Lindsay Marie Morris

The tradition of La Settimana Santa, Holy Week, brings people out of their homes to watch and participate in various daily processions of statues through the streets. It's also a time to enjoy sweet bread, often flavored with anise, which is typical of the Lenten season. Among the favorite bread recipes is pani di cena—really cookies—which are shaped like crosses. While this "bread" is often served on Holy Thursday, you can enjoy pani di cena year-round. 

Food writer Enza Whiting features a pani di cena recipe on her blog, Enza's Quail Hollow Kitchen. Enza was born in Palermo and lived in the town of Valledolmo for the first four and a half years of her life. 

We discussed pani di cena and what Enza hopes her family and readers will take away from her recipe.

Tell us about your pani di cena recipe.

My grandmother made these cookies for us when we were kids. She would shape them, cutting them in the shape of a cross. They were always served on Good Thursday, right before Easter.

It was a Sicilian tradition in the church that the elders made these cookies. They would have these church communities or church groups aside from the priests, and whoever was the head of that community or that committee for that year would make these cookies for all of the other members of the committee. So they would make the pani di cena.

They were always made on Good Thursday, and they would get a sugar lamb. It was part of the tradition that they sacrificed for their community by creating these cookies and giving them out in all the towns. 

My mother told me the story about when my great-grandfather was the elder, and it was his turn to make these. My grandmother was maybe 15 or 16 years old, and she was the one who made them all. 

They didn't all have ovens in their homes, so the town had ovens that everybody would use. All the women would get together, bake the cookies, and then take them to the ovens to bake them in their local oven. I guess that's how they used to make their bread, too, because they didn't have ovens in their homes; they had to use a public oven to bake their bread. So it was very communal.

The other thing my grandmother would do for us was make the little crosses, but then she would also make pupa cu l'ova using the same dough. She would put a colored egg in it and bake it. My favorite thing on Easter was getting the hard-boiled egg with my cookie. 

Pani di cena is actually more of a cross between bread and a cookie. My grandmother's recipe is more of a cross between bread and a cookie. I call it a cookie; my mother calls it bread. When you bite into it, it is somewhat crunchier on the outside and tender on the inside. However, the inside has more of a soft cookie texture than the texture of bread that you would normally think of as soft bread. It is made with yeast. So, it is a yeast recipe, but the texture is different from that of some of the breads you will see. 

Why did you start Quail Hollow Kitchen?

Being Italian, food is a big part of your tradition. It's how we celebrate things; it's how we communicate with each other. 

I remember when we were kids, we had dinner together as a family every night, and my mother would make meals with whatever she had in the kitchen or the refrigerator because there wasn't a lot of money growing up. So, they had to be creative and use what they had available. But dinnertime was always sacred. That was a time when we sat down as a family.

My dad was really big into talking to us about what was going on in the world because he wanted us to really understand what was happening around us and how it impacted us. During those dinners, my parents also spent a lot of time talking about where they came from, what life was like for them growing up, and how different it was for us here because it was important that we appreciated all the sacrifices that happened to get us to where we were.

So, for me, food and our traditions have always been really important. We continue to talk to our kids about those things because I don't want them to forget about their heritage, their history, and what life was like for other people so that they can enjoy the things that they enjoy today. We do all of that around food. It always seems to be the center of these family functions, celebrations, and communications. 

I started Quail Hollow Kitchen mainly because my grandmother had passed away, and I was really worried that as my mom was getting older, I was going to lose all of her recipes. So she was able to carry on my grandmother's traditions with food, and I wanted to be able to somehow memorialize it so that even when I'm gone, my kids can still have access to all of that information. And it's named Quail Hollow because that is the street that I live on.

When I got into it, I realized that I really enjoyed all the different aspects of this website. So it's grown from there, but it still centers around all of our Italian dishes and foods, and really makes sure that all of our Sicilian foods are front and center, somewhere our family has access to.

What do you hope at-home bakers will take away from this cookie recipe?

Personally, for my family, because it's been a part of our family, and we have made this every year for as long as I can remember, I hope they understand that this has been handed down for many generations.

For other readers, I hope that they want to try it because it may be different from something that they're used to. Maybe they will learn something about how other people have enjoyed foods around the Lenten holiday and Easter that might be different from how they've celebrated it. 

