Discovering Romania: Traditional Easter foods

Large holidays are also a time of large meals for many Romanians – at least, in traditional families (especially after those who respected the seven - week fasting period before Easter). These are the foods one can expect to see – and eat – at Easter lunch /dinners in Romania.

Colored eggs These are usually the snack but can even be main course during the Easter break. These are boiled eggs which are colored, traditionally in red, but in other colors as well. The tradition is to tap eggs on Easter day – the person who can tap everyone's eggs without breaking theirs is the winner. So boiled eggs will go with almost everything during these days. Careful though - you don't want to have too many!

Pasca

This is a very yummy cheese cake that is traditionally made on Easter only. The name pasca comes from the Romanian name for Easter = Pasti. The Pasca recipes (and shapes) vary from one region to the other in Romania, but the most commonly found is the one with cheese. The pasca usually teams up with the Romanian sweet bread cozonac, which is a must for all large holidays.

Lamb dishes It's lamb with everything on Easter, but most commonly made are lamb haggis (in Romanian, drob), a dish which is served cold, and which works miracles when eaten together with the boiled eggs. Then lamb roast and lamb soup. The latter is not so often found among foods served on Easter in traditional Romanian households, but most people would make sure they include on the menu something made of lamb.

What's your experience with Romanian food on Easter? Is there anything you tasted that the others should definitely hear about? Drop a line below, or an email (especially if you can also share recipes!) editor@romania-insider.com

(Opening photo: Cristina Alexe |