The Cannolo. Sweet of Carnival

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One of the most famous Sicilian sweets is the Cannolo. Born as sweet typical carnival, now is in the pastry shops in all the days of the year, even in smaller size "the Cannulicchi".

The Cannolo takes its name from the word "canna", which is a shrub with cylindrical stem and empty, but in Sicily is also an old kind of tap. This sweet was invented in a monastery in Palermo, where a priest made a joke of the carnival, he filled one of those taps with cream of ricotta instead of water. No one knows the effect it had this innocent joke for who expected a sip of water and instead saw the white cream, but surely the invention of the famous dessert was the most noble effect.

Cannolo consists of a "scorcia" (peel), the wafer is cylindrical and brown, fried in "Saimi" (lard) with a filling of cream cheese from sheep. Not forgetting the typical baroque style, is adorned with bits of candied fruit.
The cannoli are now exported outside the borders of our island, in this case, the wafer is coated inside with chocolate, you need not to lose its special friability with direct contact with the ricotta. In other cases the ricotta is seasoned with candied fruit, but in the "Cannolo of Palermo" the candied fruit is just a gasket, ricotta is enriched with slivers of chocolate.

The Sicilian Cannolo is in all the pastry of Palermo (and Sicily), but all recognize that the best cannoli are located in Piana degli Albanesi, a small town just 24 km from Palermo, founded in 1488 by a group of Albanian refugees fleeing to 'the Turkish army. A very nice place to visit and to discover the particular traditions, its history, and to taste the cannoli biggest and best of Sicily. A Piana during the Carnival there is an annual festival of cannolo, this year will be on 10 February, they will distribute approximately 10,000 free cannoli, is really a beautiful experience!

Here's the recipe:

The recipe I have chosen to publish is the original of Piana degli Albanesi, where lard is used for the dough for the fry of the "scorcia". Some, however, replaced the lard, by using butter (for the dough) and olive oil (for frying).Vegetarians who prefer not to eat the animal fat, can make this change or if they want to eat in one of the renowned pastry of Palermo, must first ask some information. To make the shape of cannolo are requires 10 cylinders of bamboo canes, metal or wood (12 cm long and 3 cm in diameter), lightly anointed with oil.

photo of Jude Witts

For the wafer (scorcia):

200 g of flour, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 20 gr. of lard, 2 tablespoons of Marsala, 2 teaspoons of cocoa, a pinch of salt.

For the filling:

1 kg of fresh sheep's ricotta cheese, 600 gr. sugar, 1 sachet of vanilla, dark chocolate little pieces, 100 gr. of candied orange peel.

Mix the flour with lard, the Marsala, sugar and a pinch of salt and mix well, you get a soft and compact dough. It stand for half an hour. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin and make thin squares of 10 cm per side, which wrapped diagonally around a cylinder of metal or a stick of wood.
Welded the flaps of the dough with a drop of water and fry in a frying pan in hot oil (or lard). Put in absorbent paper and expect to be cold before you very carefully remove the cylinder that keeps its shape.
Mix the ricotta with the sugar and vanilla. Put it in blender and then add the little pieces of chocolate and mix gently.

Finally fill the wafer of Cannolo with ricotta cream and garnish with slices of orange or candied cherries. Sprinkle the Cannoli with powdered sugar.

Dreaming the sea...

These are pictures taken at the natural reserve of Capo Gallo, near Barcarello (Sferracavallo). A very nice path between Monte Gallo and the sea, near Palermo (10/15 minutes by car). When we want to relax a bit, let's go for a walk in this beautiful place to dream, makes us feel in touch with nature and with ourselves.
Soon after, however, we are going to eat a nice sandwich with panelle or the meusa, or a plate of spaghetti with clams or a risotto with seafood in the nearby village of Sferracavallo, because as I have repeatedly written, over the spirit also has important the stomach !
In the near post I will write something more about the natural reserves that surround us and the village of Sferracavallo, but now I see these pictures and expect a good day for the next walk ...

PASTA ALLA CARRETTIERA

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This dish is a very simple and tasty, is part of the traditional vegetarian cuisine of Sicily. Of course the result also depends on the freshness and quality of products and maybe even a nice view of the sea, then eat this pasta in Sicily is another thing ...

Palermo, Barcarello

Ingredients:
A kg of ripe tomatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, red pepper, basil (someone replace it with parsley), extra-virgin olive oil, salt, optional addition of grated cheese (pecorino or ricotta salata). Spaghetti or bucatini (400gr).

