I first wrote and published this post 23/09/2011 and I continue to enjoy it. It is an unsophisticated way to cook squid but it is always enjoyable.
The Sicilian dressing accentuates the taste of summer.
Both calamari and cuttlefish (seppie) are very popular in Italy. Calamari is the Italian word for squid and it refers to those species of squid with long side fins; those with relatively shorter side fins are seppie (cuttlefish). In Australia the two species are often sold interchangeably.
Cuttlefishis usually braised and is favoured for making black ink sauces. Squid is cooked and eaten in many ways, including raw but probably my favourite way of cooking squid is alla brace (grilled over hot coals); my gas fuelled Baby Webber does a good job.
I prefer to grill squid on high heat for a short time; Italians (includes Sicilians) generally prefer to cook it on medium–low heat for longer.
When you cook it for a short time, the squid may still look a little shiny, but the residual heat completes the cooking, the flesh will turn opaque but remain moist.
I generally buy small to medium sized squid (anything bigger than 400g each I consider to be large squid.) Grilled Calamari are popular all over Italy, but the salmorigano (also salmoriglio and salamurrigghiu) dressing is Sicilian.
INGREDIENTS AND PROCESSES
Sprinkle the squid with a fine sprinkling of salt and leave it to rest for about 5 minutes. .
Brush the squid with a little extra virgin olive oil; for extra flavour, use a strong sprig of rosemary or oregano as a brush.
Brush a little oil on the metal grill before cooking the squid and grill the squid for 4-8 minutes on each side. This will depend on the size of the squid and how you like it.
Place them on a large serving platter and rest it for about 3-5 minutes before covering it with a little dressing.
This is a simple, Sicilian dressing made of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, a little dried oregano (it is stronger tasting than fresh), some finely cut flat leaf parsley and some salt and pepper to taste. Some also add a clove of finely chopped garlic.
Another Sicilian dressing is ZOGGHIU(Sicilian pesto/dressing made with garlic, parsley and mint)
I am partial to a cup of rose flavoured tea, add rose water in some of my cooking and I particularly like my Sirop de roses (Rose syrup, mine is made in Lebanon) which I sometimes use to give a pink tinge and rose flavour to some of my desserts: home made ice creams, panna cotta, stewed fruit compotes (especially rhubarb or figs, or pears) or fresh fruit salads.
The Old Foodie has been writing about rosewater again this week and this has reminded me about a recipe for making a rose flavoured liqueur.
I too am a lover of rose flavoured foods.
Rosolio di rose (Rosoliu in Sicilian) dates back to the 15th century and was a popular cordial, originally made from rose petals. By the 18th century it had progressively became an alcoholic drink and lemon become more favoured over rose as flavouring. The pink colour was likely to have been enhanced with cochineal.Many of the ancient Sicilian recipes use rosoliu as the generic name for liqueur, several of which are made with oranges, mandarins or lemons and some are sometimes flavoured and coloured with a little saffron.
There are recipes for making Liquore Di Rose (Rose Liqueur) – this has been popular in other parts of Italy and in other countries. Some of the recipes include other flavourings for example lemon peel, cloves or orange blossoms.
My zia Niluzza (who lives in Ragusa, Sicily) gave me this recipe for Rosoliu, a long time ago.
For extra flavour I use ½ cup of rose water (as part of the 2 cups of water) and a dash of rose syrup (coloured pink and it is sweet, therefore reduce the amount of sugar and a little cochineal. I will need to wait for a generous friend and the right season before I make my next batch, but I have thought about adding a little grated beetroot with the petals rather than using cochineal.
INGREDIENTS
4 cups of rose petals from a highly scented rose (I used a black rose for mine)
2 cups very strong vodka or grappa (we cannot buy 95° spirit in Australia as they do in Italy)
2 cups sugar
2 cups of water
PROCESSES
Place rose petals a clean jar, add alcohol, close and keep in a cool dark place for at least 2 weeks.
