The pizza di Pasqua ("Easter pizza" in English), in some areas also called crescia di Pasqua, torta di Pasqua, torta al formaggio or crescia brusca, is a

leaven In cooking, a leavening agent () or raising agent, also called a leaven () or leavener, is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action (gas bubbles) that lightens and softens the mixture. An altern ...

ed savory cake typical of many areas of

central Italy Central Italy ( it, Italia centrale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region, and a European Parliament constituency. Regions Central I ...

based on

wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bread ...

, eggs,

pecorino Pecorino cheeses are hard Italian cheeses made from sheep's milk. The name "" derives from ''pecora'' which means sheep in Italian. Overview Of the six main varieties of pecorino, all of which have Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) stat ...

and

parmesan Parmesan ( it, Parmigiano Reggiano; ) is an Italian hard, granular cheese produced from cows’ milk and aged at least 12 months. It is named after two of the areas which produce it, the provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia (''Parmigiano'' ...

. Traditionally served at breakfast on

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

morning, or as an appetizer during Easter lunch, it is accompanied by blessed

boiled egg Boiled eggs are eggs, typically from a chicken, cooked with their shells unbroken, usually by immersion in boiling water. Hard-boiled eggs are cooked so that the egg white and egg yolk both solidify, while soft-boiled eggs may leave the yolk, ...

ciauscolo ''Ciauscolo'' (; sometimes also spelled ''ciavuscolo'' or ''ciabuscolo'') is a variety of Italian salame, typical of the Marche region (especially in the Province of Macerata), although it is also widely used in nearby Umbria (especially in the t ...

and red wine or, again, served at the Easter Monday picnic. Having the same shape as

panettone Panettone (, ; lmo, label= Milanese, panetton ) is an Italian type of sweet bread, and fruitcake, originally from Milan, usually prepared and enjoyed for Christmas and New Year in Western, Southern, and Southeastern Europe as well as in South ...

, the pizza di Pasqua with cheese is a typical product of the Marche region, but also

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

n (where, as a traditional food product, it obtained the P.A.T. recognition). There is also a sweet variant. The peculiarity of this product is its shape, given by the particular

mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...

in which it is leavened and then baked in the oven: originally in earthenware, today in

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

, it has a flared shape.

Etymology

The name ''pizza'' is here to be understood not in the recent meaning that has spread into Italian through the Neapolitan language, but in the original

medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functione ...

meaning of 'focaccia', thus suggesting an ancient origin of the dish. The term ''piza'' in medieval Latin is first attested in 966 in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and in 997 in Gaeta, and was also used to designate ceremonial food baked for Easter like the easter pizzas. Similar preparations ('Pizza alla rustica', 'Pizza di Ricotta') can be found in cookery manuals from the early 19th century such as that of Vincenzo Agnoletti.

Origins

According to tradition, the pizza di Pasqua was first made in the Middle Ages by the

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s of the

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

Santa Maria Maddalena The Santa Maria Maddalena is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, named after Saint Mary Magdalene. It is located on the Via della Maddalena, one of the streets leading from the Piazza della Rotonda in the Campo Marzio area of historic Rome. It is th ...

Serra de' Conti Serra de' Conti is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ancona in the Italian region Marche, located about west of Ancona. Serra de' Conti borders the following municipalities: Arcevia Arcevia is a '' comune'' in the province of Anco ...

near

Ancona Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...

.Lucchetti (2012), p. 50 The name ''crescia'' (by which it is known throughout the Marche region) refers to the "growth" (it. "crescita"), that is the

dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavenin ...

growth due to the leavening process during baking. The first mention of the preparation of the ''crescia di Pasqua'' can be found in a cookbook written by the nuns and dating to 1848, entitled ''Memorie delle cresce di Pasqua fatte nel 1848'' ("Memories of the crescie di Pasqua made in 1848") and, later, in an anonymous Loreto cookbook of 1864 entitled ''Il cuoco delle Marche'' ("The Cook of Marche").

