Easter (Over)eating

Well, WHAT a week!

My parents arrived in Puglia last Saturday, and what followed was a super busy seven days full of excursions, family meet ups and masses of overeating. We took trips to Trani, Castel del Monte and Matera (write ups to follow) and, despite the pretty bad weather, had a very lovely time indeed.

But let's return, for now, to the aforementioned 'overeating' part of the Easter vacation. I've written many times before about the fact that, on special occasions, Italians really up the ante and enjoy ridiculous amounts of delicious food. So, who were we to say no to anything! Throughout the entire week we indulged in all sorts of tasty treats, including...

Yes, this is what Italian Easter eggs look like. None of that funny box business like in the UK. They can be pretty pricey too.

We sampled these delicious typical dishes at a wonderful party that was thrown by some friends. Here, you can see Parmigiana, Pancotto (a dish made with vegetables and bread), pasta with a vegetable similar to chicory, panzerotti, tomato pizza and some local Rosè wine.

And theeeeen came the dolce. Oh my. From the top, a forest fruit cheesecake (which was deliciouss because it wasn't too sweet), a nutella cake, red wine cake, typical Easter colomba cake, pistachio cake, tiramisù and finally, a pineapple and cream cake. Of course, we sampled them all. Well, it would have been rude not to!

Cake close up.

A slightly lighter (yet no less delicious) dessert that we had whilst in Matera (at the Soul Kitchen restaurant). White chocolate semi-freddo with fresh strawberries and balsamic.

On Saturday, we decided that (at least) a week of 'sensible' eating was in order. This was going very well indeed until a birthday celebration that we were invited to yesterday evening.

 Oh dear.