From Agrigento to Trapani, Sicily '50 authentic and easy-to-follow recipes from the Silver Spoon Kitchen' (Phaidon Press, April 2013) takes us on a journey across the island and introduces us to its rich history, sights and cuisine.
Each of the 9 chapters is centered around a different area, in order of appearance, Trapani, Palermo, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Messina, Enna, Catania, Ragusa, Siracusa.
To start, i chose a dessert recipe from Palermo chapter.
Cassata Siciliana Sicilian Cassata
Preparation time: 1 hour + 24 hours chilling
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 10-12
Note:
The Arabs brought this dessert to sicily and the name
‘cassata’ is said to come from the Arabic quas’at,
meaning bowl. The dessert was adapted in
the sixteenth century by nuns, who were excellent pastry cooks, from the many
convents on the island.
Ingredients:
- 1
10 ½ inch sponge cake
For
the filling
- –
½ cup candied fruit, chopped
- 2
tablespoons white rum
- 4
cups ricotta cheese
- 1
¾ cups confectioners’ sugar
- 4
oz dark chocolate, chopped
For
the pistachio paste
- ½
cup shelled pistachio nuts, finely chopped
- 1
¼ cups shelled almonds, finely chopped
- ½
cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons white rum
For
the rum syrup
- ¼
cup superfine sugar
- ¼
cup white rum
For
the decoration
- 1
tablespoons apricot jam or preserves
- 1
lb fondant icing or 1 cup ricotta cheese creamed with 3 tablespoons
confectioners’ sugar
- candied
fruit, to taste
Instructions:
First, make the filling.
Put the candied fruit into a bowl, add the rum and let soak for 20
minutes. Meanwhile, beat the ricotta
with the sugar in a bowl until smooth and even.
Drain the candied fruit and stir into the ricotta mixture with the
chocolate. Cover the bowl with plastic
wrap and chill in the fridge for 12 hours.
Make the pistachio paste.
Put the pistachios, almonds, sugar and rum into a blender and process to
a paste.
Make the rum syrup.
Pour the 1 cup water into a shallow pan, add the sugar and heat gently,
stirring constantly, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Bring to a boil and boil, without stirring,
for a few minutes, then remove from the heat.
Let cool slightly, then stir in the rum.
Rinse out a 10 ½ inch cake pan with water and line with
plastic wrap. Cut the sponge cake into
slices and put half the slices side by side on the bottom of the prepared cake
pan. Drizzle with half the rum syrup.
Cover with the ricotta filling and top with half the remaining sponge
cake slices. Drizzle with the remaining
syrup. Cover the pan with plastic wrap
and chill in the fridge for 12 hours.
Remove the cassata from the fridge, discard the plastic wrap
and turn out onto a serving plate. Heat
the apricot jam and 1 tablespoon water, then brush is over the cassata. Either cover with the fondant prepared
according to the package instructions or with the sweetened ricotta. Roll out the pistachio paste on a surface
lightly dusted with confectioners’ sugar and stamp out diamond shapes with a
cookie cutter. Brush them lightly with
water and stick them around the outside of the dessert. Decorate the cassata with the candied fruit
and store in the fridge until ready to serve.
(* Recipe from
Sicily –April 2013, $39.95– by Phaidon Press, reproduced with permission, all rights reserved)