Preparation:
Wash the tomatoes and peel (to facilitate the operation make some superficial cuts and put in a pot with boiling water for a few minutes) and remove the seeds. In a bowl, cut into pieces and add the chopped garlic cloves (remove the sprout inside) and the chopped basil. Add oil, salt and red pepper and let rest for at least an hour.

Cook pasta, place it in a bowl with the dressing and mix. If you want you can add the grated cheese.

Are you vegetarian? You can eat in Palermo!

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The cuisine of Palermo, is full of alternatives for those who wish not to eat meat or fish, due to the fact that it is a poor cooking it's great use of vegetables seasoned in various ways.

And now a list of traditional vegetarian dishes that you can taste in Palermo without giving up the taste and tradition:

Starters:
Melenzane parmigiana, caponata, peperonata, pumpkins in sweet and sour, eggplant cutlets, omelette with zucchini flowers, peppers stuffed with breadcrumbs, cheese, raisins and pine nuts.

First courses:
Pasta alla Norma: with tomato sauce and fried eggplant.
Pasta with macco: pasta with a sort of mashed fava beans
Pasta with broccoli arriminati (attention if there are anchovies)
Pasta alla carrettiera
Pasta alla Trapanese.
Pasta with sardines ... "Overboard."

Fast food:
Cardoons, artichokes and broccoli in the batter.
Bread with Panelle and crocchè.
Sfincione (attention to the anchovy).
Arancine with and spinach (not to be misled by those known as "butter" because it contains ham too), mini pizzas.

Seconds:
Vegetarian pizza, vegetable couscous.

Desserts:
All non-fried in lard. Cassata, cassatina, Gelo di Mellone , ice-cream and slush.


There are many places where you can find all these beautiful varieties.
At our favorite restaurant "L'Antica trattoria al Monsù", they make a good Pasta alla Norma and a fantastic caponata.
A vegetarian restaurant that now prepare dishes with meat and fish (so is ok for all) is "Il Mirto e la rosa".
As for the fast food of Palermo, the city is full, simply appoint "L' Antica focacceria San Francesco", "Franco u Vastiddaru", "Nino u ballerinu", "the cuochini", etc.
Those who love the fruit, can go the fruit kiosk at Cala.
For sweets and ice cream, the choice is very wide.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Brociolone o Falsomagro

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The brociolone, also said falsomagro is a dish of meat that is tipical of the traditional cuisine of Palermo, spread thereafter throughout Sicily (with variations).

Prepared for the most important feasts, and generally is on our dinner tables for Christmas or New Year.It is a dish that rises during the Aragonese domain, but that was already present during the previous Angevin domain.

His name, in Sicilian dialect "farsumagro" which has become Italianized falsomagro, comes from the French " farci de maigre ", stuffed of lean. This name was erroneously interpreted as "false lean".The story of this dish is interesting because in some ways is an anomaly in our kitchen, showing once again, the imagination and great culinary art of the "Monsù" in make rich some dishes originally poor.

The meat is not a typical specialties of the cuisine of Palermo, because there were not(and there are not) rich pastures, and oxen were used mainly to plow the land. So the meat was fibrous and hard. Thus the Monsù enriched the meat with these tasty fillings, to make them tasty for the table of French nobles.

As I have said there are many variations, this recipe is one of the more traditional.

Ingredients:

A single slice of beef around 800gr, so having a thickness of 1 cm, 200 gr of mortadella, salami 200 gr, 100 gr of fresh caciocavallo cut into pieces (or provola), 400gr breadcrumbs, 50 gr of grated caciocavallo, onion, raisins, pine nuts, parsley, 4 boiled eggs, 1 bottle of tomato sauce, 1 glass of red wine, frozen peas, oil , salt and pepper.

Preparation:
Fry half chopped onion in olive oil . Extinguish the fire, add the bread crumbs, grated cheese, raisins previously soaked in water, pine nuts, parsley, salt, pepper and olive oil in abundance, salami and fresh caciocavallo cubes. Make a soft dough.

Flesh fly, add salt and pepper, if you want you can put the butter. Lay the slices of mortadella (alternatively you could use the mortadella into pieces to the stuffing). Distribute the compound previously prepared, creating a sort of central sulcus and add the boiled eggs. Wrap and tie well with kitchen twine.
Bake in a pan uncovered over low heat, with oil and onion previously sliced, mix occasionally. This proceeding is said inPalermo 'ngranciare.
When the onion is soft, pour the wine and let evaporate. Then add the tomato sauce and cook over low heat, being careful if the sauce is too dense.