Prepare the sugar syrup: boil water and sugar. Cool.
Filter the alcohol mixture and add syrup. Keep it for least 3 months before using.
Glass of filtered Rosoliu, bottle of Sirop de roses and the jar I use to make the Rosoliu.
In some recipes the petals are left in the alcohol/syrup mixture and then strained at the time of serving. I left some petals in my last batch of rose liqueur and the petals partly dissolve and this is why you may notice a layer of sediment in the jar in the photo.
This is not the only liqueur I make. See my recipe for making Alchermes (or Alkermes) that I use to make the famous Italian dessert Zuppa Inglese.
Spring in Sicily is a celebration of renewal. In cultural and religious terms it is expressed through Easter, when Primavera (spring) and Pasqua (Easter) become almost synonymous—a joyful coming together of nature, family, tradition and food.
In Australia, spring arrives just as Sicily is entering autumn. Yet goat is available here throughout much of the year, allowing me to cook dishes that Sicilians would traditionally prepare only in springtime.
When I was a child living in Trieste, Easter in Sicily was more important that Christmas and although my family always spent time in Sicily in Summer, we would always try to visit Sicilian relatives
Across Sicily, Easter Sunday lunch often centres on young lamb or kid (capretto). Every family has its favourite preparation—roasted, braised or baked—and, as is so often the case in Italy, the “best” version is usually the one your mother cooked.
Ragusa
Easter Traditions from Ragusa
My father’s family comes from Ragusa in south-eastern Sicily, where Easter would not feel complete without ’mpanata ri agnieddu—a large, focaccia-like pie filled with very young lamb, bones included, and enclosed in bread dough. It is a dish that has been handed down through generations. My grandmother made it every Easter, and no doubt her mother before her.
The recipe I am sharing here comes from another part of Sicily altogether—the province of Trapani in the island’s north-west, encompassing Marsala and Mazara del Vallo.
In Australia the meat I buy is likely be considered as goat in Italy.
In Italy, this would be considered a goat, rather than a kid
A Well-Loved Sicilian Recipe
This version of Capretto con le Mandorle (Kid with Almonds) is adapted from La Cucina Tradizionale Siciliana by Anna Pomar, first published in 1984.
The book has special meaning for me. It was a gift from my cousin Rosetta during one of my many visits to Ragusa. It was her own well-used copy, filled with handwritten notes and alterations in the margins—much like the treasured cookbooks I inherited from my mother. Those annotations remind me that recipes are living things, evolving as they pass from one kitchen to another.
Kid for sale in Sicilian Market. notice that it is sold with the head intact
I love the texture that the almonds provide in the thickening of this dish.
Making the Recipe My Own
The original recipe uses kid, but the meat available to me in Australia is usually sold as goat. In Italy, it would probably be considered a more mature animal and therefore benefits from a much longer cooking time.
As with many traditional recipes, I have adapted it to suit my own taste. I use extra onions, bay leaves, homemade stock instead of water, and dry Marsala rather than simply relying on the tomatoes for flavour.
Does that make it a different recipe? I don’t think so. It simply reflects what generations of home cooks have always done—respect tradition while quietly making it their own.
One element I would never change is the almonds. Ground almonds enrich the sauce, giving it a beautiful silky texture and a delicate sweetness that balances the richness of the meat. It is this combination that makes the dish unmistakably Sicilian.
Ingredients
3 kg kid or goat, cut into serving pieces with some bone attached
2 onions, finely sliced
3–4 bay leaves
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup dry Marsala (Marsala Fine) or dry white wine
3 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or equivalent canned tomatoes)
300 g blanched almonds, finely ground
About 3 cups good stock or broth
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Trim any excess fat from the meat and pat it dry.
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based casserole. Add the meat and onions, browning them lightly.
Pour in the Marsala and allow it to reduce slightly, scraping up any caramelised bits from the base of the pan.
Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, stock, salt and pepper.
Cover and cook gently until the meat is very tender. Anna Pomar suggests about 45 minutes for young kid, but Australian goat usually requires 1½–2 hours, or until the meat comes away easily from the bone. *If you are cooking goat, cook it for longer.
Stir in the ground almonds and cook gently for another few minutes until the sauce thickens. If it becomes too thick, loosen it with a little extra stock.
Serve hot, although many Sicilians would happily enjoy this dish only slightly warm—a reminder that in Sicily good food is savoured rather than rushed.
Market in Sicily, kid hanging up, ready to be chopped into suitable pieces by the butcher
On the 5t of July Bar Idda celebrated its first birthday and their new menu strongly influenced by recent discoveries of recipes experienced while in Sicily. Gelatina di Maiale was one of the offerings.
Lisa and Alfredo are the proprietors of Bar Idda in Lygon Street. Their heritage is from the South Eastern Part of Sicily and they have returned from their holiday in Sicily full of ideas and enthusiasm for their small, Sicilian restaurant.
Anthony is the bar person and after discussing the wine with him we selected a bottle of ROSSOJBLEO, a bio-organic, Sicilian Nero d’Avola from Chiaramonte Gulfi (Ragusa). My partner and I then ate our way through many very enjoyable Sicilian specialties. These included:
Hot ricotta soup with home made pasta. Ricotta is very much appreciated by Sicilians especially when it has just been made. Particularly in Ragusa and the environs people visit cheese makers (sometimes on farms) and watch the ricotta being made. Ladles of hot, fresh curds and whey are usually poured on broken pieces of bread and eaten like soup.
Gelatina di maiale(brawn, made with pork- see recipe and photos below) and some affettati (a selection of cold cuts of salumi). An eggplant caponata was also included in this antipasto.
Farsumagru (il falsomagro is a beef, meat roll stuffed with hard boiled egg and can include cheeses , salamini and mortadella). It is braised in a tomato sauce and presented sliced. In this case it was made with minced beef and Alfredo’s version included a little zucchini for colour and variety of textures. Farsumagru translates into false–lean. It contains delectable ingredients including meat, so this is a pun on ‘lenten’ food – during the liturgical seasons Catholics were required to eat simple food and to abstain from eating meat. These laws have relaxed over time.
Farsumagru ( in Sicilian) Falso magro,(in Italian) meat loaf with egg in the middle
The farsumagru was accompanied by a warm potato salad with capers and comichons, and a fennel and orange salad with a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds.
We then had a glass of Malvasia a very rich flavoured dessert wine made by drying Malvasia grapes (bianche– white variety) before crushing. It was an excellent accompaniment to the small fried pastries called cassateddi. There are many local variations to this recipe, and in this version the dough was stuffed with ricotta, cinnamon, and honey. I could taste some alcohol too. (Honey is used instead of sugar in the Ragusa area).
Thank you Bar Idda, for a very enjoyable meal. Auguri e complimenti and may there be many years to come.
Recipe and photo of the Gelatina I make
Gelatina (means gelatine or jellied). It is sold as a Smallgoods food.
In various parts of Sicily the gelatina di maiale is called by a variety of names: jlatina di maiali, Suzu, suzzu, or zuzu.
I found a recipe for gelatina scribbled in one of many notebooks which I use to record recipes when I visit Italy. In this particular notebook from 1980, there are many Sicilian recipes, but on this particular trip I must have visited the relatives in Genova (a Piedmontese aunt married to my father’s brother and living in Genova and her daughter Rosadele who is an excellent cook also). There were also some recipes written in Trieste (my zia Renata was from Rovigo and married my mother’s brother).
I have not made gelatina di maialefor many years but I have nearly always included a half of a pork’s head – this provides the jelly component. The tongue adds texture and extra flavour (you can throw out the eyes).
