{"id":416,"date":"2017-01-07T13:56:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-07T13:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portanapoli.com\/en\/?p=416"},"modified":"2017-01-16T09:50:43","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T09:50:43","slug":"neapolitan-christmas-menu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portanapoli.com\/en\/culinary\/neapolitan-christmas-menu\/","title":{"rendered":"The traditional Neapolitan Christmas Menu"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Naples, Christmas is the celebration of family and, above all, culinary delicacies. In South Italy and especially in Napoli\u00a0the traditional Christmas menu has a great importance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Neapolitan

Neapolitan Christmas menu in preparation (\u00a9 portanapoli.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Traditionally, people are not allowed to eat meat on December 24. The traditional dinner, Christmas Eve dinner (Cena della Vigilia or Cenone di Natale) in Naples<\/a> consists of spaghetti e vongole <\/a>(spaghetti with clams), Capitone e Baccal\u00e0 fritto (fried eel and dried cod), Insalata di rinforzo with marinated vegetables and cauliflower, and for dessert roccoc\u00f2 (a pastry with almonds), paste reali, susamielli, and mustacciuoli.<\/p>\n

\"Spaghetti

Spaghetti alle Vongole (\u00a9 Portanapoli.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Following dinner, many families visit the midnight mass at church. The Jesus figurine isn\u2019t placed in the traditional Christmas crib<\/a> until the night from December 24 to December 25.<\/p>\n

In the early afternoon on December 25, the most important Christmas day, people have the so-called Pranzo di Natale (Christmas meal).The Neapolitan Christmas menu\u00a0starts with Minestra maritata (chicken soup with vegetables), followed by a pasta dish like, for example, Maccheroni al ragout, Canelloni, or Tortellini. The Minestra is a typical Neapolitan Christmas meal.<\/p>\n

The second main dish is the cooked chicken, which was used to prepare the soup. Contorno is Broccoli di Natale, a kind of leafy broccoli, which you can only find at the Gulf of Naples.<\/p>\n

\"Struffoli

Struffoli (\u00a9 Portanapoli.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

For dessert, people enjoy Struffoli, a colourfully decorated pastry made from many small fried dough balls, accompanied by a glass of liqueur like Limoncello.<\/p>\n

In the evening, people celebrate the end of the day with Spumante and a piece of Panettone or Pandoro. Panettone isn\u2019t a typical Neapolitan Christmas pastry; it is from the North of Italy, but all its varieties (for example, with almonds or filled with chocolate) are very popular in Naples as well.<\/p>\n

After the meal, it is time to\u00a0open the presents<\/h4>\n

In the days before Christmas, they have been placed under the tree one by one, which is especially exciting for the children. The presents are brought by Babbo Natale, Father Christmas. It wasn\u2019t so long ago, however, that the presents were brought on January 6 by Befana. Befana is an old, ugly woman on a broom who, till today, fills the children\u2019s socks with candy or (edible) coal in the night of January 6.<\/p>\n

There is no specific Christmas meal on December 26 (Prima festa), but people cook big meals all the same. Following a pasta dish is fish or\u00a0meat,\u00a0and, like the previous day, people have Contorni (broccoli and Insalata di rinforzo) as well as the desserts Struffoli and Roccoco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Naples, Christmas is the celebration of family and, above all, culinary delicacies. In South Italy and especially in Napoli\u00a0the traditional Christmas menu has a great importance. Traditionally, people are not allowed to eat meat on December 24. The traditional… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,35,6],"tags":[39,38],"yoast_head":"\nThe traditional Neapolitan Christmas Menu - Portanapoli<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the traditional Christmas menu in Naples. 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