Uova di Pasqua in Campania
The Easter egg -- artisanal chocolate and the present inside

Easter in Campania is a time of faith, family, and food -- in that order, and also simultaneously, since the three are never easily separated in the Campanian calendar. Among the Easter traditions, the uova di Pasqua -- the chocolate Easter eggs -- hold a specific place in childhood memory that is different from any other food in the holiday year. Not because of what they taste like, though a good artisanal chocolate egg from a serious Campanian pasticceria is an excellent thing. But because of what is inside: every egg contains a surprise, a small gift chosen and placed there specifically for the person receiving it, and the moment of cracking the egg open to find what is inside is one of the specific rituals of Easter morning that stays in memory with unusual clarity.

My aunt Dodà would sometimes go to the pasticceria and ask them to make a custom egg -- a proper artisanal egg from a good shop, made with quality chocolate, and inside it a specific present chosen for me and for my sister Laura. This was not the generic surprise that came in mass-market eggs. It was something thought about and chosen, placed inside the egg at the request of the person giving it, and when you cracked the egg and found it you understood that the gift was not the chocolate but the attention. The egg was the vehicle. The thought was the present. This is how Dodà gave gifts, and I remember it very clearly.

Uova di Pasqua in Campania -- artisanal chocolate eggs and the surprise inside — click to enlarge.

The chocolate Easter egg tradition in Italy has its roots in both the ancient symbolism of the egg as a sign of new life and rebirth, and in the more recent history of artisanal chocolate making that developed in the confectionery towns of Campania -- Nocera Inferiore, Avellino, Naples, Sant'Antonio Abate, Castel San Giorgio. These towns developed a serious chocolate craft that produced artisanal Easter eggs of genuine quality: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, gianduia with Campanian hazelnuts, pistachio versions with the pistachio paste that has become ubiquitous in recent years. The artisanal version -- the uovo artigianale -- is made with finer cocoa, shaped by hand in molds, often decorated with sugar flowers and elaborate designs, and contains a carefully chosen prize. It is a different object from the mass-market egg in every respect.

Easter Sunday in Campania brings the whole family to the table. Pastiera, casatiello, lamb -- the savory courses of the holiday lunch -- and then the chocolate eggs as the sweet conclusion that belongs to the children but is eaten by everyone. The eggs are broken open with ceremony, the prize retrieved and examined, the chocolate distributed and eaten at room temperature, which is the correct temperature for good chocolate. And the shell of the egg, if it is from a good pasticceria, is chocolate worth eating slowly. My aunt Dodà understood all of this. The egg she chose every year was always the right one.