This is another amazing marzipan based treat. You find these sweets in the medieval mountain top town of Erice, in Sicily, a town that is renowned for its almond based sweets. Since discovering Maria Grammatico’s recipe book, I have been making all her amazing sweets, one after the other. If you follow this blog, you…
SWEET AND SOUR PUMPKIN WITH GARLIC AND MINT
This is a very versatile dish: it makes a great side dish for meats, but it can also be eaten as an appetizer or finger food on some toasted ciabatta. It is my family’s favourite vegetable dish. We all like its sweet and sour taste and I usually make a lot of it and keep…
COTOGNATA – SICILIAN QUINCE PASTE
This is another one of my family’s recipes. It is a traditional sweet of many Italian regions (especially in the south) and when my parents were kids, it used to be among the most awaited gifts that Sicilian children would get for “all souls day”. You can find out more about the traditions of “all…
CHOCOLATE COVERED MARZIPAN RUM BALLS – MY GUEST POST OVER AT SANDRA’S EASY COOKING
A few days ago I got an email from Sandra of Sandra’s Easy Cooking asking me if I would write a guest post for her fantastic blog. Would I?? Of course I would! I felt so flattered and honored to be asked by one of my favorite foodies to be a guest over at her…
RIANATA
A while ago I published the recipe for sfincione, which can be considered to be the pizza of Palermo. Today I am going to give you the recipe for the pizza from Trapani: rianata. There are a few versions of this pizza, some are made only with oregano (the name rianata comes from origanata which…
PRICKLY PEARS – FICHI D’INDIA
This is not a normal recipe post. Actually, it is not a recipe at all. When I went to Leichhardt (Sydney’s Little Italy) last week, I saw these prickly pears (Wiki) and I could not resist: I had to buy them. It is the first time I have seen them here in Sydney and they…
STROZZAPRETI WITH SPECK AND PISTACHIO PESTO
The last time I went to Italy was in 2008. We went during summer, so we also went to Sicily to spend some time at the seaside in a small village called San Vito Lo Capo (Wiki). Our eldest daughter was 1 year old then and Clint and I could finally leave her with my…
“AGGLASSATO” CHICKEN – POLLO “AGGLASSATO”
This is a family recipe for cooking chicken that my dad brought with him from Palermo. The Sicilian term “agglassato” (in Italian “glassato”) means glazed and it refers to the glazed look that the onion sauce gives to the chicken. The onions give the chicken a sweet taste that is balanced by the slightly tangy…
GENOVESI ERICINE – MY FIRST GUEST POST
I have recently been invited by the charming Jill to write a guest post for her beautiful site, Mad About Macarons… She has just created a section on her site to publish recipes that require egg yolks. The reason is simple: the more egg yolks you use, the more egg whites you are going to…
EGGPLANT PATTIES – POLPETTE DI MELANZANE
What I love about eggplant is that they are so versatile and they are sweet inside with a slightly bitter skin. I use them in many dishes, probably because of my Sicilian origin (yes, Sicilians do eat lots of eggplant!). This is my mom’s recipe for what we call “polpette di melanzane” (eggplant patties). They…
CRUMBED PORK INVOLTINI PALERMO STYLE – INVOLTINI DI MAIALE ALLA PALERMITANA
This is a dish that I learnt from my dad. He is from Palermo and all the dishes of Palermo that I know to cook, I have learnt from him. He has in turn learnt them from his mother and grandmother, so they are all family recipes, handed down from generation to generation. One of…
SFINCIONE PALERMITANO
This is another traditional Sicilian dish. This time we are talking about Palermo. For people who like food, Palermo is paradise. People really enjoy their food and there are so many great dishes, that it is very hard to choose what to eat! My dad is from this wonderful city and I have been lucky…
BUSIATI WITH PESTO TRAPANESE AND FRIED EGGPLANT – BUSIATI CULL’AGGHIA
This is probably the most traditional pasta you can eat in the area of Trapani, in western Sicily. Both the pasta and the sauce are, together with fish couscous, the most well known dishes of the area. The sauce is very easy to make and it is the Trapanese version of pesto. It is similar…
CANDIED ORANGE ZESTS – SCORZETTE D’ARANCIA CANDITE
This is a typical Italian winter sweet and is often (but not only) used as a decoration for other desserts or served at the end of a meal with some coffee. My mom used to make lots of them for Christmas because that is the time of the year when oranges are at their best. …
ALMOND COOKIES – DOLCETTI DI MANDORLE
This is a recipe of traditional Sicilian sweets. Sicily is renowned for its citrus fruits, its pistachio nuts and almonds. All these products make fantastic ingredients for sweets. Whenever I go to Sicily, the little mountain top medieval town of Erice (Wiki) is my favourite spot to enjoy almond based sweets. This is a very…
VERMICELLI WITH ANCHOVIES AND ROASTED BREADCRUMBS – VERMICELLI ALL’ACCIUGHINA E “MUDDICA ATTURRATA”
This is one of my husband’s favourite pasta sauces. It is very simple indeed. It is what we call a dish for the “poor person”, as in the past not everyone could afford fresh fish or meat or cheese. In fact, it is made with anchovies and instead of eating it with grated cheese, we…
ARANCINE – AL RAGU E AL BURRO
This is my family recipe for arancine, a very popular street food dish from Sicily. They are fried balls of saffron rice stuffed with either a meat sauce or a cheese sauce. The cheese version is called “al burro” that literally means “with butter”, but they are actually filled with béchamel sauce, cheese, ham and peas, while the…
