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15 euros for 2 granitas and 2 brioches? At Caffe Sicilia it is worth it
15 euros for 2 granitas and 2 brioches? At Caffe Sicilia it is worth it

Video: 15 euros for 2 granitas and 2 brioches? At Caffe Sicilia it is worth it

Video: 15 euros for 2 granitas and 2 brioches? At Caffe Sicilia it is worth it
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Would you pay 15, 80 euros for two granitas and two brioches? Sicilians know that for two granitas and two brioches, although of excellent quality, the sum is a little inflated.

What if it was the Sicily coffee of Noto? The café in the main street of the city, protected by Unesco, a few steps from the golden Cathedral, which is also owned by Corrado Assenza, sacred monster of Sicilian pastry?

We went back to check with you if the controversy started on Facebook by two tourists who felt bled and protested a lot against the well-known local on the island, is right.

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well-known receipt
well-known receipt

THE PLACE

Don't expect an elegant or trendy patisserie. A little cramped, it is more reminiscent of a village bar with some pretensions than the elegant pastry shops of Catania and Messina.

Caffe Sicilia - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia in Noto by Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia in Noto by Corrado Assenza

In short, it is not appearances that make the sacredness of the place manifest.

The dessert display certainly does not flatter the baroque that reigns outside. Essential, it exhibits a few traditional sweets and an infinity of singular single-portions, baptized with curious names and described down to the most insignificant ingredient. Un-Sicilian aspect, which is a judgment repeated obsessively by the critics of Corrado Assenza.

Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza

The richness of the assortment, barely noticeable from the window, is fully understood once seated at the table: the menu is a volume of over fifty pages.

Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza

Corso Vittorio Emanuele is full of tourists walking nose up absorbed by the beauty of the churches. The yellow-gold stone that softens them looks like solid and imperturbable sand.

The tables lined up outside the pastry shop are also inconspicuous: small, good just to enjoy a cup of coffee, often populated by elderly people playing cards while drinking an Old Romagna.

But don't think that Caffè Sicilia's typical customers are them. Many tourists alternate, some practitioners of the cult of Corrado Assenza (among these the readers of Dissapore), a few inhabitants of Noto. And generally it goes far beyond coffee.

The service lives up to the prestige that the pastry shop has earned: waiters unexpectedly willing them to explain every single aspect of the desserts, in short, good at letting them fall from above, as waiters usually do in starred restaurants.

Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza

Competent and passionate explanations, capable of conveying the degree of reverence for the beloved teacher.

SLUSH

Apart from the traditional format, you can choose half a granita or three small portions in different flavors served in white porcelain bowls.

Caffe Sicilia - Corrado Assenza - Trio of Granite
Caffe Sicilia - Corrado Assenza - Trio of Granite

It is forbidden, clearly written on the menu, to mix tastes. An uncompromising, provocative but right choice, as the spiritual father of gastrofighettism. The waiter recommends the ideal sequence for tasting the trio. Before starting to eat, you must fully wait until the prayer is over.

Corrado Assenza subtracts the redundancy of island pastry leaving room for the natural taste, the flavor of what it is: Noto almond, Sicilian blood orange, espresso coffee. If you don't control yourself you will eat what you ate again, still feeling fresh and not weighed down. Which practically never happens with sweets.

(The people of Catania are warned: accustomed as you are to creamy textures and strong flavors, you might find the slushes a little watery).

The cream, very good and prepared with sheep's milk, is served on the side. Brioche perfectly integrated into the environment: with imperfect shapes, humble, of great substance, it seems homemade.

The granita in the traditional format costs 4 euros, the half granita 2 euros.

Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza - Brioche with ice cream
Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza - Brioche with ice cream

In the receipt you may discover that there is a "special granita" costing 5 euros. As the waiter explains well, the price concerns only some flavors made with more expensive ingredients than the others, see known almond or espresso coffee.

The cost of the brioche is 1.50 euros.

Table service has a 22% surcharge.

CANNOLO

We have said that Corrado Assenza is not the classic Sicilian pastry chef, so his cannot be the classic cannolo. The taste of sheep's milk ricotta is not sweetened: no cinnamon flavor, no candied fruit, much less chocolate.

Caffe Sicilia Cannolo
Caffe Sicilia Cannolo

It is a light and exquisite cannoli that openly defies the pomp of Sicilian sweets.

PASTRY SHOP

The style does not change in Corrado Assenza's very personal pastry shop. But it is this, in particular, that makes him a master for which it is still worth going to Caffè Sicilia.

Caffe Sicilia pastry shop in Noto - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia pastry shop in Noto - Corrado Assenza

Elegant, sometimes mysterious, it also offers bold and amazing combinations, successful mixes of sweet and savory.

If the typical Sicilian sweets in his interpretation are delicate, less is better, without frills that weigh down the original flavor of the ingredients, and very composed in appearance, almost anonymous, the pastry which also includes only local ingredients is unique: you will not see such ideas in any other Sicilian place.

Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza
Caffe Sicilia - Noto - Corrado Assenza

Do not leave without having tried the ricotta and candied fruit tart or for once: single-portion cake with hazelnut flour, Noto almonds, cocoa, gin, basil and mint.

The cost of each single portion is 3 euros.

Now that we have told you better: would you go to Caffè Sicilia knowing that you would pay 15 euros for two granitas and two brioches?

We do, because Noto is always worthwhile, because Corrado Assenza's signature is unique and inimitable, as a great interpreter, perhaps the best, of Sicilian pastry.

And yet, if you are one of those who "after all, in Sicily, the granitas are all good" a few steps away you will find a small ice cream parlor.

You are always in the same city, indeed, even closer to the Duomo. Come in and order two granitas and two croissants. You will pay 8, 40 euros.

The waiter falling from the clouds will not be able to tell you if there is cinnamon among the ingredients or if the unusual color is given by the skins. After a few minutes you will not remember anything about the flavor.

Would you stay there again?

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