What I'm Cooking this Easter
from pistachio maritozzi to slow-roasted spring lamb
Easter is one of my favourite weekends to cook. Spring is in full swing, loved ones are gathered together, and the stakes are so much lower than at Christmas. Whilst the culinary emphasis is usually on Easter Sunday, there are so many meals to get excited about on either side, which takes the pressure off a single, climactic lunch.
For the past few years, I’ve enjoyed the Saturday morning ritual of hot cross buns. I came across a plateful of glossy, sun-dappled blood orange and saffron buns on Letitia Clark’s blog towards the end of lockdown, and an Easter hasn’t gone by without me making them since. (Nor, should I add, without a few mishaps along the way — one year I forgot to add egg yolks to the final dough, and another year the only yeast available was two years out of date — but delicious, if somewhat pancake-looking, all the same.)
This year, however, I’m thinking of shaking it up. Maritozzi — a briochey, cream-stuffed bun native to Rome — are in many ways the Italian equivalent of a hot cross bun. Traditionally savoured as a Lenten treat, enriched with pine nuts, raisins and orange zest, they can now be found and enjoyed in Rome throughout the calendar year, inhaled in clouds of icing sugar and cream. For all the marvelling I’ve done at them, I’ve never actually got round to making any (in part out of fear of failure), so I’ve decided that this year is my year. I floated the idea of a hot cross bun-inspired flavouring for the dough, with raisins and candied peel, to Oscar, but this was quickly shot down, so we’re looking at either a pistachio or lemon situation. I’ll report back.
Another (similarly unoriginal) favourite Easter creation is a slow-cooked shoulder of lamb. I’ve spent quite a few recent Easters up in Norfolk with Oscar’s family, where we’re always looking for an excuse to fire up one of our many extravagant lockdown projects: the hand-built pizza oven.* Saturday lunch is often a selection of homemade pizza, invariably drenched in wild garlic pesto at my insistence, and the cooling embers of the oven used to slow-cook a giant shoulder of lamb. Diana Henry’s slow-cooked lamb with pomegranate and honey has become a bit of a staple, both for its low maintenance and for the exquisitely tender, rich meat that falls off the bone when it’s done.
This year, however, I’m going for a more Italian take and plan on lathering the shoulder in a green paste of herbs, wild garlic and anchovy. I basically just want an excuse to recreate my twice-cooked crispy new potatoes with salsa verde and garlic yoghurt — and I think this will pair rather nicely. There’ll probably be some asparagus involved somewhere, too. Again, I’ll report back.
The third (and final) meal that I’m planning on forcing upon the extended family is a nettle, pecorino and asparagus risotto. My very good friend Liv is a Chef de Partie at Spring in Somerset House, and whilst I wasn’t able to eat the nettle risotto cooked by her fair hand there the other night (long, sad story), I’ve been dreaming of cooking up something similar ever since.
I also plan on eating a small farm of Cadbury Mini Eggs, because no Easter is complete without them.
Whatever you’re cooking, however you’re celebrating, I hope you all have a wonderful (and delicious) Easter.
Sophia xox
*Whilst Oscar loves to claim that he built a pizza oven in lockdown, it must be stated that this was a commission — fulfilled by a local dry-stone wall builder who thought we were barking mad.