It is always a good idea to pre-order a pork’s head beforehand and I was not able to purchase one. I used pork feet instead (as you can see by this photo) and fortunately it turned out very well. In this gelatina I included approx 1.500 kilo of lean pork (cut into large pieces) and four pig’s feet.
INGREDIENTS AND PROCESSES
The recipe is one of my zia Niluzza’s who lives in Ragusa (Sicily) and it simply says:
1 part vinegar to 3 parts of water, red chilli flakes or whole pepper corns and salt. Use a mixed selection of pork meat, including the head.
Place in cold water mixture, cover meat.
Boil for 6 hours (covered) on slow heat.
Filter broth, remove some of the fat and reduce, remove bones, shred meat.
Lay meat in earthenware bowl, cover with cooled broth and leave to set.
Over time, I have altered the recipe and include bay leaves and peppercorns and I boil the pork without the vinegar only for about 3 hours (until I can see the meat falling off the bones).
Once it is cooked, I leave it to rest overnight.
The next day I remove the meat from the jelly, I add ½ cup of vinegar and the juice of a couple of lemons to the broth and reduce the liquid down to a third of the original amount.
I shred the meat and place it into a terrine and cover it with the cooled reduced stock. Any fat will rise to the surface and can be scraped off when it is cool (in fact, it acts as a seal).
Calamari is the Italian word for squid and it refers to those species of squid with long side fins; those with relatively shorter side fins are seppie (cuttlefish).
Calamari, cuttlefish and squid
This recipe is for seppie (ink fish) , but squid is much easier to buy in Australia although the two species are sometimes sold interchangeably and sold as calamari. They are found right around the Australian coast and are available year round.
Commercially they are wild-caught mainly by seafloor trawling and many end up as by catch in nets. Squid jags are a favourite with recreational fishers. They generally are a fast growing species and for this reason are considered sustainable.
In Australia squid was once only used for bait and be very cheaply priced, but unfortunately, too many people have come to appreciate it and the price has gone up significantly.
Many of the rings and tubes sold are imported. There is also local product and this may not have been frozen, but the flesh can be tough – usually they are from much bigger squids than I would generally buy. Unfortunately the tentacles (very tasty) are generally removed for easier processing and packing in ice, ready for export.
I am very spoiled when I buy squid from my fish vendor at Happy Tuna in the Queen Victoria Market where I shop. It is so fresh that it could easily be eaten raw or needs very little cooking. My favourite vendors always select for me small and medium sized squid, which they know I prefer. The photo is from the fish market in Siracusa, Sicilia and it shows the common size for squid sold in Italy.
This recipe is a wet pasta dish – a common consistency for Sicilian soups which generally contain a large amount of pasta. What I like about this recipe (from Mazara del Vallo, on the west coast of Sicily) is the addition of carrot and potato – two very popular ingredients in Australia, but not so popular in pasta dishes in Sicily. The squid used are young, small cuttlefish or squid – the smaller ones are considered more tender.
In the original recipe the taglierini (freshpasta cut into thin strips, tagghiarini is the Sicilian term). These are made without eggs, perhaps this was once due to poverty or scarcity, rather than choice, but the practice of making pasta without eggs In Sicily has remained. If buying commercially made pasta, use thin ribbon pasta. (When the pasta is coiled like in the photo, the shapes are sometimes called nidi – nests of pasta.)
chili flakes and/or grated pecorino (optional) to taste.
PROCESSES
Sauté the onion in ½ cup of oil, add the potato and carrot and when the ingredients begin to brown add the garlic. Add the tomatoes, a little salt, and the parsley and over medium evaporate some of the juices. Check that the potatoes and carrots are cooked and if they are not, add some liquid (water or wine) and cook for a little longer and do not drain.
Cook the pasta.
Sauté the squid in ½ cup of oil – use a separate, wide fry pan (it cannot be overcrowded or it will stew). Toss the squid around in the pan on high heat for a few minutes, add a little salt, wine and seasoning and evaporate.