It's really about keeping that Sicilian heritage and history going. I have other blogger friends who do similar things within their cultures. I think many of us out there hope that as the world continues to progress, we don't forget some of the things that made our families what they are. 

>>Get Enza's recipe here!<<

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January 6 marks the Feast of the Epiphany, recognized in Christianity as the arrival of the three magi, who brought gifts to baby Jesus. But across Italy, the morning is also celebrated for the appearance of presents from a benevolent witch called La Befana.  

To learn more about this Santa Claus-like character, I reached out to Alessandro Testa, an associate professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague. Dr. Testa specializes in the history of religions, social anthropology, and the ethnology of Europe. He's also explored whether Christmas hides a deeper connection to ancient pagan traditions. We discussed La Befana's origins, how she is celebrated, the evolution of La Befana gift-giving, and what society can learn from Italy's beloved witch figure.

What are the origins of La Befana?

We know it is a figure that was quite likely already present in the Middle Ages, but the first sources date back to the 16th century or 17th century. We are not sure about its exact origins. Usually, these are syncretic figures made up of different symbolic elements from different traditions. We are not sure what these traditions might have been; they were probably pre-Christian rituals or ceremonies at the end of the year. Ultimately, La Befana is a hag. In Italian, we also use La Befana as a synonym for hag or crone, an old witch, or an ugly witch with some pejorative connotations.

We know the word Befana from the 16th century and that it was associated with this kind of figure, but we are not sure about the etymology. I see this similarity with the Epiphany as significant because, in Italian, Epifania, which is like the transliteration into Italian of the Greek word, is similar to Befana. This could be one of the possible origins of the name. But the truth is that there is no consensus on this. From the 19th century onwards, just like with many similar Christmas traditions, Santa Claus or the three kings, these customs crystallized and acquired their final form, which we still observe nowadays. We have this benevolent witch or benevolent witch-like figure who brings gifts and is kind to children, or at least to good children. She leaves the gifts in socks or by the fireplace at night and, as many traditions want it, flies around on a broomstick.

Tell us more about how La Befana's arrival is celebrated.

In Italy, every region, every town, and every village has its own traditions concerning La Befana. Normally, the night before the Epiphany, on the 5th of January, some mumming or dances occur, or a bonfire is lit. Very often, during the bonfire, a puppet is burned, representing the old year, which dies out and has to be burned. And in this respect, it is a typical winter festivity. If we consider other winter festivities such as Saint Lucy with the lights and the candles, Carnevale, Christmas traditions, or end-of-the-year traditions, they're very often associated with this dismissal of the old, of what must be forgotten, destroyed, or put aside, so that the new can come again, cyclically. And in this respect, the burning of the Befana puppet is very typical. These fire/light traditions are very common in this period of the year. So, there's also this seasonal, obvious association with the fact of burning what is old during the darkest period of the year when you need warmth and light, which the fire provides. These elements come together, but the burning doesn't happen everywhere in Italy.

What is truly widespread in Italy is the gift-bringing for sure and the fact that there is a witch who is poor and wears rags and broken shoes. There is this element of Christian moralization that probably occurred sometime during the 18th or 19th century in which the good children are rewarded, and the bad children are not, just like Santa Claus or Krampus and many other similar traditions. The bad child gets coal or garlic, and the good child gets a gift.

What kinds of gifts are given?

That's very regional. It has changed in time because of the different availability and level of wealth or prosperity. It was usually fruits or dried fruits, something that could be kept, that could be eaten. That was useful. Then sweets started to appear later. But even more recent are toys, books, and clothing. I received when I was 10 a copy of Lord of the Rings. You could see this small sock bulging in the shape of the book. Nowadays, La Befana is just a sort of duplicate of Santa Claus.

What can society learn from the story of La Befana?

What is interesting about La Befana is that she is kind of a made-up figure who emerged at some point literally from nowhere. There's no story behind her or myth, as is the case with Santa Claus. But, of course, there's been a process of interpretation or overinterpretation perhaps of the figure. And now she is considered a very positive figure in spite of her appearance. There is a sort of moralizing discourse that wants it that the Befana, in spite of looking like a witch, is actually a benevolent figure, not malevolent. The lesson to be learned being: Never judge a book from its cover!

On the 5th or 6th of January, you have—in the big cities especially—people dressing up as La Befana and acting as La Befana would with the kids. So, another moral to take away is respect for diversity. This is yet another value or meaning of La Befana today.

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