumers who are increasingly looking for traceability of what they buy and bring to the table”.