When is cooked remove from sauce the brociolone , wait when is cool, unlinking, cut sliced not too thin and put it on a platter scope.
Add the peas into the sauce, cook for about 10 minutes. Pour the sauce over the slices of brociolone.

Buccellato, Sweet Christmas

In Palermo the sweet for Christmas is the Buccellato or cucciddatu. Is apparently a simple cake, made with pastry, but it contains within itself flavors that speak of Sicily. Figs, raisins, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, orange etc.
The form generally is a donut, decorated with honey and pistachios or from icing sugar. I buccellatini (small pieces of buccellati)are also covered in white icing sugar and colored sugar "diavoletti".

This cake originates from the country world, perhaps from the "panificatus" of the Old Romans, its name is derived from the Latin "buccellatum" bread cut in pieces.
As for the filling, you can think of Arab origin since it is an association of traditional flavors of this cuisine.

There are several recipes Buccellato, where there may be slight variations in both the dough (you can use butter or lard, some people put ammonia, but I do not recommend), some people in the filling joins all the ingredients with jam, others with honey, some with an egg yolk, some people add chocolate, cinnamon or cloves. The decor may vary too..

Ingredients:

500 gr. 00 of flour, 300 gr. butter, 200 gr. sugar, 3 eggs, 1 dl milk, half cup of Marsala wine, 300 gr. figs, 200 gr. raisins, 100g. of sultana raisins, 150 gr. shelled walnuts, 30 gr. of pine nuts, 30 gr. of candied orange peel, 100 gr. candied pumpkin, chocolate fondant to 50gr flakes, 150gr of toasted almonds, orange marmalade, a pinch of cinnamon.

Procedure:

kneading the flour, sugar, butter, eggs and milk. When everything is well amalgamated, let stand for about an hour in the refrigerator.

For the filling grind dried figs, sultanas, raisins, tree nuts, pine nuts, the orange peel, pumpkin, almonds, mix and put on fire along with the Marsala wine for about ten minutes. Outside the fire add three tablespoons of orange marmalade and allow to cool.

Pave the dough (1 cm thick) into a rectangle, place the stuffing, distribute the flakes of chocolate and wrap-shaped donut. Affect the surface with cuts that show the filling.
The Buccellato must be placed on a floured baking dish, in preheated oven at 180 ° for about half an hour. You can then garnish in several ways:
Dissolve 4-5 tablespoonfuls of honey, put it on the surface of the
Buccellato to make it glossy and garnish with candied fruit mixture.

Put on the surface of the Buccellato, a tablespoon of orange marmalade dissolved in water, then sprinkle with chopped pistachios and put in the oven for another five minutes.
Put on the surface of the Buccellato icing sugar.

The choice is yours
Allow to cool and good appetite!

The Baccalà

The Baccalà (salt cod) is a particular type of cod, fished in the Atlantic sea, different from cod that is caught in the Mediterranean sea, known by the name Nasello.
How is it that a fish of the North arrived in Sicily and has become an essential food (especially in the past), ingredient
of traditional dishes (fried cod, with raisins, a sfinciuni)?

It arrived in Sicily by the Normans, descendants of the Vikings (great navigators of Norway) who fished in these seas cod, which used to store it through a drying process in the open air, reducing rigid like sticks. So the type of fish conservation gave a new name, which was "stick fish", in the Flemish word "kabeljaw", which became our baccalà, or a derivation of Anglo-Saxon stick (wood), fish (fish,) or Norwegian stockfish, from which our stoccafisso.

In the years to follow, the Basque people of northern France and of Spain encounters this kind of cod, going hunting for whales. These fishermen began using a new type of conservation, both to transport in warmer lands, both because they generally put under salt the meat of whales. They conserved cod, gutted, beheaded and putting it under salt (this method was later resumed and expanded also by the Vikings).

It is so that even today is conserved the salt cod, differently from that which we call stockfish, which is dried in the open air.
The use of salt cod arrived in Sicily thanks to the Normans and later as a bargaining chip (in exchange for the salt of Trapani) and became a protagonist of our tables because it was a cheap, but is a nutritious food because it is rich in protein.