Add the squid to the vegetable mixture.
Combine the pastawith the sauce. Add the basil leaves and serve.
As well as gelo di mellone (made with watermelon juice), Sicilians make gelo do mandorla (made with almond milk), gelo di cannella ( made with cinnamon and water) and gello di limone ( made with lemon juice). It can also be called, Biancomangiare.
It is thickened with corn flour and stirred like custard till it solidifies. There is nothing to it, but surprisingly it turns out to be quite delicious.
This photo is of a gelo di limone, one of the many Sicilian specialties one of my relatives has made for me.
500ml fresh lemon juice
500ml of water and the peel of the lemons soaked in the water for 24 hours
300g sugar
4 level tablespoons arrowroot or corn flour
2-3tbsp limoncello (optional)
Mix the corn flour with a little water and make a smooth paste.
Mix all of the other ingredients together in a small saucepan and heat gently – keep on stirring until it thickens.
Remove from the heat, add the limoncello and pour into a wetted mould (or individual serving glasses)
Leave to cool, then chill in the fridge for several hours.
Sicilians eat it plain but it is a nice accompaniment to strawberries or poached cumquats (sugar syrup).
It has been a while since I have had an Easter in Sicily and I am feeling very nostalgic about being in Ragusa. This year, a large group of my relatives inRagusa are all going to celebrate lunch at Stefania and Aurelio’s country house, just outside Ragusa and I wish I could be with them.The country house is a stable which in the 18 Century belonged to a local Baron called La Rocca.
Stefania and Aurelio bought the property several years ago (it also has a few surrounding buildings and land) and they are slowly converting it into a beautiful holiday home. They are using local artisans to recreate and restore many features in the original style and character. As much as possible they have kept its original outside appearance and interior features, especially the original carved wooden ceiling.
I do miss my relatives (and the feast that they will be sharing), but I also miss Spring in Sicily.
In Sicily, spring is the start of everything. It is the time when the island comes alive – flowers bloom, vines sprout and vegetables ripen. Spring is the celebration of life, which in cultural and religious terms is expressed in Easter. In Sicily Primavera (Spring) and Pasqua (Easter) are a fusion of nature and culture, family and food.
The ancient Greeks (once settlers in Sicily) also marked spring and – like the Christian Easter – their myth celebrated another resurrection from the dead through the legend of Persephone.
The Greeks considered Sicily to be Persephone’s island because, according to the myth, Pluto, the god of Hades, who imprisoned her in his underworld realm, abducted Persephone from the Sicilian town of Enna.
So Persephone’s grieving mother, the goddess Demeter, (goddess of agriculture) plunged the island into a barren winter, until Zeus, the father of the gods, struck a bargain with Pluto to let Persephone to return to land of the living for six months of the year. So it is that when Persephone is released from Hades, Demeter allowed the world to thaw and bloom before her daughter must once again return to Pluto and Hades.
The pagan traditions were slightly transformed and unofficially accepted into the rites surrounding devotion to the Christian saints. Offerings of bread, cheeses, and sweets, associated with pagan harvest rituals, are common in many of the present-day festivals.
Some of the foods the relatives will be eating are on my previous posts.
There will also be baked capretto (kid) and wild spring greens collected from their property and sauteed in virgin olive oil and garlic (see top photos, taken at one of the other family feasts in the country house).
Franca will make scacce and sguogghiu (alternatives to scacce)
They will be buying cassata from the pasticceria (pastry shop) and making cassatedde. In Ragusa (and nearby Modica) these are little baked tarts with a pastry bottom and a ricotta, sugar, egg and cinnamon. Some add candied orange.
In the rest of Sicily, cassatedde are ravioli like pastries and fried.
The pasta will be a must. Zia Niluzza will be making gnucchateddi (causunedda) all night for so many people!( She never takes off her jewellery when making pasta). She may even make large ricotta ravioli with a strong ragu made with pork and conserva (strong tomato paste).
