Our Italian Halloween

Spiderweb meringue

I will remember this one as the most different Halloween I have ever celebrated. We are in Italy, so it was a lot about family and food, obviously: at lunchtime, my son, my mom and I watched an Halloween cooking special, and for dinner we surprised everyone with a "eye soup" that was simply delicious (the recipe is at the bottom; I wish I had a picture, but we ate it too fast!). Then there were the sweets baked by the local pastry chef (whose daughter dreams to move to Canada, nothing less). And obviously there were the treats. Since we knew that the locals who live in our small town would have not had treats for my son if we would have just showed up at their door, we decided to improvise. We made small bags filled with Chocolates and then we went to give them to the neighbors. My son was dressed in his dragon costume, but I decided to leave even my witch hat home in order not to look too weird to anyone. The neighbors had one of two reactions when my son offered them the treats: "I am sorry, I have nothing to give you in return!" and "It is very nice of you, but you should eat them!". The mayor's mom, who could not bear if we would have left empty-handed, invited us in for a drink and threw in for good measure a bottle of wine for us to take home.

Bone meringue

My son, who is very generous, loved this trick-or-treating tour. Yet once we got home he looked at us with big eyes and asked: "but who is going to give me treats?" We had an answer ready though: we explained him that in these small towns it is a witch who bring treats to the kids once the night falls. Sure enough, once we finished dinner, we heard spooky noises coming from the garden and... Voilà: the treats materialized for my son's joy. Perfect.

Recipe: Carrot soup with eyes

Ingredients: ingredients for a normal carrot soup, plus 10 mini-mozzarellas and a bunch of green stuffed olives.

Instructions: Prepare the carrot soup and let cool. Meanwhile, halve the olives, and insert each half in one mini-mozzarella. Put two or three of these mozzarella "eyes" in each soup bowl and serve. (You can watch the video here, in Italian).