(see photo folder in Media: Gallery: Cakes and Desserts:  Making a Maltese Figolla)

Easter in Malta brings with it quite a few traditional dishes.  Like the Sicilians, the Maltese are quite fond of this time of the year and we have managed to maintain a lot of our customs and traditions.  Easter is a time when food patterns used to change quite drastically because of sacrifices or fasting associated with Lent.  Nowadays we are not so strict but a lot of people still fast on Good Friday and Ash Wednesday and throughout Lent may not eat meat on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays or may not eat sweets at all throughout Lent.  Fish is eaten on days when meat can't be eaten and typical meals on Good Friday would include Fish Pies, Globe Arthichokes with canned tuna fish, boiled cauliflower and turnip/kohl rabi, boiled potatoes and bread with oil, Ravjul or a Pasta dish without meat eg a marinara, Octopus or even Snails. My mother does lovely fish pies and qassatat made with salmon, spinach and cauliflower and they are still a cause for a nice family reunion on Good Friday.  That's the nice thing about food - it brings family and friends together and helps us to maintain certain cultural aspects, conviviality and pleasure.  On Easter Sunday children would then flock to the Church parvis (zuntier) early in the morning with their Figollas and have them blessed when the statue the Risen Christ (Kristu Rxoxt) is taken out.

I remember my great aunt Guza who used to say they would go through the whole 40 days of Lent on bread and water only and would actually have to beg for this fare from neighbours.  They would try to obtain 'Is-Seba Bukkuni' - 'Seven Morsels of Food'....which would supposedly have to be left over bread from neighbours.

Typical food during Lent or on Easter Sunday would include:

Kwarezimal - The name originates from the Italian word:  Quaresima which means 40 days.  These can be eaten in Lent because they do not include shortening (fat) or eggs and so are meant to be suitable for Lent, since in stricter times people would not be eating meat, milk, eggs or butter and so the kwarezimal was one of the only sweets which could be eaten.  They are made with almonds, flour, sugar, orange, lemon and tangerine rind, cocoa and orange-flower water and are then coated with honey and chopped almonds once ready.

Karamelli tal-Harub (Carob Sweets)

As their name implies these sweets are loaded with sugar, since a syrup is required to make these sweets - where a kilo of sugar is used!!! with a kilo of carob pods.  Strnagely enough they were the only sweets permissible on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (always on a Friday before Good Friday) and on Good Friday.  You will still find young boys or people selling these outside Churches and along streets where processions pass on these days and possibly also on Maundy Thursday.

Qaghaq tal-Gungliel (Sesame Seed Bread)

This is a 30 - 40 cm round delicious bread in the form of a large ring and will have almonds and sesame seeds (gungliel) on the top.  It is distributed or sold after Maundy Thursday mass when the priest would have washed the feet of 12 men in a similar way to how Jesus had washed the feet of his apostles during the Last Supper.  This is usually eaten without anything or else just with butter as is really delicious bread.

Hot Cross Buns

These are a typically English Easter sweet bread where they are served traditionally on Good Friday.  In Malta we have adopted them and sell them all through Lent as we do the Kwarezimal.  They are made with yeast and can be quite delicious is served fresh and warm.  They get their name from the cross which is found on these buns and which is made from a mixture of flour and water or of pastry.  Since they were served in England on Good Friday, the cross is quite appropriate.

Haruf (Lamb)

Roasted or braised lamb is usually eaten on Easter Sunday in Malta as in many other Christian countries/groups.  It is the symbol of the sacrificed Christ.  The best type is locally grown lamb but this can be quite expensive and rare and so many have opted for the frozen foreign variety.