The recipe through the centuries

Ancient recipe

Recipe books dating back to the 1800s describe the recipe as follows: "For 3 ''crescie'', and one for the

father confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.lard, 3 pounds of dry cheese and 8 of fresh cheese, included with the

eyes Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and con ...

, 2 little ''fogliette'' of oil, and half '' paolo'' of good

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in ...

, and this dose is enough for 24 people and father confessor".Lucchetti (2010) The 40 eggs provided in this recipe had to remember the 40 days of

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

. An alternative recipe described in the ''Memorie delle crescie di Pasqua fatte in 1848'' requires "flour 50 pounds, grated old cheese 10 pounds, fresh cheese in judgment, milk 3 and a half jug, oil 4 pounds and a half, or as many as necessary, salt 1 pound and 3 ounces, pepper 3 ounces".

Modern recipe

The main ingredients are wheat flour, eggs, grated pecorino, grated parmesan (or

grana padano Grana Padano is a cheese originating in the Po river Valley in northern Italy that is similar to Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. There are less strict regulations governing its production compared to Parmigiano Reggiano. This hard, crumbly- textur ...

), chopped pecorino cheese,

extra-virgin olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...

, salt, pepper, natural yeast and milk.Gosetti (1967) p. 623 Some recipes include the addition of other ingredients, such as saffron, or their substitution with similar ingredients, such as lard or butter instead of oil and

emmental cheese Emmental, Emmentaler, or Emmenthal is a yellow, medium-hard cheese that originated in the area around Emmental, in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is classified as a Swiss-type or Alpine cheese. Emmental was first mentioned in written rec ...

instead of pecorino. The

must be worked for a long time to allow the formation of the

gluten Gluten is a structural protein naturally found in certain cereal grains. Although "gluten" often only refers to wheat proteins, in medical literature it refers to the combination of prolamin and glutelin proteins naturally occurring in all grai ...

mesh and promote leavening. The dough is then divided and placed in special molds which, covered and kept in a damp place, are subjected to a long leavening process and then cooked, according to tradition, in a wood-fired oven (formerly they were brought to a nearby bakery to be cooked).

Religious and community tradition

According to

religious tradition Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, tr ...

, the pizza di Pasqua should be prepared on

Maundy Thursday Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday (also known as Great and Holy Thursday, Holy and Great Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, among other names) is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the ...

or Good Friday to be eaten at Easter, following the period of fasting and abstinence dictated by

. Until the introduction of modern heating systems, pizzas were leavened in beds heated with ''il prete'' ("the priest", a wooden and

sheet metal Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Thicknesses can vary significantly; ex ...

sled) containing embers from the fireplace. Then they were taken to be baked in the village oven. Once ready, it was customary to bring the pizza di Pasqua to the church, so that it would be blessed together with the other foods to be consumed on Easter day.

Sweet variant

In the Umbria-Marche areas there is also a sweet variant. This sweet pie, without cheese, with

candied fruit Candied fruit, also known as glacé fruit, is whole fruit, smaller pieces of fruit, or pieces of peel, placed in heated sugar syrup, which absorbs the moisture from within the fruit and eventually preserves it. Depending on the size and type of ...

s or without, in addition to the presence of sugar has also a ''fiocca'', a

meringue Meringue (, ; ) is a type of dessert or candy, often associated with Swiss, French, Polish and Italian cuisines, traditionally made from whipped egg whites and sugar, and occasionally an acidic ingredient such as lemon, vinegar, or cream o ...

glazed with sugar beads.

References

Sources

* * * *{{Cite book, author=Tommaso Lucchetti, title=La cucina delle monache. I ricettari delle clarisse di Serra de' Conti, publisher=Il Lavoro Editoriale, location=Ancona, year=2012, isbn=978-88-7663-672-1, language=Italian Easter food Yeast breads Sweet breads Easter bread Italian breads Cuisine of Umbria Cuisine of Marche Cuisine of Abruzzo Cuisine of Lazio Cuisine of Molise Easter traditions in Italy