From Riccione to Kielce: I Tell You My Place at Christmas Time

Italy is well known for the countless food specialities that can be found everywhere in the country and Emilia-Romagna in particular is one of the richest regions for enogastronomy. There are plenty of ancient recipes and the traditions of some dish date back to 1500. Most people in this area were poor and couldn’t have rich dishes exept in festivities. For example in Christmas time there are various typical dishes that local people always consume, like Cotechino with Lenticchie, Cappelletti and Pandoro. Cotechino with Lenticchie: Two typical pork products prepared for Christmas and New Year's dinner are cotechino and zampone; in the former, pork meat is inserted in the natural rind ("cotica") whereas in the zampone it is inserted into the leg ("zampa"). It was a peasants dish usually accompanied by lentils. Eating cotechino and lentils is an Italian tradition rooted in time; already the ancient Romans used to consume a dish of lentils to guarantee great...

Christmas is one of the most beautiful Christian holidays. In Poland this is the most awaited time associated with a lot of traditions. One of them is 12 dishes . This number symbolises twelve Apostles and represents the twelve months of the year. On Christmas Eve we don't eat meat, because it’s the time of Lent. It's very important for Christians. Christmas dishes are diverse in all Polish regions and they depend on individual customs. Christmas Eve supper usually starts when the first star appears in the sky. We do this in remembrance of the Bethlehem Star, which led the Three Kings to the stable. Christmas dishes include: red borsch with uszka (a beetroot soup with little dumplings) mushrooms soup fish prepared in a variety of ways (e.g. fried carp) cabbage with peas or mushrooms pierogi (dumplings with sauerkraut and mushrooms) poppyseed cake.

Makowiec is a strudel-like, poppyseed cake that’s one of Poland’s most popular desserts and a must at Christmas. As the name suggests, its main ingredients are poppyseeds, but we also need some honey, butter, raisins and walnuts to make a typical Polish makowiec. Made like that, the cake is absolutely delicious! Every poppyseed cake lover would agree that the more the filling, the better. If you want to give it a try, follow this recipe:

Dried fruit compote is a traditional Christmas beverage. It is made from cooked dried fruits such as plums, apples, pears, raisins and apricots together with some water, spices and sugar. My favourite one was made by my grandma with some cinnamon, clove and honey added to taste. Serve hot or cold at the end of Christmas Eve supper as it helps digestion! It’s quite easy to make it, so here’s the recipe that you can watch and follow: