First courses for Christmas region by region

Typical Italian first courses for Christmas

Today, it is difficult to eat a whole meal with the family and in Italy, we are oriented towards the phenomena “a sandwich for lunch”, and then again at work. It is not easy to run away from the daily routine and for this reason the Christmas celebrations are the perfect occasion to taste extraordinary recipes of the Italian cuisine. Stop and taste what the regional cuisine of our country can offer.

In the ancient times there is a strict link between the food and religious tradition that brought to a different culinary culture above all because of the different territories and climate. Apart from some dishes as tortellini with broth, cappone or capitone, today, unfortunately there is a sort of homologation far from the culinary and cultural roots of the different recipes. For this reason, today we present you a range of first courses for Christmas typical of each Italian region.

First courses for Christmas region by region

In Piedmont, the Christmas lunch foresees risotto with radicchio and Agnolotti al Plin (from the pinch used to close the dough), stuffed with meat and vegetables.

In Valle d’Aosta, the typical dishes of the holidays are: “carbonate valdostana” with cornmeal mush (stripes of meat marinated in red wine with aromas), soup of Valpellinentze with Savoy Cabbage, cabbage and fontina served with slices of bread.

In Lombardy, the tradition foresees dishes of fresh pasta, tortelli with pumpkin, gnocchi and tortellini or casoncelli with broth.

In Trentino-Alto Adige the main characters are canederli and strangolapreti. The first are big gnocchi with stale bread, speck, bacon or salami, flour, eggs and milk served with broth or seasoned with butter and Parmigiano, mushrooms or veal liver, whereas the second courses includes gnocchetti with bread, milk, eggs and spinach, seasoned with butter, sage and parmigiano.

In Veneto, for Christmas, people usually eat “bigoli in salsa”, gnocchi with duck sauce and risotto with radicchio, whereas the main character in Friuli-Venezia Giulia is tripe with tomato sauce and cheese and the “brovada e muset”, a soup of turnip and cotechino.

In Liguria, there are first courses of pasta fresca as maccheroni with broth and ravioli Genovese stuffed with eggs, veal, sweetbread, herbs, greated bread and parmigiano. In Emilia-Romagna can’t miss tagliatelle with ragu, lasagna, tortellini with broth stuffed with meat.

In Umbria, they eat traditionally, cappelletti with cappone and pigeon, whereas the cuisine of Marche foresees Maccheroni with stockfish, maccheroncini di Campofilone with sauce, cappelletti with broth and vincisgrassi.

In Tuscany and Lazio, people prepare cappelletti with broth; in Aruzzo instead there is the soup with cardoon with chicken broth and giblets, soup with chestnuts and chickpeas and lasagna with minced meat, mozzarella and Parmigiano.

Soup of cardoon, pizza of Franz with hot broth (small pieces of pizza with eggs, parmigiano and parsley), stock fish “arraccanato” and backed stock fish are the typical first course of Molise, whereas in Campania people eat broth with chicory, endive and “borraccia” (a bitter and hairy herb), with broth of cappone and spaghetti with vongole.

In Basilicata, they use to eat for lunch “strascinati” with ragu of mixed meat, a kind of homemade pasta called like this because it is dragged with the fingers during the preparation. Or the soup of endive, savoy cabbage and cardoon cooked in turkey broth with grated and dices of cheese.

In Puglia, the culinary tradition for Christmas foresees homemade pasta, like “raschiatelli” and the “vermicide”, spaghetti with a sauce of fish, whereas in Calabria soups of vegetable, dishes of stock fish and “scilatelle” with pork ragu.

The culinary tradition of Sicily foresees pasta with sardines, rice timbale, “sfincione” and “scacce ragusane”, in Sardinia, instead, people eat culurgiones de casu, stuffed ravioli, fregula, pasta of durum wheat semolina cooked in hen broth and Sardinian gnocchi with sausage ragu.