A full and comprehensive response would be that they do it BIG here! The Christmas Eve dinner (a favourite in southern Italy) or Christmas Day lunch (a tradition up North) for Italians is the event number one on the agenda of celebrations. Some Italians start with a big dinner on December 24th, while others, especially the more traditional Milanese families prefer a light meal — preferably without meat — in view of the Christmas Vigil celebration in church, and wait for a huge Christmas lunch the next day. 

Anyway, the typical Christmas Eve dinner menu (Vigilia di Natale) is a synonym of abbondanza or plenty: every family, be they poor or wealthy, puts dozens of elaborate dishes and a variety of delicacies on the table. These usually include everybody’s favourite pasta recipe, luxuriant risottos, seafood dishes and special pastries and desserts. For starters they can have cured meats, Russian salad, fresh salmon. The main courses menu differs from one family to another, since every Italian family has their own traditions and secret recipes, but some general similarities unite them.

The protagonist of every Italian table on the 24th and 25th of December is meat (in particular poultry), in its different variations: the most frequent choice for family celebration is boiled capons or roasted guinea hens (gallina faraona).

In the period between Christmas and the Epifania (the 6th of January), it is estimated that at least 800 thousand capons and 500 thousand turkeys will have been eaten by Italian households! Impressive number, isn’t it?

Stuffed turkey and tagliatelle with chicken livers are the bosses of Christmas Eve tables here. The classic recipe for capon in Lombardy includes walnut or chestnut stuffing, and boiling the capon before finishing it in the oven - while capon’s stock is used to cook risotto giallo with saffron, or Ravioli in brodo - the first course of every Christmas lunch in Milano, the meat will be part of the second course.

Choosing poultry in Italian supermarket is not a big deal since it passes strict controls before being stored on shelves – Conad, Coop, Carrefour or Esselunga or any other major supermarket chain is fine. Don’t forget about macellerie, butcher’s shops, in your neighbourhood  or inside Mercato Comunale– you will find any type of meat there easily (just prepare your dictionary beforehand!).

If you see baccalà - another season's staple, it is cod, dried and (pay attention to this!!!) outrageously salted. Salt must be washed out by putting it in fresh water, changed regularly, for two or three days before deing able to deep frying, cooking or smashing it (baccalà mantecato). Supermakets and groceries can spare you the baccalà preparation.

As every day of the year in Italy (not complaining, just enjoying!), no Italian Christmas would be complete without pasta: cooked in different ways, but always present on the table. Back in the Renaissance, pasta was a luxury food, reserved for special occasions, and paired with other luxury foods like sugar and cinnamon. Now it is the staple food of every Italian family, and you can choose to cook it and mix it with any sauce you want. The most widespread pasta brands in Italy are all excellent, but you can also choose among gourmet ones which you can find in specialty stores across the city. Filled ravioli, tortellini potato gnocchi and other fresh pasta is a good choice in supermarkets - if you don’t want to find a good video recipe and make it at home. You can also buy fresh pasta at pastaio specialized shops or gastronomia (shops where you can buy ready food). Duck into high-end Peck gastronomia or get lost in any of the covered public markets (mercato comunale) around the city.

In Lombardy, people tend to choose pasta in brodo (still that cappon broth) as first course for the big lunch on Christmas day.

Panettone is the Christmas cake from Milano tradition: a dome-shaped "sweet bread" made with sour dough, eggs and butter and studded with sultanas and candied orange peels.

Historically is a symbol of abundance and fertility for the coming year. The Italian writer Pietro Verri has initially called it pane di tono (luxury bread): according to the legend, the person who invented panettone was the Milanese nobleman Ughetto degli Atellani who lived in the 1400s. He fell in love with Adalgisa, the daughter of a poor baker named Toni. To win her over, the nobleman disguised himself as a baker and invented a rich bread in which he added dried raisins and candied peel.

Ok, David maintains that bread enriched with fruit or candied fruit is comon throughout Europe, The Milanese lead it to perfection and the name comes  from accrescitive suffix -one that just means an important, big, rich bread and suggests therefore leave legends apart and to ask for a fettone (big, important slice -fetta- ) di panettone, but I love the legendary allure around old traditions.

Since lately there started to appear panettoni of lower quality on supermarket shelves, in order to protect the status of the authentic one, the Association of Italian Confectionary Industries (AIDI) has asked the Italian government to recognize panettone as a specialty item deserving of protected designation. Only producers meeting strict standards will be able to identify their product as panettone. Among the brands meeting the AIDI requirements  are Alemagna, Bauli, Flamingi, Maina, Motta, Perugina, Le Tre Marie, and Valentino.You can also personalize your panettone the way you want and ship it out wherever you want with the  tuobauli.it.

