Traditional Day of the Dead Ligurian food

Impious or grotesque though it may seem, all over the world the day/feast of the dead (including Halloween/Samhain) has always been linked to specific rituals, behaviours and food consumption. It is no coincidence that many areas cook sweets for both All Saints' Day and November 2nd (the day of the dead), nor is it difficult to trace the origins of this tradition, a sort of bridge between Greek paganism (Demeter), Roman, Judaism and Christianity. 

"Pan dei morti" (Lombardy, Liguria...), "fave dei Morti" (Lombardy, Marche, Umbria, Lazio...), "ossa da mordere" (Piedmont, Valtellina...), "ossa dei morti" (Savona, Piedmont, Veneto, Sicily...), "torrone dei morti" (Naples)... Our ancestors thought that the souls of the departed visited their loved ones, a visit to be homaged with sweets and biscuits. 

It is necessary to propitiate the dead with affection and devotion. In ancient Egypt, foodstuff escorted the corpse and was painted or carved on walls and sarcophagi to feed it in the afterlife - 

In the season of the dead, the earth itself changes its rhythm; the newly sown wheat inaugurates a long journey, hypogeous yet symbolic, towards germination and spring; families exchange gifts, representing the links of the community to face rigid winters: fava beans (icons of regenerating force), chickpeas, bread, cabbage, pumpkins, carne salada, chestnuts, walnuts, dried figs, pomegranates, not to forget (occasionally) frutta martorana (marzipan).

As for Liguria, after the "becco" (chicken) enjoyed on November 1st, we refer mainly to 

1) stocche (stockfish) and bacilli (small, dried fava beans variety);

2) balletti, or ballotte, i.e., fresh chestnuts boiled in their skins, adored by children, who once also played with officioli, i.e., small candles;

3) pan (i.e., bread) dei morti/ossa (i.e., bones) dei morti. The pan dei morti is made of crumbled dry biscuits and usually include flour, cocoa, dry white wine, dried fruit, cinnamon, egg white. The ossa dei morti feature with a poorer dough (flour, sugar, hazelnuts or almonds, a leavening agent, sometimes lemon zest etc.) and resemble a flat breadstick (though sometimes they are round). When baked, they become white and crumbly like bones. The best wine matching is always a passito, served at 14°C in small tulip glasses.

My English abstract of Umberto Curti's article as published in Liguria Food

Luisa Puppo 

This is the fascinating world of tastes and crafts that LiguriabyLuisa discloses to foreign markets and buyers (tour operators, travel agencies, organizations, associations, food&wine dealers and import/export professionals....).

Would you like to know more? Contact me and detail your queries.