It was a cult that, for centuries, attracted and united devotees from all over Calabria. It filled the streets and alleys of Conflenti, a small village in the province of Catanzaro, with people, balloons, colourful fabrics, sounds and flavours typical of the region.
The Calabria Club is preparing for the great feast of Our Lady of the Oak of Visora, bringing Australia a custom deeply felt by the people of Calabria and its community of faithful. The hope is that people can relive and rediscover a piece of the tradition of their land.
The origins of this feast date back to the summer of the 1578, when the Virgin Mary appeared to a young shepherd, Lorenzo Folino, at the foot of an oak tree in the territory of Conflenti. The story goes that she recommended that he have a church built in Visora.
The construction of the church was completed almost thirty years later, on August 26, 1607. It was built thanks to the hard work of the people of Conflenti along with some of the inhabitants of neighbouring towns and was consecrated by the bishop of Martirano. From then on, Our Lady of the Oak is celebrated in Conflenti every August 26.
After the Mass, which lasts until the afternoon and ends with a long procession, tradition dictates that grispelle - also known as curujicchi, crespelle or cullurielli - are served. It’s a typical Calabrian dish, composed of humble ingredients such as potatoes and flour.
The recipe, simple as it is, is much loved by young and old alike. It has, over the years, undergone slight variations as some ingredients are easier to come by. In the past, grispelle were fried by the fireplace in a large iron pan and with copious amounts of lard.
Today, people prefer to fry grispelle in oil, although some purists continue to follow the traditional conflentese recipe.
The shape of grispelle is reminiscent of the Neapolitan graffe, the classic doughnuts with a hole and covered in sugar. They share a cooking method as both are fried.
The recipe for this delicious Calabrian dish calls for potatoes, first boiled in a large pot, to be peeled, mashed and combined with flour, oil, yeast and salt until a soft dough is created.
The dough is divided into small parts, as many as the number of grispelle one wants to make, which are then kneaded to give them the shape of a doughnut.
The grispelle are then allowed to rest for a few hours until they double in volume, then they’re fried in hot oil until they turn completely golden. The recipe can also include variations, such as the addition of honey or sugar, to make them even sweeter.
Those who wanted to taste this Calabrian delicacy were able to do so at the Feast of Our Lady of the Oak in Visora, held last Sunday, August 27 at the Calabria Club.
The end of the procession was followed with the Holy Mass celebrated by Father Michele Cagna, before a feast accompanied by music, dancing, entertainment and stalls with typical Conflenti products, including the famous grispelle.