Ricotta

Ricotta (a local type of cottage cheese) is used quite a lot at Easter time although us Maltese use it in a lot of dishes both sweet and savoury all the year round.  At this time of the year I like to make a savoury ricotta and broad bean (ful) pie as this vegetable will be in season around Easter time and I also like to make a ricotta type of sweet cheesecake (known as cassata).  Later on I will upload my recipe for a Cassata (I don't like to use the term Cassata Siciliana all the time as I have given this traditional recipe my touch).  My typical Easter Sunday meal would in fact include:  First course:  Globe Arthicoke hearts with a drizzle of olive oil and a little touch of broad bean, garlic and parsely mixture and one small slice of Maltese bread, Second Course: local haruf (lamb) roasted with rosemary herbs, olive oil, garlic and onions, roast potatoes and a selection of vegetables and Dessert would be my Cassata made with ricotta sweetened lightly with a touch of honey and dried arpicots, toasted almonds, lemon rind on a base of sponge and coated with a touch of honey, pistacchios and almonds.

Figolli

The word 'Figolla' is a Maltese corruption for the Italian word 'Figura' which means 'figure'.  These almond filled pastries are in fact made into shapes or figures of different young animals associated with spring or nowadays different shapes which children like.  One would amongst others find shapes such as that of the mermaid, butterfly, lamb, heart, boat, basket, rabbit or duck.  An Easter egg is usually placed on each decorated figolla and some say it was a sign of procreation.

Recipe:

Pastry:

1 kilo SR flour

400g sugar

400g margarine

2 egg yolks

water

lemon rind of one lemon

Almond Filling:

400g pure ground almonds

200g sugar

grated rind of two lemons

3 egg whites

Method:

Sieve the flour and add the margarine cubes to the flour and rub in with finger tips or a food processor.  Add the sugar and stir with a round ended knife.  Beat the egg yolks and add the lemon rind and add to the mixture.  Add enough water (around 4 - 6 tablespoons) to make a soft pastry.  Knead the pastry into a ball and refridgerate for at least half an hour before using.  In the meantime make the filling as above.

Roll out part of the pastry til it is around 0.75cm thick.  Cut using any of the forms you may have (if these aren't available one can easily make these shapes with a piece of cardboard).  Place each shape on a greased baking dish.  Then spread each base with a fairly thick layer of the almond filling, leaving space all round for sealing with the top.  Each shape needs another identical part as a top.  Roll out another batch of pastry and cut the tops.  Moisten the edges of the base with a pastry brush and water and place the identical shape on the top of each pastry base+filling.  Press with fingers to make sure the edges are secure.  Prick them with a fork in two parts and then bake them at 200 degrees C for around 20 - 25 minutes until they are golden brown.  If leaving without icing/coating then glaze with egg.  When ready place on a cooling wire to cool.

I usually leave them without a coating of sugar or royal icing or chocolate but sometimes can coat them with a thin layer of melted chocolate  and place a little bit of decorations and an Easter egg on each one, as can be seen in the photo folder in the section Media: Gallery: Cakes and Desserts: Making a Maltese Figolla.

Easter Eggs

Easter eggs are also now a good part of our local Easter sweets and children look forward to receiving or buying Easter eggs of all sizes.  Nowadays there are ones which are quite large and have little gifts inside and so these have become quite commericalised.  When I was young most of the eggs were smaller and usually found on the figolla as described above.

An interesting article in The Times (1/04/10) states that 'Easter eggs and other chocolate may be good for the heart and lower blood pressure, provided you eat a tiny amount each day and prefer dark chocolate rather than milk or white chocolate, a medical journal reported.  The article reports German nutritionists who monitored 19,357 adults aged between 35 and 65 for at least a decade and compared episodes of ill health with their lifestyle.  They found that those who ate approx 7.5g of choc per day or 1 cube of a 100g bar, had lower blood pressure and a reduction of 39% in the risk of heart attack or stroke compared with counterparts who ate less or much more.

This does not mean that one should indulge in chocolate.  These types of findings have to be read well.  Have one cube of chocoloate a day might be beneficial but having much more that that eg 100g bar would mean havoc on the calorific intake of individuals.  A 100g bar roughly contains 500 calories, which is not recommended especially if one does not cut down on other foods to reduce this amount of calories from other sources or does not do enough physical exercise to burn it up and avoid weight gain.  The article in fact concludes by stating, 'Small amounts of chocoloate may be helpful to prevent heart disease, but ONLY if it replaces other energy-dense food, such as snacks, in order to keep weight stable.'

So Happy Easter but don't over eat, a little of everything may be fine, but overdoing it is not.