Holiday festivals often include a feast and there are a wide variety of delectable recipes featuring traditional Italian foods to liven up Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and many other holidays. With cured meats, fresh garden vegetables and a full range of spices and seasonings traditional Italian foods give you a harvest of fine produce to create delicious and festive holiday meals.

Thanksgiving is a traditional American holiday but harvest festivals are celebrated all over the world and Italian cuisine lends itself to a number of interpretations for fine holiday menus. Keep turkey at the center of your Thanksgiving feast with a classic Italian dish known as “Tacchinella alla Melagrana”, or turkey with pomegranates. This is a traditional Italian dish that consists of a roasted turkey basted with fresh pomegranate juice. Never worry about a dry bird again with this Italian holiday recipe that will satisfy any hungry holiday crowd.

Christmas time is a celebrated event that involves friends, family and food. Make your Christmas a hearty feast with wonderful ideas for traditional and contemporary Italian food dishes that feature a variety of pasta and meat combinations. A popular Italian food favorite around the holidays is baked ziti with meatballs. This simple but flavorful dish features fine Italian gourmet cheeses including parmesan, Romano and mozzarella along with ground beef and ziti for a mouth-watering main course that will make your holiday table a warm and tasty treat.

Easter is another occasion that makes for great Traditional Italian food and recipes. Ham is an Easter favorite and the Italian Easter ham pie, or Pizzagaina, is a popular dish that combines farm fresh ham and several gourmet cheeses for a savory pie. Using diced ham, cheddar and Colby cheeses, flour and eggs you can bake up a hearty and delicious ham pie in no time and have a savory main dish that can feed many.