pinza and blackbirds

in italy, the last three days of january (29, 30 and 31) are called the days of the blackbird {i giorni della merla}, and they are traditionally considered the coldest days of the year. and i hope they will be freezing cold, because it is also said that if the days of the blackbird are as cold as they should be, then a fine spring is around the corner, but if they are warm, it means that spring will arrive later than usual. 

with such a weather, staying indoors and baking are the best thing. a typical winter cake in veneto, friuli and some trentino's valleys is called pinza. there is no recipe of the pinza. it  varies from location to location, from family to family, with some basic general features. the ingredients are simple, typical of the rural tradition: white flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, eggs, pumpkin, candied fruit, dried figs, raisins and fennel seeds.

the very special occasion to eat pinza is usually the panevin, when families gather togheter, and you can taste all the different pinza recipes they made! 

this is how i do it. 

ingredients
200 g cornmeal
200 g wheat flour
120 g softned butter
1 egg
130 g sugar
raisins* 
dried figs*
almond*
250 ml milk
a coffee cup** of grappa {grape spirit}
a coffee cup** of sweet wine
baking powder 
1 orange
salt to taste

* quantity as you like
** i mean espresso

method
put the raisins to soak in the grappa. knead the flours, butter, baking powder, egg, zest and juice from the orange, salt. add raisins with grappa, sweet wine, figs and almonds. add warm milk. the dough will have a quite liquid consistency. pur on a cake pan, bake for 1 hour at 170°. 

better served with hot wine, friends and the best stories from last year. 

winter run before Panevin. January, Saturday 5th

the afternoon before panevin we went for a ride, to see the bonfire in the surroudings . ours was already built up, with the vecia {an old lady doll, symbol for bad things from the past year} on the top, ready to be burned.

i took some photographs of the sourroundings, to the old country houses and the other panevin.

{olympus om10 + fuji superia 1600}

Panevin. January, Saturday 5th

i'm so happy to finally have a moment to sit down and talk about this, one of my very favorite traditions.
on the night between january 5th and 6th in almost every small village in veneto and friuli there are large bonfires, where people gather around, drinking hot wine and singing traditional song.
where i live, in treviso province, we call it panevin, but i heard people use different names, in other places around.
panevin is a dialectal word which means bread and wine, probably because of the simple food people used to bring and eat during this gatherings in the past.

tradition says panevin's fire burns all the worries and the bad things of the past years, and give people the chance to see how the new year will be, by looking at the smoke directions:
fuische a sera poenta pien caliera
fuische a matina, ciol su'l sac e va a farina
if the sparks are going west it will be a good year, with rich harvest {actually, the proverb doen't mention harvest but polenta, the main dish of poor countryside people of north italy in the past, made by cornmeal} but if they're going east, it's better you do your best at work, cause it's not going to be easy.

the night was great, not too cold. we sang, drank, ate and felt happy.
i'm wondering if something similar exists in other parts of the world. any special old tradition to welcome the new year? please, tell me your stories.

{the last two photos were taken with olympus om10 + fuji superia 1600. our afternoon before the bonfires were burned here}