Happy Ferragosto!
Ferragosto, or Assumption Day (August 15, the day the Virgin Mary was assumed into Heaven), is the most important summer holiday in Italy, a time that all Italians who can get out of the cities and head for either the coast or the hills.
It's also an occasion for a festive meal, and for many in Tuscany is a culinary breath of winter in the midst of summer: People fire up their ranges and make rich hearty dishes along the lines of pasta with sugo alla bolognese or lasagna, and Artusi has a number of other interesting suggestions.
In other parts of Italy people do other things, for example in Milano they enjoy vitello tonnato (which makes more sense to me, given the season), but no matter how you look at it, it's an occasion to get together with friends and enjoy a fine meal.
And what are we going to do this time? Probably enjoy pasta with pesto sauce, grill up a steak and some chicken, with a nice tossed salad and borlotti, also known as cranberry beans, all followed by a sorbetto di limone.
Again, Auguri!
Comments
The Italians really know how to celebrate a feast, especially like this one honoring the Virgin Mother. The foods you mention in your article are mouth-watering. I wish I was there to join the celebrations.
Ferragosto – oh how I wish we in the United States would have a knowledge of and appreciation for the 15th of August, the day of the “Feast of the Assumption”.
The best August 15th of my entire life was spent many years ago in the Austrian yet almost Hungarian City of Eisenstadt. – where in the Esterhazy Palace , of Haydn lore, the music was glorious – composed for that day centuries ago – and the feasting afterwards in the local Gaststaette was perfect in its regionality and presentation of old Austrian specialities.
Mary Louise Murray-Johnson
NY and Heidelberg
Dear Mary,
Your Austrian experiences make a trip worthwhile…