Pasqua is Easter, and this is celebrated with traditional Sicilian sweets, particularly Cassata and the Agnellino Pasquale (the Pascal Lamb). These small lambs are often made of marzipan but can also be crafted from other ingredients.
POLLOZZI GENEROSA, Sicily
Polizzi Generosa is in the Madonie Mountains. The drive through the mountains on a foggy day was quite unsettling. The township is perched at ~900m with stunning valley views. ancient charm, Norman churches, artisanal food especially pastries.
Below is the photo of a small pasticceria in Polozzi Generosa, in the Madonie Mountains, not that far from Palermo. I have misplaced the photos of the pascal lambs I found in this shop, but they were beautiful.
* I looked this up recently to recommend to a traveller, and it is now listed as permanently closed.
Agnellino pasquale (Pascal LambS)
These Pascal lambs in the photo below are from Dolcetti, an excellent Pastry shop on Victoria Street in Melbourne. marianna, the pastry chef is of Sicilian Heritage.
Hers are made of Marzipan.
In Sicily, the traditional pascal lambs (agnellini pasquali) are made with marzipan, however I have found a recipe for making the lamb out of pasta garofolata (dough flavoured with cloves/ cloves are chiodi di garofano in Italian).
This same dough is used to make ossa dei morti (bones of the dead, customary Nov1st/ 2nd, the day of the Dead/ All saints Day).
Here is another version from a different Pasticceria in Sicily. This one is made of the dough used to make the traditional, Sicilian almond biscuits.
For those of you who may wish to try making a pascal lamb (could be fun to make with children), here is the recipe from:
RECIPE from Culinaria Italy, Claudia Piras, 2004:
Pasta Garofolata per Ossa Dei Morti o Agnellini Pasquali
In a saucepan, bring the sugar to the boil in a little water. When the sugar is dissolved, lower the heat and sift in the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, being careful that no lumps form. The flour MUST NOT be allowed to brown, it must stay snow white.Stir in the powdered cloves.
Once everything is thoroughly mixed and the flour is nice and white, remove from the heat.
As soon as it has cooled down enough to be handled make little bone shapes or lambs out of the dough.
Alternatively, if you have appropriately shaped moulds you can brush them with a little almond oil and fill with the dough.
NB. There are many recipes for making ossa dei morti; many use almond meal and egg white (marzipan).
CASSATA
In Sicily, the dessert has to be cassata – not the Neapolitan one made with ice cream, but with ricotta, and Sicilians use sheep’s milk ricotta because they can.
Each time I make a cassata it always looks different, but they always taste good. on occasions I have even made made marzipan with pistachio nuts – it can be a long process peeling off any of their flaky skins!
I always cover the cassata with marzipan.
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| A slice of cassata |
RECIPE FOR Glassa (fondant)
In pastry shops many cassate are covered with glassa (fondant):
There are many recipes where icing sugar is melted in water over a stove and then poured over the cassata – I find this too hard to work with and far too sweet. The following fondant is much easier to work with:
Fondant:
Beat 1 egg white till stiff, add 350 g of icing sugar (which has been infused with a vanilla bean). Add juice of one lemon and a few drops of green colouring. Beat till smooth. Spread over cassata. Many pasticcerie use white and green fondant.
To make cassata, see 2 different posts:
Cassata
Cassata 2