TYPICAL SICILIAN RECIPES

Cannoli

INGREDIENTS. For skin (scorza): 200 g. flour, 30 g. sugar, 2 tablespoons Marsala wine
20 g. lard, a pinch of salt.
Filling: 800 g. ricotta cheese, 10 g. vanilla extract, 100 g. chocolate,
400 g. sugar, a grated lemon skin, 100 g. confectioners sugar, extra virgin olive oil.

Mix flour, sugar, lard, salt and Marsala using a wooden spoon until you have an homogenous mixture.
Put mixture in bowl for an hour and then level it and cut some squares (about 12 cm).
Roll this squares on a tin tube (let the extremity fix together)
and then fry it until light brown with their tube.This is the cannoli "scorza".
Remove tin tube only when they are cool.
Meanwhile prepare filling.
Mix ricotta cheese, vanilla extract, sugar, grated lemon skin and pieces of chocolate.
Fill in this mixture into the scorza and decore with confectioners sugar.

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Cassata

INGREDIENTS: plain sponge cake, 600 g. ricotta cheese, 2 cups sugar,
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 30 g. creme de cacao, 30 g. dark rum, 1 tablespoon shaved chocolate,
2 tablespoons of orange, lime and lemon zest.

Place the ricotta cheese, sugar, vanilla and mix well using a wooden spoon.
When the mixture is smooth add the shaved chocolate and fruit zests and continue to mix well.
In a square glass dish and line it with sponge cake. Add the liquor(s) over it
and coat it (you may wish to use more liquor to drench it).
Then pour ricotta cream over cake and top with more cake slices.
Refrigerate for at least 5 hours, overnight is best.
Flip over on a serving dish, and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

Bruschette (Grilled Bread)

INGREDIENTS: 1 clove garlic chopped fine, oregano to taste, 4 fresh basil leaves (chopped fine), 2 tomatoes.

Bruschetta comes from the Italian verb bruciare which means to burn.
We call it this because the bread is toasted or grilled.
Bruschetta is made very simply by grilling day old Italian bread.
Slice the bread lengthwise, then quarter it wide so you end up
with 8 halves of bread ready for toasting.
After the bread is toasted until it is brown, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil
and top with the finely chopped garlic, diced plum tomatoes and basil mixture
that has been sitting in olive oil. You can sprinkle grated parmigiano on it.

Trapanese pesto sauce

INGREDIENTS: 6 plum tomatoes, 100 g. almond, 3 clove garlic,
1 cup fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Chop the basil and the garlic with oil, salt and pepper.
Chop as fine as you get until you get a sort of creme.
Then put in tomatoes and almond (without their skin) and continue to chop.
Serve this over spaghetti or ravioli.

Potatoes croquettes

INGREDIENTS: Potatoes, prosciutto, grated cheese, unseasoned bread crumbs,
extra virgin olive oil, eggs, salt and pepper.
Boil your potatoes and then cut into small pieces so you can put them through a ricer.
Add salt, chopped prosciutto, grated cheese, eggs and mix together well.
Roll into miniature logs and roll in flour, then put into the eggwash,
then roll gently in the unseasoned breadcrumbs until completely covered.
Fry in extra virgin olive oil until light golden brown.

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