Feast Your Eyes on These Recipes Celebrating Santa Lucia on December 13th

With the Christmas season fast-approaching children across the US will soon begin preparing for their school's annual Christmas pageants, a school tradition dating back for as long as I can remember. Which would be 40 plus years!

My teacher, Mrs. Di Tomaso, directed my sixth grade classroom's production of a Christmas play, whose title now escapes me. My best friend, Neecy and I had what you might call "two bit parts." I advanced on center stage dressed in traditional Italian fashion to say, "In Italy it is Buono Natale." Neecy, wearing a white dress with a crimson sash and a wreath into which four candles were inserted on her head, had an equally as short 15 seconds of fame telling the audience, "In Sweden it is God Jul och Gott Nytt År."

Those 15 seconds of fame serve as the inspiration for this story.

Elementary students often ask, "Why do I have to know this stuff? It's not like I'm going to use it when I grow up." I use to think the same thing too until I began writing this story. While it may have taken me 35 years, I did find a legitimate use for saying, "Buono Natale."

As I love to read and write about the history of the foods we eat especially when it's something delicious, I looked through some books on Christmas traditions involving foods from around the world. As I was reading, I discovered Italy and Sweden each hold annual festivals celebrating Santa Lucia on December 13^th.

Lucia was born in Siracuse, a city on the island of Sicily in 283 AD to a wealthy Roman landowner. Her well-to-do father died when she was five, leaving her mother, Eustichia, to raise her. As a young girl, Lucia was deeply touched by stories of St. Agatha, a well-respected saint from the nearby Sicilian town, Catania. Her admiration towards Agatha led Lucy to cast aside her pagan beliefs and turn to Christianity vowing to remain a virgin and give her possessions to those less fortunate.

Italian tradition explains how the beauty of Lucia's eyes attracted a certain pagan suitor who had her eyes gouged out when she refused to marry him telling her if he couldn't gaze into her beautiful eyes no one else would either. It is said that her eyes grew back. The rejected suitor, further inflamed, exposed Lucia as a Christian to the governor of Sicily. After failed attempts to send Lucia to a brothel and burn her at the stake, she was killed by a sword to her throat in 304 AD.

While Santa Lucia's feast day is undoubtedly remembered by most for this dramatic tale, Sicilians also celebrate Santa Lucia's feast day for her miraculous intervention during Sicily's famine in 1582. On Lucia's feast day that year Sicilians from both Palermo and Siracuse gathered at the cathedral hoping and praying she would intervene on their behalf with God. According to Carol Field's book "Celebrating Italy: The Tastes & Traditions of Italy as Revealed Through Its Feasts, Festivals & Sumptuous Foods," a ship filled with grain entered either Siracuse or Palermo harbor (depending on who's telling the story) as they left the church. The residents were so hungry that they didn't take the time to grind the wheat into flour, but instead boiled the grains before eating. In keeping with tradition, Sicilians remember Santa Lucia each year by not eating anything made of wheat flour on her feast day. Everyone eats cuccia (recipe below), a dish made from boiling the whole wheat grains instead of grinding them.

For Sweden, Santa Lucia's feast day marks the opening of the Christmas season. Swedish tradition recounts how some elderly Swedes watched as Lucia delivered food and drink to their poor parishioners. It has since become a time-honored tradition on the morning of Lucia's feast day for a young girl wearing a white dress, crimson sash and stockings, and a whortleberry leaf crown into which lighted candles are inserted, to awaken each member of her family with a tray of coffee and cakes. On her tray she carries ginger cookies called "Lucy Cats" and cardamom-flavored Swedish Lucia buns (recipe below).

Swedish Lucia buns are quite delicious, but if you really want to honor Sicily's patron saint of sight, do as Sicilians do; eat a small bowl of cuccia this December 13^th.

Cuccia

18 ozs. soft white wheat berries

pinch salt

34 ozs. Ricotta

1 ¼-cups sugar

¼ tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup candied citrus peel (recipe below)

chocolate chips

Three days before you plan to serve the cuccia, soak wheat berries by covering them with water, changing the water twice a day. On the fourth day, drain the berries and set them in a large pot. Cover with lightly salted water about three inches above the berries, bring them to a boil, and simmer over the lowest possible flame until they are soft and almost bursting, anywhere between three to six hours. Add additional water if necessary to prevent scorching. When done, remove from the burner, cover with a lid and let sit for an hour.

Meanwhile press ricotta through a sieve into a mixing bowl and stir well. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until creamy. Let sit for 2 hours. Press through sieve. Set aside.

Drain wheat berries extremely well, squeezing out excess water. Add to ricotta mixture. Stir in candied orange peel.

Serve in little bowls as they do on the streets and in the houses of Palermo, and garnish with a few chocolate chips.

Candied Citrus Peel

Ingredients:

3 oranges

3 lemons

1 ½ cups sugar

¾ cup water

½ cup sugar

Directions:

Cut each orange and lemon into four sections. Remove peel carefully with fingers. Scrape off white membrane on each peel with spoon. Cut peel lengthwise into strips about ¼ inch wide. Place peel in a pot with enough water to cover. Bring to boiling, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Drain and repeat simmering process once more.

Heat 1 ½ cups sugar with ¾ cups water in saucepan, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Stir in drained peel. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally for 45 minutes. Drain in strainer.

Roll peel in remaining ½ cup sugar and spread out on wax paper to dry. Store in airtight container for no more than 1 week.

Swedish Lucia Buns

2 packages active dry yeast

½ cup warm water (105° to 110°)

2/3-cup lukewarm milk (scalded, then cooled)

½ cup sugar

½ cup margarine, softened

2 eggs

1-teaspoon ground cardamom

1-teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

5 - 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup raisins

Margarine, softened

1 egg, slightly beaten

1-tablespoon water

2 tablespoons sugar

Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in milk, ½ cup sugar, ½ cup margarine, 2 eggs, cardamom, salt, orange peel and three cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about five minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover; let rise in warm place until double in size, 1 ½ to 2 hours. Dough is done if indentation remains when touched.

Punch down dough; divide into four equal parts. Cut each part into six equal pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth rope, 10 to 12 inches long. Shape each rope into an "S." Curve both ends into a coil. Place a raisin in the center of each coil. Place on greased cookie sheets. Brush tops lightly with softened margarine. Let rise until doubled in size, about 35 - 45 minutes.Heat oven to 350°. Mix softened margarine, slightly beaten egg and tablespoon of water. Lightly brush egg mixture across the tops of the buns. Sprinkle buns with sugar. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes approximately 2 dozen buns.

References:

Celebrating Italy: The Tastes & Traditions of Italy as Revealed Through Its Feasts, Festivals & Sumptuous Foods, Carol Fields, William Morrow Cookbooks, May 1997