And there will be homemade liquers: Nocello (made with green walnuts) and Mandarinetto (made with green mandarins)
And small sweets: Cotogniata (quince paste) rolled in sugar and Giuggiulena (or sesame seed torrone). It is also called Cubbaita and is said to be a legacy from the Arabs who lived in Sicily.
Giuggiulena, recipe:
INGREDIENTS
1k honey, 1 k sesame seeds, 4 cups sugar, ½ teaspoon of each: cinnamon, cloves, grated orange peel.
PROCESSES
Melt the sugar in a large saucepan on very low heat, when sugar is melted add honey. Add sesame seeds and aromatics mix well. Remove the torrone from the heat quickly (or the sesame seeds my burn). Let cool slightly.
Pour mixture onto a tray with baking paper or a marble that has been coated with oil. Spread evenly and quickly before the torrone hardens, cut into rectangular pieces before it cools and store in airtight containers.
Photos of Stefania and Aurelio’s country house:
Aurelio with one of his horses on the property.
One of the many lunches at the property. On this occasion the local cheese makers were invited…..this is why there are all those men at the table. They bought cheeses for us to taste.
This cassata was prepared for a celebration. I was particularly pleased that my friend followed the cassata and marzipan fruit recipes on my blog (links below).
She got in touch and sent me some photos—it was her New Year’s Eve cake!
Doesn’t the cassata and the fruit look absolutely wonderful?
Hand-made marzipan fruit.
SHE writes: Your recipe works a treat and it is a great celebratory dessert. Everyone on New Year’s Eve thought it was very special!
Some even ate the marzipan fruit!
With more time I would have created a fancy edging with small leaf shapes. Your sponge recipe was most successful! The cake was delicious and I was generous with Cointreau. Everybody was delighted with the cassata – it was the highlight of the meal.
I followed your recipe closely but added more couverture choc (which isn’t so sweet) and glace orange and citron to the ricotta. The glace orange doesn’t have the intense flavour of candied orange peel so you need a bit more of that. I would be inclined to bump up the use of Cointreau next time to make the sponge even moister and to bring out the lovely orange liqueur flavour even more.
Could you also try adding honey to replace some of the sugar in the ricotta mix? It could make the ricotta a little moister too but wouldn’t make it too sloppy as it is stored in the fridge (the honey becomes more viscous when cooled). It has stored well in the fridge (hasn’t gone weepy at all). We had some for morning tea today with friends and it was greatly enjoyed.
Cassata cut.
MY reply:
Honey would alter the flavour and although this is not considered “traditional”or “authentic’.
But authenticity has very little to offer us in terms of practicality, individual tastes or even updates to what we know now about healthy food.
I am very well aware that you have bee hives in your back garden andI know how tasty your honey is. So why not?? just don’t invite any Sicilians around when you eat the Cassata.
Maccarruna (maccheroni in Italian) is sometimes used as the generic word for pasta and is still common, especially in Naples and Sicily. It is also the term used in ancient recipe books. Most pasta, of whatever sort, was labelled maccheroni until 1850-70, after which local folk names were widely adopted by producers and consumers.
There are many explanations for the origins of the term maccarruna. Some researchers believe that it comes from the term, maccare – to squash. Others believe that it comes from the word maccu – a Sicilian, thick soup specialty made with pulses and pasta. There are also Greek words: macron meaning long, or makaria a dough of barley and broth, or makar – it means ‘very happy’ – the state maccarruna eaters presumably experience. Whatever the origins of the word maccarruna, Sicilians consume large quantities of it.
There are many small shapes of fresh pasta made in Sicilian homes. The following are some of the favourite maccarruna.
Gnocculi, gnucchiteddi, cavati, caviateddi are the most common names for gnocchi or gnocchetti (Italian) shapes. Some are rigati (have ridges on the surface) and some are lisci (smooth). All have an indentation in the centre to ensure even cooking.
