10197 Ferragosto

Tomorrow is one of Italy's most important days: [B][I]Ferragosto[/I][/B] or the Day of [B][I]Santa Maria Assunta.[/I][/B]
Every town has its own way of celebrating this festivity and particularly when the local parish church is named after the Virgin Mary. You can expect solemn masses, processions, etc.
But this festival really has pagan origins, the [B][I]Feriae Augusti[/I][/B], celebrated by the Romans.
It is a day dedicated to women, so girls, use your rights! Go to the restaurant, the beach, get yourself something nice.... if you can find a shop open..... have a ball!
If you want a bit of extra information about the Pagan-Catholic link, have a look:
[url=http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/14463/the_italian_holiday_ferragosto_sacred.html]The Italian Holiday Ferragosto - Sacred or Profane? - Associated Content[/url]

Buon Ferragosto Tutti! :yes:

Category
Culture & Entertainment

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 04:15

I forgot..... a typical dish served to celebrate [B][I]Ferragosto[/I][/B] is [B][I]Vitello Tonnato[/I][/B]. I gave this recipe through a previous thread, but here you are:

[B][U]VITELLO TONNATO [/U][/B](Veal in tuna sauce)

You can start the day before with the meat preparation. You will need:

1 piece fillet of veal (approx. 1-1.5 kg)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 litre white wine
salt and pepper
2 sage leaves
2 celery stalks
1 garlic clove

Heat the oil, add the veal and brown it thoroughly. Add the white wine, salt and pepper to taste. After a few minutes, add the sage, celery and garlic and allow it to cook on medium heat for about 1 hour.
Allow it to cool overnight.

Next day, you prepare the sauce. You can use commercial mayonnaise, but to make this one is much better and very easy. You would need a Braun Minipimer or similar appliance. Here we go:

Ingredients for the mayonnaise:

250 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 full egg (yolk and white)
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Put all these ingredients in the abovementioned order into the beaker. Introduce the handblender to the base of the beaker. Pressing the turbo switch keep the handblender in the same position until the oil emulsifies. Then, without switching off, slowly move it up and down until all ingredients are well combined. It only takes a few seconds.

Then, you add to the mayonnaise the following ingredients:

200 gr can tuna in olive oil (strained)
3 anchovy fillets

Blend all the ingredients in the beaker with your handblender and transfer to a glass bowl.

Add:

2-3 tablespoons capers

Mix thoroughly

Slice the veal very thinly. Arrange on a large plate. Cover with the sauce and refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving.

Decorate with some extra capers and dust it with pepperoncino.

Enjoy!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 15:55

As I said before, each town has a different kind of celebration; however, procesions are fairly prevalent. Here you have a beautiful example from Guspini in Sardinia:

[url=http://www.guspini.net/read.asp?ID=149&TB=notizie]Guspini.Net: Santa Maria Assunta 2007[/url]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 12:52

In Bagni di Lucca there are plenty of artisans who make reproductions of all the Roman gods and goddesses you can think of. All sizes, all types of finishes. They do that together with figurines representing all Madonnas, saints, angels, etc. It is something traditional in the area.