Cassata

That our Sicily, an island of endless contradictions, is a land that is at once amara e duci (bitter and sweet) is certainly no news; that coffee is better taken with sugar because life is bitter enough already is another hard truth (albeit a difficult one to accept for anyone on a strict diet), so… why not focus (here at least) exclusively on the vast and reassuring range of delicious ducezze (sweet treats) that our island so generously gives us?

Perhaps there is no point in firing off, right at the start of this indulgent journey, the myriad famous fruity aromas and kneaded, toasted and baked fragrances you will encounter on this synaesthetic trip, enriched by the secrets kept and matured by Sicily's motherly tradition and by the historical curiosities they jealously hold. As the saying goes, in cooking too: let us proceed “sparingly”. Especially since this is a purely spontaneous and amateur project, set to grow with the prompts of the seasons (festivals, holidays), of circumstances, of friends and of the unquestionable will of the panza (belly).

You will immediately notice that, besides classic and reinvented recipes, we will always add a pinch of history, folklore and curiosities to taste, perhaps exploring the health benefits of certain ingredients, recommending places on the island where you can gorge on the best sweets, or simply adding a wholesome, meaningful folk saying. Anything goes, as long as it's sweet.

So let's begin. It may be obvious, but it would have been a crime not to start with her… the Queen and quintessential symbol of Sicilian sweets:

Sicilian cassata

Cu ‘nappi ‘nappi de cassateddi i pasqua…

The typical cake of Sicilian tradition, made with sheep's milk ricotta, sponge cake, pasta reale (almond paste), candied fruit and sugar glaze, is so good because, like the land it comes from, it is the fruit (and the sweet) of centuries of change and influences, some of them foreign.

Dulcis in fundo: the history. The roots of cassata go back to between the 9th and 11th centuries, when the Arabs introduced sugar cane, almonds, citron, lemon, bitter orange and mandarin to Palermo. These ingredients inevitably came together with ricotta, which had long been produced in Sicily. The origin of the name remains uncertain: according to one school of thought it comes from the Arabic qas'at, meaning “bowl”, after the round, cylindrical pan flared at the bottom in which it was, and still is, made. According to others, the cake owes its name to the Latin caseum, “cheese”, for obvious reasons. At first it was simply a shortcrust pastry filled with ricotta and baked in the oven. But when, in the Norman period, around the end of the 1100s, some nuns at the Martorana convent in Palermo created pasta reale, the very sweet paste made of almond flour and sugar, this replaced shortcrust pastry as the casing. The first great change: baked cassata gave way to the cold version. Later, with the Spanish, came chocolate and, indeed, sponge cake (Pan di Spagna, “Spanish bread”). These ingredients went so well with the cassata recipe that they have never been left out since. The final touch: the Baroque. The opulent, lavish style of the 17th century threw itself headlong into the soft layers of our cassata to embellish it with rich decorations of candied fruit. In reality the outward appearance of the cake varies a great deal, from a sparse decoration of glaze with a little candied orange peel to the Baroque-style construction in which it is most often presented.

Tasty curiosities

• Because of its shape and its often orange colours, cassata is considered a symbol of the sun and of life, which makes it the ideal sweet for the Easter celebrations.
• Depending on local variants there may be additional ingredients, such as pistachio, pine nuts, chocolate, cinnamon, maraschino or orange blossom water.
• An official document from a synod of Sicilian bishops in Mazara del Vallo in 1575 states that cassata is "indispensable during festivities".
• Today's Sicilian cassata was created by a pastry chef, Cavaliere Salvatore Gulì, whose pasticceria was on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, near Palazzo Belmonte. The cake was shown for the first time at an exhibition in Vienna in 1873.

“Dulcis in furno”: the recipe

Below is the recipe, divided into several parts to make the method clearer.

Ingredients for 4 people

For the ricotta filling:

500 g very fresh sheep's milk ricotta

300 g sugar

50 g chocolate chips

1 sachet of vanillin

Method: Keep the fresh sheep's milk ricotta in the fridge for at least one night before using it so that it loses its whey. Add the sugar and vanillin to the fresh, drained ricotta and mix well, then leave to rest for about an hour. Then sieve the mixture until you have a soft, smooth cream, and add the chocolate chips.

For the pasta reale:

250 g almond flour

250 g caster sugar

150 g water

Green food colouring

Method: In a saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the water over a low heat, stirring constantly. As soon as the sugar starts to form threads, pour in the almond flour and add the colouring. Keep stirring, then pour onto a wet marble surface and leave the mixture to cool. Then work it with your hands until you have a soft, smooth paste. Roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 8 mm and cut it into rectangles about 6 cm wide and the same height as the side of the tin.

