Sweet genovesi are a typical recipe in the Sicilian tradition, from the town of Erice to be precise, made with shortcrust pastry, pastry cream and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
The name of this delicacy – which is not at all Sicilian – probably comes from its shape, which resembles the cap of Genoese sailors who stopped at the ports of Sicily between 1300 and 1500. Another hypothesis, which is decidedly more romantic, claims that the genovesi come from the love between a girl from Erice and a young Ligurian boy: the girl gave the name to the dessert she made for her beloved.
Apart from the name, what makes the genovesi a truly exceptional dessert is the richness of its filling with pastry cream and the delicious shortcrust pastry that envelops it. The recipe also has some variations: the most interesting is that with sweet ricotta, chocolate chips and zuccata, the typical Sicilian candied pumpkin.
In Erice and in many towns in the western province of Trapani, the genovesi even replace the classic Sicilian brioches for breakfast as an accompaniment to granitas.
The genovesi recipe
Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry
2 1/3 cups durum wheat flour, 2 1/3 cups Italian 00 flour, 1 1/4 cups butter, 5 egg yolks
Ingredients for the pastry cream
1 1/8 cups sugar, grated peel from one lemon, 3 egg yolks, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 3 cups milk
Instructions
Start making this traditional Sicilian dessert with the shortcrust pastry. Mix the two flours and add the sugar and butter cut into small pieces in a large bowl.
Mix well, and once smooth add the egg yolks (always one at a time) and a little water.
Then knead the shortcrust pastry on a flat surface and form a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
While the shortcrust pastry is resting, start making the pastry cream used to fill the genovesi. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little bit of milk, and mix the sugar with the egg yolks very well in a separate bowl. Then add the milk with the cornstarch and the remaining milk to the egg and sugar mixture and mix well using a whisk.
Then pour the mixture into a pot and cook over low heat for about a quarter of an hour, until it becomes very dense (almost like a pudding), then add the grated lemon peel. Pour all the contents into a container, cover with plastic wrap and let it cool.
Take the shortcrust pastry from the fridge and roll it out with a rolling pin. Make rectangles of dough of about 3x5 inches and put two tablespoons of pastry cream on each one, then fold the dough over on itself. Use a round mold or cutter to cut the dough into a circle, then put the genovesi on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake in the oven at 425°F for about 10/12 minutes, until they are golden on top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and eat them hot, almost boiling, as per tradition.