In Italian, when someone is contented, really and truly exploding with joy, we say he's "contento come una Pasqua" (happy as an Easter Sunday). This is certainly related catholicism and the fact that Easter arrives at the tail end of Lent, those forty days of personal sacrifices of every sort (including those gastronomic).

With no intention of offending anyone's religious sentiments, it's possible to put the Lenten season to good use as the focal point of a menu. The thought might indeed occur to you, should you, like me, find yourself in Sestrière where a fog settles thickly over your ski holiday, that there is little to be "contenti come una Pasqua" about. While pacing from one window to the other with an eye on the clouds, I console myself with thoughts of the perfect Easter meal.

Easter is the spring holiday, yet the landscape I'm contemplating at the moment is not terribly inspirational. Better to leave than to pine, and I take off with my thoughts for the other end of the peninsula, to Sicily! The ferry takes me to the entrance to the highway to Siracusa. A bit farther to the south, I pass through Avola, where the almond trees as well as the "Sagre del mandorlo in fiore" (almond-blossom festivals) are in full bloom.

Ravioli di Fave Verdi

Let me tell you a little about the Sicilian easter, of western Sicily exactly, which is something else again compared to the more prominent celebrations in Palermo or Messina. Modica and Noto boast the traditional ravioli di fave verdi (ravioli stuffed with fava beans). Take the fava beans, peel off their shirts (or hulls) and cook them together with 1/2 the same amount of chicory. Let the mixture cool, then chop and weigh it. Add 1/3 the total weight of fresh ricotta. Is this looking too much like algebra? It is actually something of an hommage to Pythagoras and Euclidian proportions...and it ain't over yet!

Soak breads crumbs in milk, pressing out the excess liquid. Figure one bread roll for every 1/2 pound of the fava mixture, and add one egg for every pound.

I don't know if this is caused by the noble philosophical ascendence of the Greek Empire but believe me, this is the enigmatic-esoteric technique handed down by local housewives. In practice, if you're good in algebra, you'll make it, if you're not, you're cut out of it. Selective, but efficient.

Form the ravioli by putting teaspoon-sized morsels of the compound on a sheet of pasta (great revelation for those who are incapable/don't have time/ don't have a home-made pasta machine: you can get the fresh pasta in specialized stores. Order in advance). Cover everything with another sheet of pasta. With a pastry cutting wheel cut the pasta around the filling into 1-inch squares, and pinch the sides shut pressing your finger all around. Boil the ravioli, stir in beaten ricotta (beating renders it softer) mixed together with olive oil and a tablespoon of minced chives. It goes without saying that you've got to salt and pepper to taste, but if you managed the measuring equations at the beginning, you've most probably guessed that already.

Agnello Pasquale (Easter Lamb)

We'll take the easy way round to the second course. Have the butcher chop 2 to 3 pounds of spring lamb into serving-size pieces. Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Coat the pieces of lamb with oil and a mixture of crumbled rosemary, sage and marjoram before putting it into the oven along with a handful each of black olives and capers (select those preserved in salt, those in brine tend to lose their taste). Cook approximately 1-1 1/2 hours. Turn the pieces from time to time to prevent drying. Here again, add salt and pepper as you will. See, you didn't need your calculator here!

...and Now, for Dessert!

The finishing touch is the cassatelle pasquali. Cut 10cm rounds from a sheet of Pan di Spagna (spongy yellow cake similar to the French " biscuit" which is available at most good American bakeries) and put one in the bottom of each mold of a cupcake baking sheet in such a way that the edges cover also a bit of the sides. Soak the rounds with sicilian Passito wine and fill the hollow with a mixture of ricotta beaten with sugar and a touch of cinnamon.
They're wonderful just like that, but in Modica they take it a step farther, topping each cassatella with an egg yolk beaten with sugar and a bit of milk. Put the cassatelle into a 300 degree oven for 10-15 minutes and you'll retrieve tiny, perfect souffles. Personally, I'd serve them with a garnish of almond-blossoms. After all, isn't Easter the holiday of flowering spring?