Holidays can seem overwhelming and what with all the egg-dying, bread-baking and candy-buying, keeping the Easter lunch simple makes sense.

Lamb is in season and a rack of lamb chops is simple and very elegant.  Buy enough for two per person, salt the racks well and brown them on all sides in olive oil in a large saute pan.  Place them in a roasting pan and roast at 400 for 10 minutes.  That should give you a lovely brown skin and a gorgeous red center; use an instant read thermometer to take the temp to 125-135, which is med rare to medium.  Take them out of the oven and let them rest 10 minutes.  Slice the rack into individual chops and place them on a bed of mint and rosemary.

Meanwhile in the saute pan, to the olive oil add one minced shallot and a minced garlic clove.  Cook gently, add white or red wine and reduce.  Stir in a tablespoon of cherry jam and you have a lovely light sauce to drizzle over the chops on their way to the table!

Serve the lamb chops with a fresh spring salad of crisp greens, blanched peas and asparagus, torn mint leaves and slivered almonds.  Toss the salad with a simple balsamic vinaigrette.

2016 was another hard year for olive growers and oil producers in Tuscany.  Not as catastrophic as the 2014, this past year had a fair number of issues with a lack of olives or infestation by a fly that lays its larvae in the young olives and renders them inedible.

In talking with friends and acquaintances who produce olives for oil, the areas hardest hit were northern and central Tuscany, while the areas in southern Tuscany along the coast, the Maremma and Bolgheri regions, fared better.

Luckily for us, that is exactly where Costco  sources its olive oil that it sells as Toscana IGP!  Most of their stores have the new olive oil in, so get it while it lasts.

Always remember when buying extra virgin olive oil from Italy:  the bottle should have an official DOP or IGP seal on it, which comes from the local consortium.  The grower, presser and bottler follow strict guidelines before they receive the DOP or IGP labels to put on the bottles.  The year of harvest should also be printed on the label, most recent being most desired.  It’s your guarantee of quality and authenticity!

In January I found a DOP from Sicily in Home Goods, so keep your eyes peeled in great import stores wherever you shop!

In Italy this weekend they will celebrate Father’s Day, which falls on March 19th, the feast of San Giuseppe, or St Joseph.  Because he was the earthly father of Jesus Christ, celebrating all fathers on this day elevates their role in the family and makes more sense than a random Sunday in June!

As with all religious holidays in Italy, special foods are used to mark and celebrate the occasion and differ from region to region.  In Sicily, where the Festa di San Giuseppe is said to have originated after a severe drought, they build altars to St Joseph in their homes.  A table is decorated with flowers and statues of St Joe and the Holy Family and covered with special breads and savory dishes.  Because it is in the middle of Lent, the feast day specialties often feature fish, such as a pasta dish of canned sardines cooked with tomato and wild fennel fronds.  The pasta dish is then topped with bread crumbs, representing the sawdust that would have covered the floor of St Joseph’s workshop.  A special cream puff, zeppole, is made in Naples, filled with pastry cream and topped with a cherry.

Click here for more history on the feast of San Giuseppe

My favorite treat for San Giuseppe are the fried rice balls they make in Tuscany.  Frittelle di San Giuseppe are balls of arborio rice flavored with lemon and orange zest.  Fried in hot oil and rolled in granulated sugar, they are sweet, crunchy and available in bakeries and special outdoor stands at this time of year.  In the main Piazza di Campo of Siena, a small wooden hut is erected at the end of February and manned by the retired men and women of the community.  The men fry the frittelle in large vats of hot oil and the women wrap them in cones of paper and sell them all day and into the evening, 3 for a euro.   The delicious smell of frying dough fills the piazza!  We were lucky to be there in February, it had been several years since I’d had them!

However the feast of San Giuseppe is celebrated, it’s a way to let you know winter is drawing to a close and spring is on it’s way!

Happy Fathers Day to all you fathers!  If you are lucky enough to still have your dad, be sure to give him some Italian love on this special day!

Here is the recipe for Frittelle di San Giuseppe:

Frittelle di San Giuseppe (St Joseph Fritters)

1 lb rice

3 quarts water

1 teas salt

Zest from 1 orange and 1 lemon

2 tbsp flour