The salt cod was consumed on Friday for Lent and especially during the period of December to the immaculate conception for the New Year dinner.
To be cooked, the salt cod needs a preceding process of desalination (which lasts from twenty-four to forty-eight hours), to make his flesh softer. This process starts already in fishmongers. Is possible to see in our markets (or Ballarò or Cape), the benches where there are fillets of cod dipped in pans of water or under taps of cold running water .Before cook, you rinse in cold water.

Fried cod (Baccalà):
is a simple recipe, cover, with flour,the fillets previously rinsed and cut into pieces , fry in boiling olive oil . Put in absorbent paper and are ready

Baccalà with passuli (raisins):
chop an onion and fry it in a pan with a clove of garlic in extra virgin olive oil. Add tomato sauce or tomato extract (lengthened with the water needed). Adjust salt. Add a handful of raisins (big), previously soaked in water. When the sauce is ready, put gently cod fillets previously rinsed and let cook for one quarter of an hour, taking care that it don't attack at the bottom of the pan. (someone adds also black olives).

Baccalà a sfinciuni: prepare the sauce that is the same that we used for the sfincione. Cut into slice the onion and fry it in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, add chopped anchovy. Add chopped peeled tomatoes or tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Cook for twenty minutes.
Prepare a baking dish with paper oven unta of extra virgin olive oil. Put the cod fillets and cover with the previously prepared sauce and add oregano. Put across the surface abundant breadcrumbs.
Put in the oven for about 15 min. Some people add black olives, there is another version where you add in the pan even touches of potatoes boiled.

Baccalà apparecchiato alla palermitana: (see capone apparecchiato).

"The Cuccìa of Saint Lucia"

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The "Cuccia” is the typical sweet of feast of Saint Lucia (13 December)

Traditional recipe with cream of ricotta:

Ingredients: 500gr of wheat, 200gr of icing sugar, 1.5 kg of fresh ricotta, candied fruit 50gr (preferably cedar,orange or pumpkin) cut into pieces, 200gr of dark chocolate.
Processing: Prepare the grain: put in a pot with cold water for three days, changing the water continuously. The evening before the feast, cook the grain in a saucepan covered with water, add a pinch of salt, drain well.

Prepare cream: to sieve (you can also pass it with the blender) the ricotta, add the sugar and mix well, break the chocolate into small pieces, add the cream of ricotta and candied fruit, chocolate pieces and mix gently (someone also adds cinnamon).
Finally add the wheat. You can also store in the refrigerator.

Recipe with milk cream:

Ingredients: 500gr of wheat, 120gr starch, 1 liter and a half of milk, 200gr sugar, 200gr of dark chocolate,50gr candied fruit into pieces.
Processing: Prepare wheat as above.

For cream, dissolve the starch in cold milk, stirring with a whisk, cook over low heat, stirring constantly. Turn off the fire as soon as it is thickened. Add the grain. Allow to cool and add the chocolate reduced in little pieces and candied fruit pieces.
This is a base for other types of creams, chocolate, cream yellow and so on.

"The Gattò" of potatoes

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The "Gattò" is a typical dish that is eaten in Palermo for the day of Saint Lucia (13 December)

Ingredients:

2 kg of potatoes old, 2 eggs, 50gr grated cheese(caciocavallo or parmesan), parsley, breadcrumbs, olive oil.
For the filling: 500gr of chopped, 1 tin of tomatoes peeled, 200gr for frozen peas, 1 onion, nutmeg, 1 bay leaf, half a glass of wine.

Processing:

Boil the potatoes with the peel. When they are cooked and still hot, peel and crush them. Add two eggs, cheese and shredded parsley. Knead well, if it appears too soft, add breadcrumbs.

For the filling: fry in oil extra virgin olive, a minced onion, add the chopped, then add the wine. After some minutes add the pulp of peeled tomatoes.
Add the nutmeg and add a bay leaf and salt and pepper according to taste. Far cook for about 30 minutes. Then add peas and let cook until they will not be soft. At this point, anoint with oil a baking dish and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Divide into two parts the mixture of potatoes, with one part cover the pan, season with the sauce, cover with the remaining dough. Anoint the surface of “Gattò” with oil and smooth with your hands, finally add breadcrumbs. Put in hot oven at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Bon appetit

Sfinci home-made (swit for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception)

The home-made sfinci are a typical sweet for the feast of the Immaculate Conception (8 December)


Recipe:

ingredients:

150gr of flour 0, 300gr of boiled potatoes, 25gr yeast (for bread), water, 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Mix in a container tall (the batter will rise by volume) flour, boiled potatoes and previously crushed and the tablespoon of sugar. Add water a little at a time forming a thick but soft dough, add to end the yeast, knead vigorously. Cover the container with a cloth and let rise for at least half an hour. Put in a pan abundant oil extra virgin olive oil. When is very hot pour the batter a spoonful at a time. When they are ready put in a tray with paper, and then pass them in a container with sugar to cover the entire surface.

