Spring Holidays are upon us and with Holidays come food memories. Traditional Holiday foods always bring back remembrances of Holidays past when dishes decorate the Holiday table.
It’s always fun to find out about my family tree through the traditional foods. If you want to explore your family history, think of “what was your first memory of food’? what was your typical family meal? what types of food were around the house? what foods were made to celebrate Holidays?
One of my favorite Spring dishes is Crespelle with Fresh Asparagus. Crespelle is an Italian version of a crepe. These are served as a first course and was sometimes a usual Holiday dish.Crespelle are traditional fare from the Abruzzo region of Italy, where my family originated from.
Crespelle with Asparagus
(from The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions-2nd edition
Serves 4.
For crespelle:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ cup milk
- 4 eggs
- Pinch of salt
Filling:
- 1 lb fresh asparagus
- 1 cup fresh ricotta cheese
- 1 cup fresh ricotta cheese
- freshly grated Parmigiano–Reggiano cheese
- 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites
- Pinch of salt
Wash, clean, and steam asparagus. Cut off tips.
In a bowl, place in ricotta, grated cheese, whole egg, egg whites, asparagus tips, and pinch of salt. Blend with wooden spoon and set aside.
In another bowl, place in all ingredients for crespelle. Blend with wire whisk. Heat a nonstick crêpe pan and cook crespelle. Use 1 tablespoon for each. When finished with batter, stuff crespelle with ricotta mixture.
Lightly butter a casserole dish. Place filled crespelle in dish. Top with freshly grated cheese. Bake 10 minutes or until top of crespelle are golden. Serve.
**Love hearing all your Spring Holiday Food Memories. Please don’t keep them all to yourself. Share them here with all our readers!!
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Hi,
Thanks! Nice article! BTW, which is your favorite holiday, and why? Just curious! 😉
Harry: thanks for visiting. Although it is difficult to pick only one Holiday, I would have to say that Christmas Holidays are my favorite. In Italy it is almost a never ending celebration. Traditional Holiday foods like Panettone, Pan D’Oro, torrone, chocolate covered figs and others are all readily available for the most part, only at this time of the year. Many of the bakeries in small local towns and villages sell that towns’ traditional recipes only this time of the year.