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The Eternal City is just arising from a long winter’s nap. An exciting New Year’s Eve saw both citizens and visitors thronging the streets as they took in free concerts and fireworks extravaganzas or dined on multi-course meals throughout the city.

No matter how one spent the evening, it’s safe to bet that most Romans ate lentils after midnight - or are doing so on New Year’s day. Their round shape - like coins - brings prosperity in the coming year.

If you’ve not yet had your lentils, it’s time to get busy cooking! Here’s a simple recipe for lentils of the type many Italians indulge in on Capodanno:

1/2 pound of lentils

2 springs of rosemary

2 peeled garlic cloves

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup vegetable broth (+ extra if needed)

salt & pepper

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Soak the lentils for 1 hour in cold water to cover. Drain; place in a 2-quart pot and coer with coolwater, then add 1 sprig of rosemary together with 1 clove of garlic. Bring to a gentile boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain, discarding the rosemary and garlic. Mince the remaining garlic. Heat the olive oil in the same pot; add the remaining rosemary and garlic; cool until aromatic, about 1 minute over low heat. Add the lentils, broth, salt, pepper, and tomato paste. Stir well.

Cook until the lentils are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 20 minutes, add a little more broth if needed. Adjust the seasoning and serve hot.

Serves 6

Recipe via the Italian Language site on About.com

Each year on Christmas Day, the beautiful medieval church of Santa Maria in Trastevere (see below) is the site of a huge holiday banquet for Rome’s neediest residents. Staged by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a religious lay organization, the tradition began in 1982 when a small group of needy people was served Christmas lunch at a banquet table in the church. Since that time, the feast has expanded greatly. Each year hundreds dine in the basilica, served by volunteers who have spent weeks gathering supplies for the banquet. Presents are gathered as well, with gifts of games, toiletries, sewing sets, notebooks, radios, socks, ties, sweaters, hats, and more being presented to those who might otherwise go without gifts on the holiday.

This year 2000 individuals were served lunch in Santa Maria in Trastevere.  On the menu:  lasagna, meatballs, potato gateau, lentils, typical Christmas sweets, seasonal fruit, and prosecco.  (Another 8000 needy people were served Christmas meals in other locals and by other organizations in the city.)  For more information on this event (which now takes place throughout the world), click here.

As with most Italian holidays, eating is a very important part of Christmas and it requires a lot of preparation. Thus the open-air markets and grocery stores were teaming with shoppers today, all of whom were searching for the freshest and tastiest ingredients they could find for their holiday celebrations. It’s our goal to share some of that food excitement with you today and so we bring you a photo tour of the open-air market in Rome’s Testaccio neighborhood.

Traditionally, the Catholic Church asked Christmas Eve be kept as a day of fasting and abstinence (the Code of Canon Law eliminated this fast in 1983) and thus the traditional Christmas Eve meal in Rome is one of fish rather than meat. Today, the fish stands were loaded with riches (see above), the most treasured of which are the capitone or eel (see below). Shoppers in the know search for a big female eel and serve it roasted, baked, or fried (it’s also preferible to purchase it alive and and conveniently kill it in your own kitchen sink in order to insure freshness).

Eating takes all evening and though each family’s meal varies, they all include a large number of courses (7, 9, and 11 are common) and often feature a menu somewhat like this one:

Antipasto of olives and marinated eel
Fish stock
Pasta with tomato and tuna sauce
Boiled cod with tomatoes, onions, pine nuts, and raisins
Broccoli
Eel
Panettone and/or Nougat for dessert