The Arab occupation of Sicily brought sugar to the Mediterranean island but other invaders — Greeks, Austrians, French, Spanish, and Turks — also left their imprint on the pastries and sweets. Lured to Sicily by an article in Gourmet magazine, food stylist and pastry chef Victoria Granof discovered later that the maternal side of her family was rooted in southern Italy.
Lured to Sicily by an article in "Gourmet" magazine, Victoria Granof discovered her mother's side of the family was southern Italian. Photo by Louise Hagger.
In her book Sicily, My Sweet, Granof explains the role of convents in the development and status of confections. She also details the importance of ingredients like pistachios and ricotta, which is made primarily from sheep milk in Italy.
Granof shares her secrets to making that iconic Italian sweet, cannoli, which includes adding wine to the dough to create a bubbled exterior and frying them around bamboo tubes.
The names of Sicilian sweets often refer to saints or naughty body parts, perhaps as a way for nuns to express their unrequited carnal desires. Photo by Louise Hagger.
Ricotta Pastries For Saint Agatha
Minne Di Sant'agata
Makes 8 or 9
Sicilians have a profound fascination with death, suffering, miracles, and fate, and many pastries in the Sicilian culinary pantheon were created to commemorate these preoccupations—as though they contain within them a certain homeopathic healing power. And true to character, the darker the suffering, the more dazzling the pastry.
Saint Agatha, patron saint of Catania, was a fifteen-year-old girl from a noble Sicilian family. She had dedicated her life to God and taken a vow of chastity. Agatha, alas, caught the eye of a Roman prelate sent to rule Sicily. She spurned his advances, maintaining her vow of purity even when jailed and viciously tortured. Finally, the prelate ordered her breasts cut off, but even that didn't work. Agatha died a virgin martyr in the year 251. She's often depicted in paintings carrying her breasts on a plate. In 2020, Italian street artist TVBoy painted a likeness of Saint Agatha on one of the walls of the open-air fish market in Catania. It's still there today, near an arched passageway by the swordfish.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (230 g) powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/4 teaspoon fiori di Sicilia, or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg, for egg wash
- ½ recipe crema di ricotta, made without the whipped cream
- 8 to 10 maraschino, Luxardo, or Amarena cherries
Instructions
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If your pasta frolla is freshly made, chill it for an hour before you use it. If you've made it ahead of time, take it out of the fridge 20 minutes before you plan to use it.
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To make the icing, in a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, melted butter, milk, and fiori di Sicilia until smooth. Keep covered until ready to use.
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Preheat the oven to 375˚F (190˚C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the egg and 1 tablespoon of water together in a small glass to make an egg wash, and have ready a pastry brush.
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On a lightly floured surface, roll out a fourth of the dough into a 12- by 4-inch (30 by 10 cm) rectangle. With a 3-inch (7.5 cm) round cookie cutter, cut out four circles. Place two of the circles on a baking sheet, leaving two finger-widths between them. Brush them with egg wash and place a nice big spoonful of crema di ricotta in the center of each. Carefully press the other two pieces of dough on top to enclose the filling. Trim each pastry with the cookie cutter to neaten up the edges. Repeat with the other three portions of dough. Gather and re-roll the scraps to make one more minne.
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Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until nicely browned. Cool completely, then pour icing on each minne with a large spoon, spreading it with a palette or butter knife to cover as much of the pastry as you can. Once the icing has set, about 30 minutes, top each minne with a cherry nipple.
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Store airtight in the fridge for up to 3 days; serve at room temperature.
Sweet Pastry Dough
Pasta Frolla
Makes One 9 or 10-inch (23 or 25 cm) tart
SAnother building block of Sicilian baking, pasta frolla is a sweet shortcrust pastry that's used for tarts, pastries, and filled cookies. I use part all-purpose or 00 flour and part semola rimacinata, or fine semolina flour (see page 21), for a bit more texture. This combination also makes the pastry a lovely, buttery gold color. Whenever my nonna made this, she'd bake up the scraps of dough and sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar as a cook's treat for her granddaughter's hands.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup (150 g) sugar
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 egg
- 2 egg yolks
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) unflavored fresh milk
- 2¼ cups (270 g) all-purpose flour, or 2 cups (250 g) 00 flour
- 1⅔ cups (250 g) semola rimacinata (fine semolina flour)
Instructions
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In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and salt, and stir until well combined. Stir in the egg, the egg yolks, and the milk, then the flours, all at once. Do not overmix; you want the dough to come together with no floury bits remaining.
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Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it gently a few times. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in parchment paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to a month.
Sweetened Ricotta Cream
Crema Di Ricotta
Makes 1¾ Cup (240 Ml)
Somewhere between a ganache and a mousse, this pistachio cream is lusty, wicked, and moreish. If you're not a fan of white chocolate, don't let that put you off—we're using it here for its parts: sugar, fat, vanilla, and milk solids. Crema di pistachio can fill anything that wants to be filled—bignè, iris, cannoli, sfinci, a spoon …
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (180 ml) heavy cream
- 4 ounces (115 g) chopped best-quality white chocolate
- 2 tablespoons pasta di pistacchio
Instructions
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In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the heavy cream just to a boil. Off the heat, immediately add the white chocolate and set aside for 5 minutes to allow the chocolate to melt.
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Whisk until smooth, then whisk in the pasta di pistacchio. Scrape the mixture into a bowl, cool to room temperature, then chill for at least 4 hours and up to 12.
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When you are ready to use the pistachio cream, whip the mixture with an electric mixer until it's billowy and nearly stiff.
Pistachio Butter
Pasta Di Pistacchio
Makes 2 1/2 Cups (600 G)
In Bronte, in the shadow of Mount Etna, where the finest of Sicily's pistachios grow, this is called Green Gold. Pasta di pistacchio is to peanut butter what diamonds are to plastic. Slathered onto a nice piece of toasted semolina bread and dribbled with orange-blossom honey or the blood orange marmalade, it makes the sexiest PB&J analog you're ever likely to taste.
Ingredients
- ¾1 pound (450 g) shelled roasted pistachios
- ¼ cup (60 ml) flavorless oil, such as canola
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
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Get comfortable, this may take a bit. (Worth it!) Place the pistachios, oil, and salt in a blender, and blend at high speed for 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the blender as you go.
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Continue blending and scraping until the pistachios start to really break down and liquefy. It won't seem possible at first, but stick with it and it will happen. It could take a good 10 minutes; the longer you blend, the smoother it becomes. In the end, you'll have 2½ cups (600 g) of smooth liquid gold.
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Store it in the fridge for up to a month; it will thicken up considerably.
"Oh, nothing like a sad shell," says Granof who shares her secrets for foolproof cannoli. Photo by Louise Hagger.
"Sicily, My Sweet" explores the history and diversity of pastries and confections on the island. Photo courtesy of Hardie Grant.