Almonds are recognized among traditional Italian foods as a typically Sicilian item – present on the menu from appetizers to dessert – added to pasta, bruschetta, salads, breads, and even sweets like ice cream, milk, marzipan, martorana fruit or nougat. As an alternative to the usual recipes you use with almonds, allow yourself to take a tour of the Sicilian recipes with them: a truly delicious journey, perfect for springtime.
Almonds throughout the menu
Sweet and bitter; crispy or softer; light or dark. All almond-based recipes are wonderful. Among the less-known is their use as breadcrumbs for various fried foods, fish or meat pies: Just blend it more or less fine, depending on the consistency you want to obtain. When almonds are in season, on the other hand, it is better to use them fresh because they’re very soft. Shell them and peel them, adding them to fresh salads or make them a side dish for steamed fish. In desserts, you can use them in almost infinite ways – from the famous marzipan with almonds, flour, sugar and eggs – that was used by the Etruscans and Romans as a devotional food – to nougat, whose authorship we still dispute in Italy with France and Spain.
Making almond milk at home
Making almond milk at home is very simple: Just soak the peeled almonds in boiling water for a day, then blend them with a food processor with very little filtered water. If boiled, this almond milk tends to thicken, likening itself to a fresh cream – ideal to use again in a savory sauce for ravioli or even for steamed or roasted slices of meat.
How to use almond flour
Almond flour also has great versatility in the kitchen; it’s excellent for cakes and biscuits, where it retains more moisture, making any dessert softer. If you want a more bitter taste, use ermine almonds, but be careful: Ingested in large quantities, this variety can become toxic to the body.
Almonds in the dishes of great chefs
Great chefs – like Andrea Berton, who makes a delicious almond cream with pumpkin, apples and goat's milk, or Pino Cuttaia at La Madia di Licata with his masterful almond and basil soup – could not remain impassive to the charm of the almond. In short, you can really have fun with this oily fruit, which is also rich in vitamin E, mineral salts and proteins.
A curiosity about the recipe for almond-based frutta martorana
Frutta martorana was created for the first time by the nuns of the Palermo convent dedicated to the noblewoman Eloisa Martorana, hence its name, to honor Roger II of Sicily who came to visit in winter, when no other fruit was available. After three centuries of activity, at the end of the sixteenth century, an edict of the Diocesan Synod of Mazara del Vallo sanctioned the nuns who were guilty of an activity that was believed to distract them from their necessary religious vocation. In fact, there were many other reasons – so much so that after a few months, the Sicilian guild of confectioners acquired the monopoly of the nuns' recipe with the blessing of the Curia.