December's traditions

(traduzione in italiano su Agave blog)

The month of December is the richest of festivities, traditions and gastronomy.
The shops are already adorned with the Christmas decorations and cake shops are already full of sweets and biscuits.
The streets of the city are enriched by the colored lights (l'archi) of various types (simple threads of light, or wooden structures in the shape of stars, circles, flower), by white gold angels (which remember the sculptures of Serpotta), in expectation of seeing the big Christmas tree in front of Theatre Politeama, or see the steps of the Teatro Massimo covered by a red carpet of "Christmas stars", and palm trees illuminated by golden lights that make suggestive night.

This year, probably will be a climate of austerity because of the recession, certainly people will spend less, but perhaps curb excessive consumerism is also positive (of course if this will be a chance to revive other values, such as the rediscovery of self and others, of the value of diversity, peace, something deeper and not the ephemeral things that has filled television and the heads of people in recent years). I hope the fear of the future (fed every day by mass media) that turns easily into individualism, racism, closure, do not take the upper hand and that outweighs the will to live, to love and then even laugh and why not ... eat.

It 'also why in this particular year, it is important to celebrate and have fun with a few things. And the kitchen poor (but at the same time cheerful)of Palermo helps raise the mood without spending too much.

Church of Immacolata Concezione inside Capo Market

The month of December opens (on 7 and 8) with the feast of “Immaculate Conception” that we called simply "A Maruonna."
Again the opportunity is good to reunite families at the table.
The evening's eve (December 7) is the day when the people starts to play cards and bingo, which will last throughout the month and will conclude with the epiphany.
But the people of Palermo does not play on an empty stomach ... the dishes of this occasion is "Sfincione" and especially "Fried Cod or with raisins."
For lunch the next day usually eats "ANELLETTI o furnu"
"Lasagne cu sucu ri cutini ", or pork sausage with the sauce. Perhaps to sanction the arrival of cold with these foods more fat. The sweets to celebrate "A Maruonna" are many and very attractive, the Reginella (dry biscuits covered with sesame), "the Mustazzuola" (biscuit with honey ), "Buccellatini" and "u Cucciddatu tunnu". These are biscuits, stuffed figs, almonds, raisins.
We prepared "the Sfinci" home-made (leavened dough, fried in hot oil and then sprinkling of sugar), other than "Sfinci of San Giuseppe" which are stuffed with ricotta and you eat for the day which celebrates the namesake saint.

The feast that follows is Saint Lucia (on 13 December). Throughout the day "is not possible" eat bread and pasta, because the legend says that could become blind (during the month I will have more time to tell stories, legends and recipes). The people of Palermo have not taken literally the idea of penance or sacrifice, and so have invented a range of delicacies to can give up pasta and bread in particular .... For having to replace the breakfast with bread and milk, prepared rice soup with broccoli (cauliflower) or boiled vegetables, "patatevugghiute" (boiled potatoes)," Allessi "(boiled chestnuts) or even "Panelle and cazzilli”. For lunch and dinner the Arancino with meat or “al burro” (with ham and cheese), is great fun to prepare at home that often involves all the family members. "Grattò" ( potatoes with meat sauce and peas), and panelle crocchè and "patati a spizzatinu" (stewed potatoes).
And especially not miss the sweet, ”La Cuccìa”.
The Cuccìa was originally a very simple dish and poor, which was boiled wheat and seasoned with olive oil.
In Palermo, the original “Cuccìa” has given rise to a new sweet, with wheat boiled, cream cheese, candied and chocolate flakes.

Christmas is also in Palermo the most important festival of the year.
Families have already decorated the tree (there are two schools of thought, one that will decorate the tree on December 8 "Pa 'Maruonna", the second on 13 for Saint Lucia), there are people who make the crib.
The gifts are ready and the food (which is beginning to prepare the day before).

On the morning of Christmas (or the night of the eve) usually the people goes to Church (even those who do not go there throughout the year).