In case you want  the best of the best, go for the artesanal panettone, for instance the one baked by Pasticceria Cucchi:  they call themselves “the synonym of 'made in Milano' since 1936”. Might sound presumptuous until you try the traditional Cucchi panettone( you can already order it now). They even let you write a personalised letter to your significant other and choose the design for the box!

And when you walk through Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, you will immediately notice THIS. The window glass you would like to jump in. It is the showcase of Pasticceria Marchesi, displaying pastry masterpieces that are extremely appetizing and aesthetically attractive- Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar and Italian honey – do you need more for a perfect panettone? Create your own list of favorites! If you are around Corso Magenta, at the corner with via Meravigli, visit the historical  Caffè Marchesi location, with original setup and furniture and pick up a Panettone.

The Chamber of Commerce of Milano, Monza e Brianza and Lodi keeps the production specification of the original Panettone and publishes a list of more than 150 certified artisanal bakeries, Read the original document deposited at the Chamber of Commerce that states:

The Typical Panettone of the Artisan Tradition must have:
• Not less than 20% by weight of sultanas 
• Candied Orange Peel and Candied Citron in the dough
• Not less than 10% by weight of butter in the dough
• Have no GMO ingredients
• Be made with selected production flour.
• Cannot be sold after 30 days from the production date

The second part  (or first, in soberer Milano) of the tasty marathon is the Christmas lunch the next day, which can last for hours. In Lombardy, except for above-mentioned tortellini in brodo, another common dish is vitello tonnato – cold veal covered in tuna sauce and capers.
Baked pasta is usually eaten for Christmas lunch in the South, but don’t limit yourself to a region, enjoy what you like!

Among side dishes, you can find frittata, Italian omelette with different fillings, and bollito con mostarda – boiled meat with candied fruit in mustard-flavoured spicy syrup (a taste right from the Middle Age - love it or hate it!). And don’t forget there is all that panettone left! (I sincerely believe you couldn't eat it all on Christmas Eve, but if you did – I completely understand you!)

Oh forgot: Panettone is best served with mascarpone cream (cream cheese, egg yolks, sugar) and you can't say no to the torrone (Sugar, egg whites, almonds or hazelnuts, in the variants hard or soft), the panforte (a cake made of candied fruit, spices, almonds, sugar syrup) nuts, dried fruits, struffoli (Naples speciality: fried shortcrust pastry totally covered with honey and diced candied fruit) coffee and a (digestive) liquor.

Clean your mouth with mandarini, tangerines were once the only decoration of Christmas trees & pretty much the only fancy gift for working-class children.

Wine! Red, white, sparkling - each matches a different course. Whites for fish dishes, red for meats, sparkling sweet Asti Spumante for desserts, and Prosecco or Spumante to toast all the way. Try vin Brulé as well - it is hot and spiced red wine. You can go to the specialised wine stores like Signorvino or Enoteca Conti, but the supermarkets usually have a more than decent, sometimes enormous assortment of wines here. If you spend 5 to 10 euros you can get a very good quality bottle of wine. We must make another article on this. 

Don’t forget to sip some hot chocolate in between! For this scope I recommend Gelateria Venchi – in addition to the exceptionally incredible ice cream and chocolates, they sell a big pack of mixture for replicating at home your best cioccolata calda ever.

Drink local: here you can find the list of controlled and guaranteed denomination of origin from Lombardy region. Have a taste!

As international students, some of us might miss the goodies we are used to eat in our beloved motherland.  And we would like to make our roommates try these delicacies.

No worries – they all can be had in Milano! If you have nostalgia for British goods, go buy some Matthew Walker Christmas pudding or Haggis to accompany your all-Italian Christmas menu – find these products at Richmond’s online store in Italy.

While Kalinka is a store selling Russian and Ukrainian foods, where you will find New Year chocolate gifts (as they gave us in kindergarten), red caviar and vodka (part of a more grown-up memories)– all to party like a Russian! The store is located between Lima and Centrale subway stations.

American Crunch store in the centre of Milano will be just fine to add the US spirit to your Christmas box – with Reeses, Doritos, M&M’s, Skittles and simply all-you-can-imagine inside!

Hoping you will find these tips helpful for your all-Italian Christmas in Milano, we are wishing you buone feste. May your culinary adventure of this Natale be unforgettable!

Hanna