Buona Festa di San Giuseppe e Buona Pasqua!

St. Joseph's Day or La Festa di San Giuseppe is an important day to my family. We come from a small town near Messina in Sicily. I love this day because it is one of the strongest traditions we have in my family. Susan from Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso both had beautiful posts recently about their family traditions and the treat Zeppole. I wanted to share my family's tradition. We make Giusppetti, which are fried pieces of dough, stuffed with raisins and rolled in sugar.

Growing up in NC, away from our family, we continued the tradition. St. Joseph's Day turned into a huge party, where friends and neighbors would join us in eating Giusppetti and welcoming Spring. My mother would man the deep fryer, often frying up five batches of dough. It was my job to roll them in sugar and then put them in baskets for my brother and sister to pass out among our guests. We always had a large spread of fruit, cheeses and meats. I loved these days and maybe it is where I first began to cultivate my love of feeding all my friends.

This weekend, my family and I made Giusppetti together on the back porch. Our recipe is something my mother adapted because the original recipe has disappeared or possibly never existed. Many poorer Italians would use leftover scraps of dough when making these, so the exact dough recipe is unknown. Regardless, we try to maintain the intent of the tradition, turning it into a day of celebrating and friendship. This may have been the hardest photo shoot as my family members are not as polite as my roommates and just ate my models. I was trying to pile them on a plate to look nice but everyone kept grabbing them and eating them. They were also quite opinionated about how we should be photographing the few left. Check out my sister's flickr account to see the full series of pictures and our "artist" stylings. Also, my brother decided to eat them over my head so I ended up covered in sugar. It was fun! They are very delicious!





St. Joseph's Day Giuspetti
(adapted by my mother from the Fleishman's yeast book)

3-3 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons margarine
2 eggs at room temperature
1 cup raisins
1 cup sugar (for rolling)

1. In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix 1 1/2 cup flour, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast.
2. Combine milk, 1/4 cup water and margarine in a saucepan.
3. Heat over low heat until liquids are very warm (120-130 degrees F). Margarine does not have to melt.
4. Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally.
5. Add egg and 1/2 cup flour.
6. Beat at high speed, 2 minutes, scraping bowl.
7. Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff batter and stir the raisins about 1 cup or to taste.
8. Cover bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about hour.

9. Stir batter down.
10. Drop by rounded soup spoon into hot oil (I use Canola oil and solid Crico in the fryer about half and half).

11. Drain on paper towels.

12. Roll in sugar.

P.S. Happy Easter!!!!