And then returned home will start the eating.
The choice is wide, it can vary from meat to fish, and now has been "contaminated" by more modern dishes and other sources, but here I only followed the traditional cuisine.
Starting from the starters: "U'Piattinu" with all types of cheeses and cold cuts (pizzami), "L’ Arenga salata" with herring, orange, pepper and onion oil, "U ficatu ri sette cannuola " (pumpkin in sweet and sour), "Oliva bianche cu' l’accia (olives with celery), “verdure a pastetta "(broccoli, artichokes, cardoons etc, in batter and fried)," Sardi a beccaficu " etc.
As first courses, "A pasta o furnu", "A pasta chi vrocculi arriminata."
As main courses "Brociolone" or "Farsu magru" (meat roll stuffed with breadcrumbs, pine nuts, raisins, cold cuts, boiled eggs), “Pisci spada ‘a ghiotta” (swordfish).
And many desserts including "cannoli", "Turruni", "Cucciddatu", "Petra fennula", including various pastries "Sciù" (BIGNE with ricotta), "Cassatine", "Cannulicchi", ficu sicchi" (figs dried),
"passuluna" (figs boiled) and scacciu (pumpkin seeds, chick peas, peanuts).

The same dishes are also prepared for the following day, Boxing Day and New Year lunch.
The night of the end of the year, someone goes outside home
You can then make a walking to Politeama, where there is the New Year concert.

The bread in Palermo

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Bread for people from Palermo is the protagonist of the table.

It is so sacred that they also offered and headed a church to the bakers (San Isidoro Agricola “dei Fornai”).

Is nearly unthinkable eating something without accompany it with the bread, the seasonings are called "companatico, something" that is added to bread ("pane"), which comes before everything. Even today the habit of some mothers (like mine), when the family is at the table to reassure everyone by saying that "there is bread."

In Palermo the bread is eaten fresh (even say hot). Is possible to see in front of the bakers, just at lunch or dinner, group of people who wait, the more careful observer will note that the benches of the bakers are still full.
What do they expect? That the bread leaves the oven. They want the bread to be burning hot hands. Even before arriving home, in secret (because that is not good education, but all do it) breaking the “cozzitello” (the end of the bread) and eat burning the mouth but with much satisfaction.

What is the bread that remains? Most will be grated to season something (meat rolls, swordfish, sardines, eggplant, or to make meatballs , or is used for omelettes, or mixed with cheese and parsley For breaded meat), the breadcrumbs can also "atturrare" toast, to season many dishes of pasta (with broccoli, sardines, anchovies etc). The bread is sliced to make bruschetta (with tomato, garlic and oil), or the crumb is bathed in water or milk to make meatballs (without meat)to fry.

The breadcrumbs can be kept in the fridge mixed with laurel leaves.

The habit of eating freshly baked bread, it is also for the type of dough that is used in Palermo. In fact, our good bread crispy outside and soft inside, from a variety of forms decorated by Cimino (sesame), after a few hours becomes rubbery and almost inedible, unlike the so-called bread of country that more time passes the more it becomes good.

In Palermo you can find the bread at all hours of day and in Sunday when most of the bakeries are closed. No problem! Sundays or public holidays, in every street corner there are the white vans selling strands of bread from Monreale or Molara, a good diversion (excellent with nutella!).

In Palermo we waive the bread only one day a year, Saint Lucia, the penalty is become blind(but I will tell this story the next month), However, on this day we eat Arancino, potatoes, sweet ricotta. And our eyes are also guaranteed.

A particular type of bread ("cricchi" with seeds of wild fennel) is done for the day of St. Joseph, take by bakers in churches, blessed and offered to parishioners.

The bakeries not only sells bread, but also pizza, sfincione,

bread with olives, sweets, treccine (brioches intertwined and covered with sugar), "millefoglie" (bread with raisins covered with sugar).

The bread is fundamental to the famous sandwich with panelle and the spleen, or cunsato.

Having said all this, is clear because in Palermo to define a good person we say “E’ un pezzu ri pani” “is a piece of bread”.

And now the most typical: until recently the bread is not sold by weight (according to national regulations), but the format, now also entered into force the law!

PISTULUNI: bread-shaped elongated, cheap

MAFALDA and MAFALDINA: white bread flour braided

TORCIGLIATO OR STRONG BEER: white bread flour twisted. The first well-cooked, the second largest soft. SIGNORINI: big crunchy breadsticks.

PARIGINO: Similar to sfilatino.

