Babka, is a sweet, yeasty cake laced with rum syrup and drizzled with icing, and named after the Polish word for Grandmother

It’s traditional for many families in North America to gather around the table for a feast of glazed ham, and everyone seems to have their own unique spin on the recipe for this time-honoured Easter dish.

This rustic, savoury Neapolitan bread has a long history, dating back to as early as 600 A.D., and is distinctive for being stuffed with cheese, eggs and meat. In addition to being delicious, Casatiello is also loaded with Easter symbolism. The rising dough represents the promise of new life, while the bread’s shape symbolizes a crown and the eggs represent rebirth.

A German Easter tradition, this dish is similar to pigs in a blanket but on steroids; a large hunk of ham that’s been baked inside an outer layer of bread.

In Germany, the Thursday before Easter is known as Maundy Thursday, or “Green Thursday,” and Germans have traditionally eaten green foods on this day. This simple herb soup is enriched by the stems of chervil, a delicate herb similar to parsley.

Colomboa di Pasqua — or “Easter Dove” in English — is similar to Italian pannetone, with the dough molded to form the shape of a dove, then topped with almonds and pearl sugar before being baked in the oven.

This traditional Greek bread is used to break the Lenten fast, with the flavours mastic and mahlab adding a distinctive hint of bitterness.

A sweet bread native to Bulgaria and Romania, Cozonac is a not-that-distant relative of Greek tsoureki (a sweet yeast bread made of eggs, milk, and butter).

This special stew is only prepared the week before Easter, made from bacalao (salt cod), fig-leaf gourd (sambo), pumpkin (zapallo), and 12 different kinds of beans and grains, typically garnished with hard-boiled eggs, fried plantains, herbs and parsley.

An Easter tradition in the U.K. and right here in Canada as well, these sweet buns are traditionally enjoyed on Good Friday.

Gigot d’Agneau is essentially a fancy name for a roast leg of lamb. This traditional preparation uses basic seasoning, including salt, pepper, herbes de provence and rosemary, with thick shards of garlic inserted right into the meat prior to roasting.

A buttery semolina shortbread-like pastry surrounds a filling of dates, pistachios or walnuts in this Easter treat from Lebanon.

The Mona de Pascua is a traditional Easter cake native to several regions in Spain, including Catalonia and Valencia, which will typically have an egg (symbolizing fertility, birth and resurrection) baked into its centre.

Brazilians celebrate Easter with this traditional candy, made from ground peanuts, sugar and salt, with some recipes adding cassava flour.

Created by Russian Orthodox Christians as a celebratory Easter dessert, pashka is similar to a fancy French custard, typically shaped in a pyramid-shaped mould.

Similar to a quiche, this savoury pie features a puff pastry crust surrounding a filling of spinach and cheese, and is traditionally served during Lent.

Brent Furdyk is a freelance writer in Vancouver.