Anyone who passed through Sicily left traces throughout history – from street names and architecture to the world of cooking. This is demonstrated by a sensational basic food such as bread, mafalda, which with its sesame seeds takes us back to the Arabic domination and traditions. There is however another bread, the muffulettu of Licata, which is also reminiscent of the Spanish era and is distinguished by a particularity: spices. The muffulettu is in fact a round loaf, prepared with a mix of flour (wholemeal or white) and spices such as pepper, cinnamon, cumin, aniseed, fennel. It’s a bread that tastes of the Orient, of history, of people; a bread with a unique and unmistakable flavor that continuously appears to come from far away.
Why Licata?
Although in different variations, the so-called bread muffulettu is found throughout Sicily, almost always linked to religious ceremonies: everywhere from Ravanusa to Agrigento for San Calogero; in Canicattì where it’s eaten during the "vamparotti" that is to say the bonfires lit on the eve of the Immaculate Conception; in Palma di Montechiaro where it is preferred to be eaten sweet; or again in Palermo where the word appears in the feminine ‘muffuletta’ indicating a loaf stuffed with ricotta cheese and anchovies prepared on November 2nd. And somehow, they all agree the magnificent muffulettu is from Licata and that it couldn’t be any other way since only here is it prepared with the extraordinary mix of spices, which is ordered as far as from Taormina and Cefalù. Moreover, it is an ancient story that links this particular bread to the people of Licata...
An ancient story: from sausage to tuna
In Christian times in Licata, the muffulettu was prepared on Saturdays for the Sunday of Corpus Domine immediately after the wheat harvest, then stuffed with sausage to celebrate the end of the Easter festivities during which, as we know, it’s forbidden to eat meat. According to the journalist Angelo Augusto, since about 1600 the muffulettu was fully integrated into Easter traditions and prepared not only for Corpus Domine but also on the eve between Thursday and Good Friday. So, in a city full of convents like Licata the muffulettu becomes the main food over Easter but with a new combination. Since meat was prohibited, the muffulettu pairs perfectly with tuna, from which it will never be separated. Even today just like the past, the eve of Good Friday, at around three o'clock, the city's ovens remain open to offer the muffulettu with tuna to everyone during the procession.
Thursday's bread
As Angelo Augusto recalls, for centuries muffulettu was prepared and consumed only twice a year: with sausage for Corpus Christi and with tuna for Good Friday. Only over the last few years have things changed, as the ovens in Licata, about forty or so, agreed and began to prepare the muffulettu every week, always on a Thursday; on the other days only available on request (very early) or for special events. In reality, it has to be said that no Licata has ever let a stranger leave without letting him taste the muffulettu: whatever the day, it’s a local gastronomical delight they are proud of, a sensational cuisine to be tasted by anyone who passes through Licata, in accordance with the ancient meaning of this bread, to sharing and be welcome.
The special bakery Profumi Speciali
One of the first bakery’s to revive and start cooking the muffulettu again was the Panificio Profumi Speciali by Carmela and Angelo, together with their son Nicola, who has continued (to the rhythm of music) this tradition for over thirty years with mother yeast, in a stone oven. Today it’s even more important to appreciate those who, in the industrial era where everything could be replaced by a machine, still choose to dedicate time to an art as precious as baking; those who get up when the others go to sleep and start working with the light of darkness, around eleven in the evening, every day. But the great thing Nicola says is that, lately, the bakers are no longer alone: many young people of his age are making muffulettu at home again, to rediscover, learn and carry on some local traditions, even with new combinations. So, in addition to tuna and sausage that remain the classics, today the muffulettu is also stuffed with salad, gardener, cheese, black olives, tomatoes, mortadella, sardines, and so on depending on tastes.
What a strange name!
There are many theories about the origin of this strange name, which is found in almost all of Sicily. According to some sources it derives from the French mouflette, which is soft, to recognize the softness of Sicilian sandwiches which, unlike other doughs, have more water. Others however say the name comes from the so-called muffins brought to Sicily by Frederick II, that is to say, buns to which spices such as aniseed and cumin were added to help preservation when traveling and to separate the smell of bread from other foods. According to other notions the origin of the name is to be found in the leavening. In the past, the muffulettu was in fact left to rise inside the bed for such a long period of time that it practically made it moldy, hence muffu-lettu, in other words, moldy inside the bed. Or does it also have something to do with the New Orleans muffuletta?