Second Christmas or Saint Stephen’s Day, day of eating cannelloni

Today is San Esteban, or Second Christmas Festival as we say in Menorca; By the way, this year is not a holiday, and the gastronomic calendar tells us that today is the day to eat cannelloni, a dish of Italian origin that came to us in the Balearic Islands from the gastronomy and traditions of Christmas cuisine in Catalonia.

Cannelloni were a festive, Sunday food, and in Ciutadella in the 50s and 60s those made by Doro Faner (father of the writer Pau Faner) in the family inn on Alaior Street were well-deservedly famous. My grandmother, who was almost 106 years old, told me that she had learned to play “sa Dida” which was how the owner of the Fonda Faner was known, and they were not missing during my childhood and early adolescence in the Maternal grandparents’ Christmas and New Year meals.

In Barcelona it is said that the Maison Dorée restaurant made them famous in the 19th century, and as the admired gastronome Núria Bàguena tells us, there were lines to eat them or take them home.

Bàguena also informs us that Casa Pince sold pasta plates from France, which were quite expensive and perhaps from there, Mr. Flo, from Pavo pasta, made them famous when he decided to market cannelloni pasta plates, and today they continue to be one of the reference brands for making cannelloni.

In Barcelona, those from the Ses Set Portes restaurant are still famous, as are the Rossini cannelloni, which are named after the famous musician and gourmet. Among its ingredients are foie and truffle. These cannelloni were made in my paternal grandfather’s hotel, the remembered Ses Set Voltes on the beach of Santandria, where the cook put a little tomato sauce in the béchamel and they took on their attractive pink color, which is how I still make them in house, where I also put a couple of beaten eggs on a tray on top of the grated cheese, like my maternal grandmother Guida did.