Mercatino di Natale - Italian Christmas Market in Auckland

Get ready to immerse yourself in the festive spirit at the Italian Christmas Market - Mercatino di Natale! 

Indulge in traditional Italian treats, shop for unique gifts, and learn more about Italian language and cutlure. Bring your family and friends along for a day of fun and celebration and to experience a taste of Italy right here in your community! The event is free and organised by the Dante Alighieri Italian Society of Auckland.

Saturday 14 December

Freemans Bay Community Centre

52 Hepburn St, Freemans Bay, Auckland

Mercatino di Natale - Italian Christmas Market

Join us for our Italian Christmas Market, Mercatino di Natale, and stock up on all your Italian gifts, Panettone, Pandoro, fine foods, decorations and much more! 

SATURDAY 9TH DECEMBER 10am-3pm at the Freemans Bay Community Centre (free entry!)

 

Mercatino di Natale: grazie a tutti!

We had a wonderful Italian Xmas Market today, thank you all for coming, and thank you to our volunteers! Buone Feste a tutti!

 

Mercatino di Natale 2019!

Our annual Mercatino di Natale (Italian Xmas Market) is back! See you all on Saturday 14th December for a day of fun, to meet up before the holidays, exchange greetings and best wishes for the Season, for shopping and eating together, e per parlare italiano!

Mercatino di Natale is Free Entry and run as a not-for-profit.

This beautiful poster was designed by Nicoletta Benella di Arte Mani Studio

Photos of the Italian Christmas Market - Mercatino di Natale

Our Dante Mercatino di Natale was a great success! We share a few images here, but to see the full album please click here.

We had 22 stalls, indoors and outdoors, and lots of visitors! Everyone sold well, plus there were prizes and tastings and a few surprises.

Babbo Natale arrived at 11am with Italian biscuits for all the children (grazie Palazzo Italia for sponsoring this!) 

Thank you to all the Dante volunteers who organised and worked at the Mercatino!

Italian Christmas Market in Auckland! Il Mercatino di Natale della Dante, 9 December

Join us for our annual Italian Christmas market Mercatino di Natale,  there will be delicious food to eat on the premises and lots of Italian Xmas goods to buy, from Italian products to locally made Italian artisan foods and crafts, prizes to be won and lots of surprises! For more info check out our FB event here.

Our last concert of the year, followed by Festa di Natale!

Dante Alighieri Concert Series: La Serva Padrona

Join us for a beautiful staged performance of Pergolesi's comedic masterpiece 
La Serva Padrona (The Maid as Mistress).

Sung in Italian

Directed by Emma Sloman, and presented in collaboration with Opera Factory.

Cast:
Anna Mahon (soprano) - Serpina
Ben Kubiak (bass) - Uberto
Luca Manghi (mute) - Vespone

David Kelly - piano

The performance will be followed by a Christmas aperitivo offered by the Dante Alighieri Society.

Tickets $25 / $20 Dante members / $10 students
Cash only at the door
All proceedings will go to the artists

• clock

  Sunday, 3 December   5 PM - 7 PM  St Luke Church,  130 Remuera Rd, Remuera, Auckland

Dante's got talent video!!

Dante's got talent 2013 from Juliette D. on Vimeo.

Ready to get back to Italian lessons at the Dante next week? We hope so and we are looking forward to having you back! In the meantime here is the video that Giulia made for us at the last Xmas Party!

Buona visione!

The Dante Team

TORTELLINI BOLOGNESI - VI REGALO I MIEI TORTELLINI!!! I give you my granny's TORTELLINI recipe!

TORTELLINI BOLOGNESI

Emilia Romagna

Recipe from Cuocicucidici

Today Italian blogger Flavia from Cuocicucidici shares her Grandma's recipe for tortellini, a very Italian Christmas dish. Flavia is from Bologna but now lives in Sicily, visit her blog for some more delicious recipes, both in Italian and English.