For the sponge cake:

75 g flour

75 g potato starch

A pinch of salt

5 eggs

1 sachet of vanillin

150 g caster sugar

Method: Separate the whites from the yolks into two bowls; with an electric whisk, beat the yolks with half the sugar until pale yellow and creamy. Whisk the whites until stiff, then add the rest of the sugar and keep whisking. Fold the whisked whites into the yolks and mix well. Add the sifted flour, vanillin and potato starch to the wet ingredients. Mix well until smooth. Butter and flour a tin and pour in the mixture. Preheat the oven and bake for about 40 minutes at 180°C. Try not to open the oven during baking, as the mixture could collapse. Check it is done with a toothpick, take the tin out and leave to cool.

For the sugar glaze:

150 g sugar

1 small ladle of water

Method: Dissolve the sugar in the water over a low heat until it becomes stringy and clear. Make the glaze shortly before you need it, as it must be poured while still hot.

Assembling the cassata

sponge cake base

Mixed candied fruit

Water as needed

Method: First of all, get a cassata tin, round with flared sides. Cut the sponge cake into three equal discs and place one in the bottom of the tin. Dissolve sugar in water and moisten the sponge. From another disc of sponge, cut rectangles the same size as the pasta reale ones and arrange them around the side of the tin, alternating them. Pour the ricotta cream into the tin and cover it all with the remaining sponge, then leave to rest for an hour. At this point you can turn the cassata out onto a round plate and cover it with the freshly made sugar glaze. Take care to spread the glaze well over the sides too so that it is completely covered, and leave to cool again. Then decorate as you like with the candied fruit and serve.

or

Ingredients for 4 people

1 sponge cake disc of about 500 g

700 g fresh ricotta

400 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

100 g candied orange peel

100 g dark chocolate chips

300 ml water

200 g icing sugar

1/2 glass of Marsala

For the finish

250 g almond paste

Marzipan as needed

Mixed candied fruit

For the glaze

300 g icing sugar to decorate

180 ml cold water

Method: Cut the sponge cake into thin slices and use them to line a tin of about 24 cm in diameter lined with a sheet of plastic, carefully covering the base and sides. For the filling, sieve the ricotta. Mix it with the sugar and vanilla, adding a little milk if the mixture is too stiff. Then add the candied orange peel, cut into small pieces, and the chocolate chips. Mix the ingredients until well combined and pour the ricotta mixture into the sponge-lined tin. Cover the filling with more slices of sponge. Meanwhile, in a small pan, dissolve the 200 g of icing sugar in the 300 ml of warm water, leaving the mixture to cool before adding the Marsala. Use this syrup to moisten the sponge slices as you go. Finally, put the cassata in the fridge and leave it to rest overnight. The next day, carefully turn out the cassata and place it on a serving plate. Soften the marzipan in your hands before rolling it out to a sheet about 5 mm thick. Cut it out using the now-empty cassata tin as a guide, cover the cassata with the marzipan disc and line the sides with more strips of marzipan. For the glaze, bring the cold water and icing sugar to the boil. Lower the heat to a minimum and stir constantly until the sugar has completely dissolved (3–5 minutes). Pour it straight onto the cake and spread it evenly with a wet spatula. Decorate the cassata with candied fruit of your choice. And arricriatevi (enjoy yourselves)!

A closer look

Ricotta: The winning ingredient of this first closer look could only be ricotta. We may not care much that it is wrongly called a cheese, since it is actually a dairy product made from whey rather than curd, because whatever it is, it is truly delicious. We may be more interested to know that it is an extremely complete food, containing plenty of minerals and proteins, and that it must be eaten very fresh because it cannot withstand attack by micro-organisms, which would make it inedible. The proteins in ricotta are one of the strengths of this dairy product: their biological value is far higher than that of both cheese and meat. We may also like to learn that, although in terms of calories it is certainly not a fatty product, you need to watch how it is prepared, as this affects its calorie content. Milk and cream are often added, making it a little heavier. Finally, let us remember that ricotta is an extremely versatile ingredient in the kitchen: we can use it to make bread as well as cakes, in sweet and savoury recipes. For rather calorific desserts, cakes and pasta dishes, it is therefore best to choose a low-calorie ricotta and, if artisan, perhaps opt for one made from whey only.