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Video: Easter: because the supremacy of Sicilian sweets is not in dispute
2024 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 12:26
The accounting of the Sicilian sweets we do it one more time, it would take all the time that the rest of us, in these days of preparation for Easter, frankly we don't.
By the way, even with the sweet rituals that Sicilians bring to the Easter table, a nice list would be filled, but this one can be faced and let's face it, rather hilarious.
It is hard to find a point of convergence, there are many shapes and textures, the combinations of flavors, the methods of preparation, the ingredients are actually different.
Perhaps the characteristic and common trait should be sought in the sumptuous and imaginative aspect, always, whether it is cassata or minor desserts, biscuits or sugar paste.
Let's start scrolling through the list.
CASSATELLE DI AGIRA
If at Easter you go to Agira, in the province of Enna, don't even dream of finding the Sicilian cassata. You will find instead the cassatelle, which are not small cassata, but elegant pasticciotti made with a thin pastry, cocoa filling and toasted almonds. No ricotta, no candied fruit, yet Agira's cassatelle had a fortune unknown to similar recipes from the surrounding villages, even provoking a little envy.
Even if today soft wheat flour is used to thicken the filling, the unmistakable flavor of the cassatelle di Agira is due to the "ciciri flour" to be used in the filling, not very light, it must be said, but more respectful of tradition.
RECIPE (FOR 120 CASSATELLE)
If you imagine the recipe for four people, you are out of the way. When it comes to Easter sweets, Sicilians like to abound.
They are prepared a few days before, they are shared among family members and neighbors who, having smelled the scent, claim their share.
At Easter, Easter Monday and in the following days it is forbidden to remain without, the ritual wants them to be offered to guests in the morning, after lunch, in the afternoon, in the evening and also in the following days.
Pasta
2,500 of flour
1 kg of lard
600 grams of sugar
4 eggs
water
Stuffed
1, 250 of chopped and roasted almonds
1 kg of sugar
two bags of unsweetened cocoa
two bags of sweet cocoa
grated zest of two lemons
1 and a half liters of water
two cinnamon sticks
chickpea flour about 400 grams
Bake the almonds at a high temperature, then chop them. Mix the flour, lard, sugar and eggs until you get a smooth and sustained dough by gradually adding the water the dough needs so as not to be too hard.
Prepare the filling in a large pot with bitter and sweet cocoa, sugar, grated lemon zest, ground cinnamon and ground almonds.
Add the water and cook until boiling to dissolve the ingredients well.
When it has boiled, thicken with the chickpea flour until you get a creamy mixture and taking care to mix so as not to stick the dough to the bottom of the pot.
Let it cool down.
Then roll out a very thin sheet, place a spoon and a half full of filling for each cassatella, calculating the right distances by eye.
Fold the dough and close it around the crescent-shaped filling, pressing gently with your fingers.
Cut the dough into a half moon with a knife or a washer. Place in the pan previously covered with parchment paper and bake at 180 degrees for about fifteen minutes.
The dough must remain white and semi-soft, do not overcook, the risk is that the dough becomes toasted.
Finally, sprinkle with extra-fine sugar mixed with icing sugar.
To preserve the cake and keep it soft and fresh, place it in a steel pot and cover with the lid.
In Agira, the dessert is sold in all bakeries and in some specialized shops.
The most renowned? The "Bottega delle cassatelle" with a store in the center of the small town and another, more recent, along the access road.
Here, in addition to the typical preparation, you will also find the dessert interpreted in different ways.
ACEDDI CU the OVA AND SHEEP
We are in the chapter "cuddura": sweet breads and biscuits that contain hard-boiled eggs cooked in ashes.
The tradition is very much alive. The dough of 00 flour, re-milled semolina, sugar and lard is molded into any shape: dolls, fish, circles, animals, doves, baskets, bags, braids, hearts.
There are also many names: aceddi cu l'ova, pupi cu l'ova, palummedda, cuddura, cudduredda, panaredda.
They are not pastry goods, they are mostly found in bakeries, or in some pasta factories.
The Easter sheep are sugar paste sweets once given to children instead of chocolate eggs, very conflicted whether to keep them intact or bite them relentlessly.
The result is the enchantment that adorns the windows of Sicilian pastry shops on Easter days.
SICILIAN CASSATA
You know everything about the Sicilian cassata, including the typically Easter origin. To those who hate it due to sickly sweetness, we recommend that you continue reading.
Preparing it at home is less difficult than you think, especially if you have a pinch of Sicily in your DNA, the skill, so specialists, consists in harmonizing all the ingredients.
In the best pastry shops in western Sicily you can find exquisite ones. Among these, in Palermo, there is certainly Costa.
Witness the comings and goings of Easter Sunday (and other Sundays) with the Palermitans willing to spend up to 35 euros for a one kilo cake.
There are many variations on the theme: without candied fruit, with tuma, typical of Ragusa, together with ricotta.
But believe me, it is worth dwelling on the cassata that the Sicilian chef Toni Lo Coco placed in the restaurant menu The Puppets of Bagheria, one Michelin star.
Combined tradition and originality going beyond the worn idea of the deconstructed cannolo.
We are talking about a miniaturized cassata made with ricotta ice cream, superimposed on hot coffee (served separately in a delicious mocha), decorated with small candied fruit and chocolate chips.
More serenely faced at the end of a meal even by non-gargantuan appetites, it is simple and fresh but maintains the link with the classic version.
A taste to do.
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