The Italian Deli
When I was a little girl, my mom would take me with her to the local Italian deli down the street to do some shopping. Pete & Toni LaJoy were the owners of Camarillo Deli & Meats – a small, family owned, Italian deli with the best meats, salads, Easter Bread, and Italian dishes you’ve ever tasted! Skipping in, waving hi to Uncle Pete as helped customers, and hopping in the back behind the counter to see what Auntie Toni was doing, only to have her hand me Pizelle to snack on while mom was shopping is one of my favorite memories of going there. The deli unfortunately is long gone, but the cherished memories of it will stay with me forever.
Auntie Toni LaJoy
I’m not Italian by ancestry. My father was English, and my mother’s family is Spanish Basque & Austrian, but the LaJoy’s are still family. My parents have been friends with them for longer than I can even remember. Auntie Toni would come over to cook with my mom and we’d all play Yahtzee at the kitchen table. She loves everyone and feeds everyone. Uncle Pete always had a hug and an electric smile whenever he saw you, and when he spoke his Italian accent made you smile. When you were at their home, NO ONE ever left hungry! They say Italians think no one cooks Italian food better than their mama, but as far as I’m concerned, there’s no one that cooks better Italian food than my Auntie Toni!
Celebrating Easter
Easter in an Italian home is not to be outdone! Buffets of pastas with gravy, pizza breads topped with warm, gooey cheese, gorgeous, fresh salads, and piles of delicious homemade breads are crowned by the one glorious pastry that tops it all – the Pane di Pasqua!
In Italian, the literal translation of Pane di Pasqua is Easter Bread. This beautiful, golden brown braid of sweet bread is adorned with colorful candy bits and jeweled with brightly colored Easter Eggs. I always marveled at the beautiful eggs nested inside the bread braid and thought there was some kind of Italian magic that got them there so perfectly. One year, when we were celebrating Easter at our own home, Uncle Pete & Auntie Toni stopped by to drop off an Easter Bread just for us! I loved it!
Baking Bread
Through the years, I’ve thought many times about the beautiful Italian Easter Bread. It would make a beautiful addition to my Candied Ham & Cheesy Potatoes! When I had kids of my own, I wanted to try making it, or asking Auntie Toni to teach me, but life with kids is always busy, and the one time I tried making regular bread, it was a disaster! Seriously! You could have cracked a diamond with it!
In case you haven’t noticed from my blog, I do a lot of baking & cooking. I really love it, but bread has always been very intimidating to me. I’ve taken bread classes at church and watch in awe as these women turn out delicious, fresh breads that are cooked to perfection, but I could never bring myself to jump over that hurdle.
Good Friday
I don’t know if it was the extra time at home, or the simplifying of life brought on by the COVID-19 quarantine, but I decided it was time to dive in and learn to tackle bread making. Why not? Everyone online seems to be sharing new things they’ve learned during quarantine, let’s give it a try. I jumped in, both feet first, bypassing the traditional bread & rolls, and went straight to the pièce de résistance – the Easter Bread, and the first thing I did was call Auntie Toni. She was happy to pass on her Pane di Pasqua recipe to me. She told me about the recipe and the cookbook she’d been given as a new bride. We talked about the bread and its significance to Easter – some of it I knew, but a few things I didn’t. We decided we were both going to make our breads on Good Friday, each in our own homes. I knew I already had all the ingredients. My oldest son, Brock, carefully colored the raw eggs for me in the bright Easter colors. I was ready, but still nervous.
Auntie started her bread early in the day. She messaged me a couple times to see how I was doing and ask if I’d started mine yet. “Not yet, but soon” I replied. Finally, around 4:30 pm I was ready to start! By now, Auntie’s bread was about done baking. “You’ll be up all night!”, she told me. “That’s ok, I’m a night owl!”, was my reply. And it’s a good thing too because making Easter bread is a 7-hour process!
Easter Bread Around the World
As I mentioned before, Pane di Pasqua is full of beautiful Easter symbolism. When I shared a picture of my finished bread on social media, a few of my friends commented that they’d never seen anything like it before and wanted to know more about it which prompted my spontaneous post here today. Let me share with you the beauty of the Easter Bread.
Many European cultures have their own version of Easter Bread. In Bulgaria, the Cozonac is a loaf style Easter Bread, while the Russian Easter Bread, Kulich, looks more like a giant cupcake. The Romanian Easter Bread called Pasca is also a loaf style bread made with cheese and typically includes fruits, nuts, or chocolate. Germany also has their own Easter Bread called Osterbrot. A yeast loaf with raisins and slivered almonds is sliced and served with butter, usually for breakfast, or during tea. Stol (or Stollen) is Dutch a fruit bread loaf with raisins and is filled with Almond Paste. The Dutch serve this bread at Easter and at Christmas.
While all these breads are sweet and tasty, the Italians take the prize for beauty and symbolism with the Pane di Pasqua. This sweet bread flavored with either Orange or Lemon juice & zest, and sometimes Anise, is beautifully braided into a crown symbolizing the crown Christ wore during His crucifixion and now wears as our Lord & Savior. The harshness of the bitter citrus is overturned by the sweetness of the bread just as the harshness and bitterness of life is sweetened by Christ’s sacrifice for us.
The bright, Spring colors in the eggs and candies that adorn the top of bread symbolize rebirth; something that happens to us when we accept Christ as our Savior, and the sweetness of the bread and candies symbolize the sweetness of eternity in His glory. The egg – also symbolize the tomb – when cracked open there is life inside.
One of the main ways Pane di Pasqua is different than other breads is that it rises 3 times during the process. With each rise taking 1 – 2 hours, it’s no wonder it takes 7 hours to complete. Even this process is symbolic of the 3 days before Christ rose from the dead.
Typically, always baked on Good Friday, the Pane di Pasqua was meant to break the Lent fast season on Easter morning for Christians and would traditionally be brought to the church to be bless for consumption on Easter Day.
Our Pane di Pasqua
I’m excited to have our beautiful Italian Easter bread to crown the center of our table this year. It’s even more precious having a wonderful story to go with it. We won’t be having our Easter Bread for breakfast this Easter because I want the beauty of the Pane di Pasqua symbolism to be the centerpiece of our Easter feast. For our family this year, it will be dessert and I can’t wait to share the whole story with our kids as we gather around the table to celebrate the holiest of days for Christians around the world.
Happy Easter!
While the recipe I used is the one I grew up with and is delicious, it isn’t mine. It was passed on to me by Auntie Toni so I can’t share it with you. A quick Internet search for Italian Easter Bread will lead you to many easy to follow recipes. Here is a recipe that’s just like ours.
