Fiadoni

Fiadoni, an Easter tradition

My favourite friendly casciaro (cheesemaker) at the Saturday morning market offers me some fiadoni from Rapino. It is still some weeks till Easter but how can I resist?  The fiadoni are light and golden and I serve them slightly warmed as an antipasto the next day at lunch.

Fiadoni are, simply put, golden pastry parcels filled with cheese and egg.

But it seems that nothing to do with cooking is simple in Abruzzo. 

How do you make fiadoni? I ask three women one day.  And I am given three different versions.  Had there been 30 women in the room, I would have 30 recipes. And the women know this, because they fall into a discussion about the differences between the fiadoni they make and those made by their sisters-in-law in the next town. Usually it’s just a question of a different type of cheese, though in some versions there is cooked ham, in other chopped salami.

Fiadoni can be found in the supermarket well beyond Easter but according to tradition they are served on the evening of the Vigilia (Easter Saturday) and not before.

They’re something of an acquired taste. To a northern palate, used to buttered bread and scones, they may seem a little dry at first.  But in days gone by, when Lent was more strictly observed, those tantalizing golden parcels must have been a treat, bringing to a close a monochrome period of sacrifice and deprivation and whetting the appetite for the feast of the following day.

Now I love them, especially served with a glass of wine at the start of a meal.

Here is cousin Fiorella’s version.

Fiorella’s Fiadoni

For the pastry:

500g flour

2 eggs

100ml white wine

100ml olive oil

Mix together the ingredients and knead to a soft dough.  Leave aside for half an hour.

For the filling:

About 700g grated cheese, made up of:

400g rigatino, 150g pecorino, 150g parmegiano

3 eggs

Mix together and add a pinch of salt and pepper. 

Divide the dough into two balls and roll each out quite thinly. Place a teaspoonful of the cheese mixture at intervals on the rolled out dough.  Cover with the second sheet of dough and press the two sheets together round the filling mounds.  Using a pasta cutter, cut out half-moon shapes.

(I find it easier to cut rounds with a diameter of about 8cm with a biscuit cutter, placing the cheese mixture slightly off-centre, and then folding the round in half to form a half-moon).

Whatever the method, press the sides together, make a slit in the top of each fiadone with a knife and brush a little beaten egg over the top.

Bake for 15/20 minutes at 200°.