Photos and text copyright of and kindly reproduced with permission of Cuocicucidici

 (Scroll down for the English version)

Quest'anno è l'anno che passerò il Natale con la mia mamma e il mio papà...si, ad anni alterni, con il maritozzo abbiamo optato per questa equa scelta, un anno il Natale si passa con la sua famiglia guardando lo splendido mare blu e un anno lo passiamo nei boschi in mezzo alla neve con i miei. 
Tra poche settimane carichiamo in macchina il nostro re peloso MOU (che si chiederà perchè lo svegliamo così presto!!!!) e poi carichiamo la macchina sul traghetto e mentre Mou , sconvolto, si domanderà su cosa poggiano le sue zampotte di così rumoroso ed instabile, noi prenderemo il caffè con un cornetto guardando la nostra isoletta che si allontana!!! E approdando sul "continente" ci appresteremo con grande pazienza ad affrontare la Salerno-Reggio Calabria (l'incubo di ogni viaggiatore!!!!).
Per  me il Natale è l'albero, il presepe, i decori per la casa, il profumo dei biscotti, preparare il panettone o il pandoro...ma più di tutto....per me il  pranzo di Natale sono i TORTELLINI di Bologna, quelli della mia famiglia, della mia nonna di Bologna che quando ero bambina mi inseganava a tirare la sfoglia ( a Bologna non si stende la sfoglia...si TIRA!!!) e poi mi faceva chiudere i tortellini perchè ero una bambina ed avevo le dita piccole..così avrei fatto i tortellini piccoli piccoli....e più piccoli sono e più sono pregiati!!! 
Ad anni alterni io preparo i tortellini per il pranzo di Natale qui in casa nostra.... mentre quest'anno mangerò quelli di Bologna fatti da mamma e papà..... che per me restano i più buoni al mondo!!!!, 
N.B. Ricordatevi che è buona regola cuocere i tortellini in brodo , meglio se di cappone, o comunque di carne....o anche brodo vegetale...ma assolutamente brodo e MAI acqua!!!




TORTELLINI DI BOLOGNA DELLA MIA FAMIGLIA: (con la ovvia premessa che come in ogni famiglia ognuno ha la sua ricetta!!)


per la sfoglia mia nonna calcolava (e così io!) 100 gr di farina per un uovo


per il ripieno:

x 1 uovo
150 gr parmigiano grattugiato
150gr mortadella tritata
100gr prosciutto crudo di Parma macinato
100gr petto di pollo macinato
100gr macinato di vitello
100gr macinato di maiale
sale q.b.
1 pizzico di pepe
1 "granellino" di noce moscata

Preparare e d impastare la sfoglia, poi metterla a riposare coperta a "campana" sotto una ciotola.

Intanto mescolare tutti gli ingredienti per il ripieno e mettere in frigo il tempo necessario a stendere la sfoglia sottilissima (si devono intravedere le venature del legno del tagliere!!)...tagliare la pasta a piccoli quadratini e in ognuno di questi mettere una pallina di ripieno..chiudere e fare i tortellini.


English version for my dear far friends

Next Christmas Holiday my Hubby, Mou and I are going to spend our days to my parents' house. We spend one year here with hubby's family and  one year we go to visit mine!!
They live in North Italy,  betwen Florence and Bologna, their house is in a very nice wood where you can find deers, wild boars, foxes and squirrels and where today it snowed!!! 
In Bologna  (where tortellino was "created")the traditional Christmas meal is Tortellini. My mom's mom, my granny, taught me how to make handmade tortellini, so  when I spend my Xmas here in front of the blue sea I prepare tortellini thinking when I was a child...instead this year I'm going to eat the ones prepared by my parents...and I think they're the best tortellini in the world.

Today I want to share with you my family's recipe, every family gets his own "secret" recipe.

In Bologna we use to cook tortellini in chicken or meat broth, but never cook them in water!!!

I hope you enjoy with this recipe...and trust me tortellini are very very good!!!

I prepare them even some days before Christmas and put them in freezer,  and pour them , when they're still frozen, in the hot boiling broth!!! Serve them with warm broth and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese!!!






 MY FAMILY 'S TORTELLINI FROM BOLOGNA

for dough :

 every egg + 100 gr all porpuse flour 
(for 6 people you can use 4 eggs and 400 gr flour) 


For filling:

1egg
150 gr grated Parmesan cheese
150g chopped mortadella
100g Parma ham, ground
100g minced chicken breast
100g minced veal
100g minced pork
1 pinch pepper
1  pinch nutmeg
salt

 Prepare the dough, mix egg (or eggs) with flour ,  form a ball and cover it for half an hour it with a bowl.Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients in a bowl for the filling and refrigerate the time needed to roll out the dough very thin; cut the dough into small squares and in each of these place a  very little ball  of filling, close forming a triangle and close the tortellino. 
Buon appetito...have a very nice shopping weekend!!!