Italian Easter Pies - "Shadoons" or "Chadonnes"

[Molise53]

Anybody else's family make these? We make then on Holy Thursday every year. We roll out the dough into rounds, then stuff with a filling of basket cheese, romano cheese, pepperoni and eggs. Roll the dough into a half moon, brush with egg yolks and bake. We also make varieties with prosciutto instead of pepperoni and ones with crabmeat or shrimp so we can eat those ones on Good Friday.

[slkinsey]

The "chadoons" or "chadonnes" pronunciation strikes me as a bit of the same Italian-American transmutation of Italian or dialect that gives us "gabbagool" for coppacolla and similar.

Does your family by chance go back to Campobasso in the Molise region of Italy? It sounds like you're talking about sciadone di carnivale (sciadone = "sha-doe-neh"). Sounds like soppresata is the traditional filling in Campobasso, along with eggs, fresh cow cheese and aged cow cheese, and that the dough is made with wine. Of course, there are lots of "easter pie" traditions in Italy, but this one seems to be at least where the word you're using comes from.

[Molise53]

YES! YES! YES! My family is from right outside Campobasso in Cercemaggiore. My grandfather and father always made homemade sausages and soppressata, but neither my grandmaother or mother never used it in our "Shadoons" - it's always been pepperoni, or occasionally prosciutto. We've never put wine in our dough either. But both ideas - the soppressata and the wine - sound like they're worth experimenting with this year!

I've been wondering if anybody outside our circle of family or friends ever made shadoons - sciadone! - or heard of them!

Thanks for the response, it was exciting to see a mention of the Campobasso region all the old timers in my family used to talk about so much.

[slkinsey]

There are also, and perhaps more commonly, called sciadune ("sha-doo-neh") (e.g., this page of recipes from nearby Morrone del Sannio).

[rooftop1000]

Italian-American transmutation of Italian or dialect

I love it - I live it

No Easter pies here though, I had never heard of them until I started reading Bill Ervelino's column in the Record newspaper. Funny guy and his mom make lots of pies.

tracey

[Molise53]

I should confirm that by "pie" I mean more of a half moon shaped filled pie. Almost like a calzone or, more crudely, a Hostess fruit pie. The dough we use is it a circle shape, we put the filling down and flip over the dough to make a half moon shaped "pie" filled with the cheeseegg and pepperoni filling.

[Adam Balic]

What dough do you use? I have a few recipes, but are looking for more.

[jpen1]

Can the dough be rolled out using a pasta maker

[Molise53]

yes you can use a pasta machine to roll the dough, just make it more thin than thick, you want the pepperoni and cheeses inside to cook and melt through

[Molise53]

Nice to see my topic is stil here after almost 10 years.  As usual, will be making our "Sciadunes" one week from today on Holy Thursday!

[kayb]

Glad this came to my attention. I think I shall try these.

 

[Allura]

The filling is similar, but we make a full-up pie in my family, and call it "ham pie". Includes ricotta, a little egg & flour, provolone, ham and salami. My grandfather owned a butcher shop, so my grandmother would use the ends of the coldcuts. I have to make two this year, one for Easter brunch at church and one for before Easter dinner. I will freely admit I use a frozen crust bc I'm not much of a baker.

[Smithy]

On 3/22/2018 at 2:09 PM, Molise53 said:

Nice to see my topic is stil here after almost 10 years.  As usual, will be making our "Sciadunes" one week from today on Holy Thursday!

 

It would be lovely to see some photos and description of your process.  I missed this topic the first time around, and now I'm intrigued.

[Vincenzio]

Hello! It is wonderful to find folks who have also made or know of this food! Ive grown up in an Italian American family cooking what my Dad taught me as Shadoons... finding your site was informative because much of the history was not passed along all that well through time.  Our family too is from the town of Cercemaggioe. So it is great to learn the correct spelling and pronunciation...thank you!  I only had my memory of sitting with my Dad helping cut all the meats and cheeses.  He did however leave a recipe before he passed, and about every other year i make ALOT of them.  You see, even though it seems to be an Easter tradition in Italy, my dad made these usually between thanksgiving and Christmas. He would make about 50-75 of them! The best part though was we would get in the car on a Sat afternoon and start delivering them to close family and friends, having wine at every stop! It was a fantastic tradition that i still continue with my family and close friends today.  Thanks again.

[gfweb]

11 hours ago, Vincenzio said:

Hello! It is wonderful to find folks who have also made or know of this food! Ive grown up in an Italian American family cooking what my Dad taught me as Shadoons... finding your site was informative because much of the history was not passed along all that well through time.  Our family too is from the town of Cercemaggioe. So it is great to learn the correct spelling and pronunciation...thank you!  I only had my memory of sitting with my Dad helping cut all the meats and cheeses.  He did however leave a recipe before he passed, and about every other year i make ALOT of them.  You see, even though it seems to be an Easter tradition in Italy, my dad made these usually between thanksgiving and Christmas. He would make about 50-75 of them! The best part though was we would get in the car on a Sat afternoon and start delivering them to close family and friends, having wine at every stop! It was a fantastic tradition that i still continue with my family and close friends today.  Thanks again.

Care to show us the recipe?

[Vincenzio]

Sure! Here is a link via google drive:

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OixmfbF11GwUK9Z6P5QQ6dXNV5slerNePimxJWGq9VE/edit?usp=drivesdk

[Vincenzio]

Addendum to recipe: the quantity of filling usually exceeds what that recipe calls for in terms of dough....so i usually end up making another batch of dough (so basically double the dough recipe).  This of coarse is a huge amount of Shadoons, or Sciadunes so you could cut the recipe proportionally to your needs! Enjoy! Ps....i tried to take a pic of mine thati just made but the file was too large to attach.

[Vincenzio]

Ok...i may have gotten it to work...

[Smithy]

Those are lovely crusts, @Vincenzio. Judging by your recipe, it sounds like these would be slightly too large to eat as hand pies, but they could be eaten that way. What is the traditional way to eat them? Fork? Or pick them up and eat them out of hand?