PIZZIATO: similar to Parigino, more crunchy
VASTIDDUNI: loaf.

SCALETTA: Similar to Mafalda. (Scalettina small format).

TOSCANINO: similar to Parigino, more thinner.

SEMPREFRESCHI: oval and soft

BOCCONCINI: small semprefreschi

Today is "San Martino of the poor"

Today is San Martino of the poor,

and now the famous biscuits in "Barocco style" or "Rococò".

And a glass of "Vino Moscato"

" 'Mpignolata " Loaf with sausage from Agrigento

photos of Jean-Luc Moreau

For the feast of St. Martin around Agrigento is a specialty that we like a lot, the 'mpignolata which is also called' mpriulata or 'mmiscata (depending on the town of origin).


We known it thanks to our guests-friends Lillo, Teresa and Ilaria of Grotte, a small town in the province of Agrigento.

It is a soft bun stuffed with sausage, onion and black olives, and there is another version with spinach and olives.

This dish was originally made at home during the period in which they celebrated San Martino, but now can be found throughout the year.


I found the recipe, although there are several versions. I have not cooked by me, but I ate the 'mpignolate that our friends bring us directly from Grotte.

Ingredients:


1 Kg. of flour, 4 eggs, 50 gr. of yeast, 150 gr. of lard, sausage, black olives, onion, water or milk, oil, salt.

Recipe:
Pour the oil in the flour, mix well, add eggs, mix well, add enough salt, yeast, the lard dissolved and kneading it by adding little by little lukewarm water or milk. Mix well and allow to rise (the dough should be somewhat 'softer than the bread).

When the leavening will be reached, cut the dough into pieces of about 100-150 degrees; pave every piece with a rolling pin, making it take a rectangular shape and thin. Meanwhile in a pan cook the onion cut into slices in olive oil, to which you add the crumbled sausage. Put the sauce of sausage, onion and black olives fleshy and pitted on each rectangle of dough.

Wrap the dough over itself and then again in the shape of a spiral, put on an olives and place in hot oven. Cooking time: 30 minutes.

Now for vegetarians: with spinach.


Boil and then skip the spinach with olive oil in a pan, add the pitted black olives and season rectangles of pasta with this sauce, wrap the dough.


There are several versions in which you use minced beef, chunks of pecorino, Frittola pork, etc, to you the choice!

The day of Saint Martin

San Martino and the so-called "summer of San Martino" in Palermo are celebrated with cakes and wine. Not everyone know the history of this saint, but the opportunity to to eat much is not lost.


The rich people celebrate the Saint the 11th of November (San Martino of the rich), the poorest were looking for the following Sunday to celebrate (San Martino of the poor), the most gluttonous celebrate both days!



In Palermo in this day we eat three types of cookies, the simplest are the triccotti, round shape and flavored by fennel seeds. These cookies are very hard and we eat with the wine Moscato, a sweet wine made from grapes inzolia.

The same cookie (with a dough slightly 'softer), is drenched in rum and seasoned in two different versions. One is with ricotta and chocolate and covered with sugar veiled.

The other version seem a decorative element of a Baroque church! It contains the jam, is covered with white or pink frosting, adorned by sweet almond, from chocolates wrapped and silver decorations.



The day of San Martino in Palermo, but not only, was celebrated in the years because it coincided with pre and rural cults, which celebrated the last warm days before winter, which was called the summer of San Martino.



Furthermore, the name of this saint was linked to the production of wine, because around early November is produced the new wine. Hence the saying " in San Martino every must is wine." Became a good opportunity to taste the wine in the many taverns of the city, and drank to accompany boiled eggs, fried cardoons or biscuits.

In these beautiful days you could still eat outdoors roast beef, pork, sausage and drink so good wine! All this has made the holy very "friendly" and "famous" in the eyes of people from Palermo, that even in poverty, have in them the desire to celebrate and eat in the company of family and friends!

Some biographical to remember who was Martin of Tours.

Martin was a Roman soldier (not baptized). During one of his expeditions met a beggar with whom shared his cloak. During the night he had a vision in which Jesus returned him the mantle, why he don’t take cold (the mantle may also be a symbol of a more warm night) and praised him with the Angels because despite he was not baptized he had covered the beggar (that was the same Jesus). Next day Martino shocked by this vision is baptized, became Monaco and his work was mainly to convert to Christianity the people of Galli, to preach and to destroy pagan temples.

sacred images in Palermo

Capone apparecchiato

It is an ancient dish of the kitchen of Monsù, which elaborated a special sweet and sour sauce (based on philosophical concepts of harmony and balance), which had pre Islamic origins. With this sauce French cooks seasoning dishes of meat or fish, putting together ( "appareiller") ingredients. The fish was the capone, a fish that's in our fishmongers in autumn.

