Easter cooking is easier to plan when you separate the occasions within spring. Lent, St Joseph’s Day, and Easter Sunday each have their own associations. This collection is a cooking guide: it groups recipes by occasion and offers lunch ideas alongside the sweets.

Visit Gozo’s seasonal sweets account distinguishes Kwareżimal from Easter Figolli. For the documented history and the separate St Joseph’s tradition, read our Lent and Easter food article. Neither guide prescribes how your household should observe religious rules.

Pick your baking project first

If you want a biscuit with less decorating work, start with Kwareżimal. Choose Figolli if shaping and icing are part of the occasion you want to create. Choose Żeppoli for a freshly filled pastry, allowing time for the components rather than treating it as a quick batch of biscuits.

For Figolli, decide how many finished pastries you need before rolling the dough. Cutter size changes the yield. Let the baked pastries cool fully before decorating, and read the icing instructions if children are helping. A heart or simple oval can be as useful as a more detailed cutter.

Build lunch around the sweet

If you are making large Figolli, a soup or modest main may be enough beforehand. For a longer lunch, prepare a menu with one starter and one main rather than a sequence of every recipe below. Check oven use before pairing a pie with roast potatoes.

The meat-free lunch group is deliberately separate from the meat-based Sunday suggestions. Read the actual ingredients when choosing: ricotta, cheeselets, eggs, fish, and plant-based fillings are different categories. For ingredient names abroad, use our shopping and substitutions guide.

Explore all Maltese desserts for other sweets, or Sunday lunch for more mains and sides.