Cavagnetti (Ligurian Easter pastries)

Before Colomba Pasquale (“Dove bread”) became the hero on all Italian Easter tables, Cavagnetti were the traditional Easter pastries of the Italian Riviera. The name derives from the genoese dialect word “cavagna”, meaning baskets. Indeed they are small baskets of sweet leavened dough with an egg in their center, symbol of the rebirth. Traditionally people prepared Cavagnetti some days before Easter, brought them to Church for blessing and then gave them as a present to children. Some times the eggs inside were colored with natural dye. Sometime fiancé used to give it as a present to each others, in which cases the eggs in the basket were two and colored in red, the color of love.