Christmas in Sicily is a time for sweets. I met two extraordinary women to discuss the typical dessert table in Palermo during December. They are the keepers of the ancient wisdom that is increasingly threatened by the homogenization of culture. The world’s two ambassadors of Sicilian cuisine are Bonetta Dell’Oglio, the chef of the Slow Food Alliance of Italy, who has made it her mission to protect Sicilian biodiversity, and Fabrizia Lanza, who has taken over for her mother, Anna Tasca Lanza, in running the cooking school she founded.
Fabrizia told me that holiday foods include myriad desserts large and small, made with almonds and other specialties of the island that counts among its charms a definite sweet tooth. Since Sicilian farming has been almost exclusively cereal-based for centuries, wheat and its cultivation are at the heart of the matter. Wheat kernels or wheat flour are used in all the holiday foods made in Sicily for the major festivities. One of Fabrizia’s oldest memories is the cuccia (a Sicilian wheat and ricotta porridge) that her grandfather ate on the evening of December 13 for Santa Lucia, and the cassata her grandmother made for Christmas. In the culinary tradition of agricultural Sicily, winter’s theme revolved around fending off the monsters of cold and darkness while waiting for spring and rebirth. I learned from Fabrizia that in Sicily the strongest Christmas tradition is the excellent buccellato, a ring cake stuffed with dried figs – a favorite throughout the region.
The baroque triumph of buccellato
The recipe for buccellato dates all the way back to the ancient Romans. This is a dessert that needed lengthy preparation, beginning in summer with the harvesting and drying of figs. Its beautiful circular shape and triumphantly baroque air make it a perfect centerpiece on Palermo’s tables at Christmas. The ingredients used for the stuffing are dried figs, walnuts, almonds, toasted hazelnuts and sweet spices. The outer cake layer uses Sicilian Maiorca flour, sugar and Marsala wine. As always in Sicily, there are different variations of the same recipe. Each family jealously guards its own recipe, so the ingredients and shape can change from place to place. In addition to the popular ring shape, there are the mini “buccellatini” versions of the cake that women make at home and give as gifts during the holidays. The uniqueness of this Christmas dessert lies in the complexity of its preparation, which is done in stages, and in the exotic taste of the Arabian ingredients. What has always fascinated me is the symbolic and sentimental value behind every Sicilian recipe. I like to think of times past when life might have been more difficult but certainly more authentic as well. How romantic it is to think of men and women working intently during the summer to capture the heat of the August sun! This is the origin of buccellato, a dessert that could cut across the seasons (before there were preservatives and chemicals) to provide comfort with its heady fragrances and energy during the trying winter. In her classes, Fabrizia spends plenty of time on Sicilian desserts, which during the Christmas season are a triumphal procession of cassatas, bucellatos, pignoccata, cannoli, quince paste, tangerine jelly molds and cassatelle.
Almond filling and Her Majesty the Cassata
Bonetta Dell’Oglio’s first Christmas memory is of the almond tarts she and her mother made to offer guests. The outside was a very delicate dough made from an ancient recipe in the family recipe book, its origins lost in time. It was made using butter, never lard, and the filling was made only of almonds, sugar and lemon zest. It featured simple but genuine ingredients. Her house was a little bakery, producing so many little treats that their sweet smell filled the house with joy. Eating them warmed your heart without needing to call them “comfort foods” the way we do today. In contrast to these little tarts, so simple and good, there was the fancy cassata. Her Majesty the Cassata, if you please! The undisputed queen of Sicilian desserts is a cake with its origins in the Middle East. It’s made with sheep’s milk ricotta, sponge cake, marzipan and candied fruit. Bonetta’s father always insisted it had to be on the table for Christmas lunch. Awash in memories, Bonetta was thinking that day of a new version called “revolutionary cassata,” made with two doughs: one almond-based and one pistachio-based. Made separately, they’re baked at 140°F and filled with fresh ricotta made in the hills around Palermo, and then decorated.
Like buccellato, cassata is not a simple dessert. But it’s a symbol of the sun and therefore the cheerfulness of the Sicilian people. It’s a taste of our history. Over the centuries, it’s changed from a country-style dessert to something majestic and regal, with glorious colors, tastes and fragrances, making it unique and inimitable. The recipe became more elaborate over time, from one ruler to the next. First the Arabs brought to the island new crops like lemons, oranges, mulberries, cane sugar and almonds. Under the Normans, the outer shortcrust pastry was replaced by the typical green marzipan mixture, no longer baked but served cold. Cocoa and sponge cake came from the Spaniards. Then there was the Baroque period and the appearance of the colorful decorations the cake is known for today. All that remains is to sit down and let all five senses be transported by these Sicilian Christmas desserts.