Christmas is the holiday to share with family, whereas for New Year's, Italians party with friends - singing, dancing & eating all night long! Every year we host a house full of Italian guests at our farmhouse inn in Le Marche and create a five hour (plus) feast to ring in the new year.  It is a marathon event - cooking for days in anticipation. With snow slowly falling on the Apennine foothills, the fireplaces are ablaze as the guests start arriving with hungry bellies and packages filled with homemade sweets & home bottled vino.  The rich aroma of slow roasted game slowly creeps up the staircase and soon everyone has congregated in the kitchen, warming themselves by the fire.

The music is festive & the prosecco has popped and in typical fashion, the seating chart has been set!  Jason & I proudly present each dish from the dozen plates of antipasta to cappelletti in brodo, the most traditional holiday pasta of our region (handmade stuffed pasta in broth) and the decadent lasagna bianco - white lasagna with porcini & sausages. Then arrives the one must-have dish of New Year's, served all across the boot - cotachino - restuffed pigs trotters. Save room for dessert because the table is full of chocolates, cakes, panetone, nuts & dried fruit - and in the blink of an eye the guests have attacked the dolce without a crumb in site!

With the aid of homemade liquors we are able to digest all this food and we head outside like eager children, oowing & aawing at the tinkling sparkers & big bangs of the fireworks that light up the cold dark night!  As the clock strikes twelve we pop the 'good stuff' and pass overflowing flutes of prosecco around the room kissing every cheek along the way! Until the wee small hours of the morning old friends dance, play cards and sing together - remembering the many years gone by - celebrating just like this with good friends & good food!

Lasagna

It’s really important to use fresh pasta in this recipe - for a lasagna that is light & delicate.

Ragu (see recipe)
Bechemele
Parmesan cheese
4 sheets of pasta to cover your dish

in your casserole dish ladle a little of the ragu
in plenty of boiling salted water, cook your pasta until a bit further than al dente
lay down the sheet of pasta in your dish, ok if it comes up over the edge of the dish (that will make for the good crunch bits!)

add a ladle of ragu - cover completely but don’t over do it - less is more
dot bechemele
generous sprinkle with parmesan cheese
Repeat these steps ending with sauce on the top layer of the pasta

bake at 375/190 C oven for 15-20 minutes until the top is brown & bubbly

Ashley Bartner is the Living in Italy Editor for Wandering Educators.

La Tavola Marche Agriturismo & Cooking Holiday

All photos and recipe courtesy and copyright Ashley Bartner.