Anyone who has set foot in an Italian household will know that Italians don't simply eat to live, they live to eat. This year you're invited to our place for Easter dinner. Buon appetito.

As is the case for most Italian families, less is never more. The idea of not having enough food on hand to feed a small country would be deemed taboo. Limiting the culinary choices on the menu? Heaven forbid. Not inviting your mother's third cousin to Easter dinner? What an absolute disgrace.

In the weeks prior to Easter you'll find three women arguing over what and how much should be cooked and why so and so wasn't invited.

These three women? My nonna (or grandmother for those of you unfamiliar with l'Italiano), my mother and my aunty.

Now, if you've ever been privy to such an argument, you'll know who wins … all three. I mean, how could a decision between lasagne, gnocchi or ravioli ever be reached?

Combine that with the meat dishes of chicken involtini, lamb racks with baked Italian vegetables and creamy veal scaloppini and you'll see that feeding a small country was no exaggeration.

Fast forwarding to Easter day, at the crack of dawn you'll find the house ridiculously clean, with tables set and Mum secretly wondering if she should add cannelloni to the menu. Once the guests have arrived, we pick and choose from the array of cold meats, cheeses and other delicacies drowning in oil (better known as antipasti) before finally tucking into our Easter feast (unsurprisingly featuring a dish of cannelloni).

A few hours later the dolce, or sweets, make their appearance. Coffee and Italian biscotti are mandatory on any occasion but Easter brings with it sweets like zeppoli (Italian donuts), tiramisu, canoli and a honey-almond concoction whose recipe remains known only to my nonna. Of course, the traditional Italian Easter cake, colomba pasquale, is baked in the shape of a dove (colomba) and decorated with a sugar icing, candied orange peel and almonds.

While it's no secret that this Mediterranean lot revel in a dolce vita of the palate, it still amazes me that after we're busting at the seams, brimming with satisfaction, my nonna manages to say, "Come on, eat!"

Buona Pasqua (happy Easter).

YOUR SAY: Do you have any family Easter traditions? Does your family enjoy a multi-cultural celebration? Tell us below.