The sweet and sour sauce is the same that is used to season the famous eggplant caponata, a delicious dish that is part of the poor kitchen (in fact in this case, slices of capone were replaced by cheaper pieces of eggplant). It is possible that the name caponata origins from the original plate capone, although there are several hypotheses about the origin of the name caponata.

Ingredients:

1kg of fish, celery, 50gr of capers, 100 gr.of green olives, 1 onion, extra virgin olive oil, 100gr. tomato concentrate (you can also use peeled tomatoes), salt and pepper, 1 tablespoon sugar, 3 tablespoons of wine vinegar.

Recipe: Clean and cut into pieces the capone. Clean the celery and cook in boiling water. Rinse the capers. Wash, pitted and cut into pieces olives. Chop the onion. In a saucepan fry the onion in olive oil. Add the tomato concentrate diluted with a little water, chopped celery, salt and pepper, and cook in moderate flame.

While the sauce cooks, pass into flour the slices of capone and fry in a pan with olive oil hot. When they are ready, put them on a plate covered with absorbent paper. Add to the sauce, olives, capers, vinegar and sugar, cook for a few minutes, until the vinegar is evaporated. Add the fish and cook for a few minutes. This dish is better cold.

"Pasta with sparacelli assassunati"

Another typical dish of Palermo is "a pasta with sparaceddi assassunati."

The "sparacelli" is a particular type of broccoli with large sprouts ( "giummi") and edible leaves. The term “Assassunati” derives from an ancient sauce (very cheap) used by Jewish communities on Sicily and then used from the "Monsù" (French chefs), to season ( "assaisonner") vegetables (see brochure published dall'aapit "Kitchen history and traditions "). The main ingredient of this sauce are the excellent Sicilian olive oil and garlic.

In Palermo we cooked with the assassunata sauce, the "sparacelli", the "broccoli" (cauliflower), the "giri" (chard) etc. The kind of pasta that is used for this dish is the “bucatini”, much appreciated in the kitchen of Palermo, perhaps because when you eat makes “u scrusciu” (noise), is certainly not a very refined image, but is part of our culture!

Ingredients:

Sparacelli, extra virgin olive oil, two anchovy fillets, two cloves of garlic, salt and pepper.

Recipe:

Wash thoroughly the sparacelli. Cut into pieces the sprouts, and the leaves.Boil them for 10-15 minutes in salted water. Remove from water the sparacelli and place them in a dish. Put in a large frying pan olive oil, anchovy and two cloves of garlic cut into large pieces, fry slightly and then add the sparacelli and some 'pepper. Is ready in minutes.

Cook pasta in the cooking water of sparacelli, after ten minutes remove the pasta from the pot and put it in a pan with sauce. Put it in the dishes and… Good appetite!

I prefer transform the red Halloween pumpkin in this way…

"Ficatu di sette cannola." (Pumpkin in sweet and sour)
“Liver of the Sette cannola neighbourhood”

This is a dish of the "palermitana poor cuisine". It was born from the processing of a more "rich" dish, cooked by the Monsù (refined chefs who cooked for the noble French), the main ingredient of this dish was liver (breaded and fried).

Probably in the neighborhood of “sette cannola”, where the poorest people rarely ate meat (though it was offal), some good housewives of Palermo came to know of this delicious dish and so decided to reinvent itself, replacing the liver with a cheaper ingredient, pumpkin red. The result will envy the best Monsù!

500 grams of red pumpkin, olive oil, 1 teaspoon sugar, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 2 cloves of garlic, mint, pepper, salt

Peel the pumpkin and remove the red part with the seeds (if you like, the seeds can be dried in the sun and transformed into what we call "semenza"). Cut it into slices and a cm thick. Fry the pumpkin slices in olive oil on a slow fire, turned gently (will take a brown color). Add the cloves of garlic cut into slices. When the pumpkin are just fried, you must remove the excess oil, raise the heat, and pour over the vinegar (which will be done dissolve a teaspoon of sugar). When vinegar has evaporated, put them in a plate and add salt, pepper and especially mint leaves. Let cool is more tasty!