Share a Pomegranate to Wish for New Year Good Fortune / 🇮🇹 Italy

At an Italian New Year table, a pomegranate makes its meaning visible when you open it. One fruit has many small red seeds, enough to scatter over several plates. The abundant seeds have been associated with fruitfulness and good fortune. You can bring that image to a family meal by opening the fruit and sharing what is inside. The wish can be as ordinary as having more days to eat together or enough food to offer a visitor. Give each person a little of the same fruit and let the table show what you mean.

1. Wash the pomegranate. Work over a bowl and use a stable board. Score the rind and open it into sections so you can see where the clusters sit.
2. Loosen the red arils with your fingers and take out the pale membranes. Put the arils in a small dish with a spoon that is easy to pass around.
3. Serve them as they are or scatter them over a salad or a dish you already plan to make. Set aside a little so that people can see the shape and colour clearly before the meal begins.
4. Offer everyone a share. Before the first spoonful, think about what you would like to have more of together in the coming year. Let the fruit travel around the table.

At an Italian festive table the pomegranate stands out for its red colour and its many seeds. Those seeds evoke fruitfulness and bring a little colour to salads, sorbets and other dishes you can put on the table. It is one of several foods that make abundance visible at the change of year. Where the little discs of lentils remind diners of coins, the pomegranate has its own surprise. Its plain outside hides a bright interior that can be divided among many people. It is easy to remember who opened the fruit and how it looked when the first seeds fell into the dish.