Gnocchi look like dumplings and in Italy can be made out of potatoes, bread, fine cornmeal or semolina and with wheat flour. Sicilians prefer gnocculi or gnucchiteddi (the smaller shape), made with durum wheat flour. They are called different names in different regions in Sicily. When my relatives in Ragusa make gnucchiteddi, they include 1-2 eggs for each 800g-1k of durum wheat flour and as much water as the dough absorbs, but the standard practice in other parts of Sicily is to use no eggs at all.
Pasta making is a family affair. The photo was taken during my last trip to Sicily. The extended family is shaping gnucchiteddi by using a very useful gadget that belonged to my great grandmother. As you can see it looks like a loom. Very fine strips of dough are rolled around a needle-like reed and then the reed (and the shapes) are rolled on the shaping device. This fuses the dough together and gives each of the gnucchiteddi, the grooves on the surface.
My aunt also makes causunnedda, these are cooked with kohlrabi (bulb and leaves). Sometimes they are cooked with kohlrabi and borlotti, in spring broadbeans are a favourite. Cooking home made pasta is alwys a family affair. Below is a photo of my cousin with a large bowl of causunnedda, ready to take to the table. Next to her is another relative ready to assist.
Laura and Nancy in the U.S. have a great food blog called ‘Jellypress’. They invite readers to share photos of old foodways called ‘Hands on’ and I have contributed to this very interesting section in their blog.
Summer is the time for watermelon.This post was first published 02/13/2009 and republished 01/08/2020
Watermelon is related to the squash family and there is a Sicilian saying that it does not matter whatever you do to a zucca (squash/pumpkin) it always remains such – tasteless.
Frida Kahlo obviously did not think so. I saw the above painting at a Frida Kahlo exhibition in the Botanical Gardens in New York in 2015.
Sicilians also like watermelon and they make a dessert with it called Gelu ‘i muluni (Sicilian for watermelon jelly) – an old Sicilian recipeandonce a popular dessert. Many Sicilians say that this dessert has Arab origins and it is easy to see why. The addition of the extra flavourings – vanilla, cinnamon, rose water, chocolate and pistachio transform the taste of what is basically liquefied watermelon juice solidified with corn starch.
As a child living in Trieste, I always called watermelon, anguria as it is called in the north, but when we visited Sicily (my family went there every summer), it was called melone.
I always notice people buying big slabs or whole watermelons at the Queen Victoria Market and in Australia watermelon appears to be more popular with those of us who have come from a different cultural background. Have you noticed in Asian restaurants as it is often presented as a palate cleanser at the end of a meal? Or the Greek and Italian families eating watermelon at the beach?
When my son was young, he was very friendly with a Turkish family and he used to report that over summer, there was always watermelon at his friend’s house. They ate it with bread; this is not surprising when watermelon can be used as an ingredient for a watermelon salad (made with feta, black olives, sliced onion, extra virgin olive oil, seasoning and mint) this salad, now popular in many Australian homes..
Although this dessert is very easy to make, it does look very attractive and your guests will think that you have gone to a lot of effort – much more so than just serving up slices of watermelon.
One kilo of watermelon is sufficient to make 4 desserts.
INGREDIENTS
ripe watermelon, 1k
sugar, 100g
pure vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon
rosewater, 2-3 tablespoons (or jasmine water – steep flowers in some hot water overnight)
cornstarch , 40g
pistachios , chopped, 50g
chocolate, chopped, 50g
candied citron,( Sicilians use Zuccata – candied zucca (squash/pumpkin family) 50g
cinnamon, 1 stick.
Remove rind and seeds and liquefy in food processor or blender (1k of watermelon gave me 1 litre of juice).
Combine sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan and add some watermelon juice gradually to form a smooth paste.
Add rest of the juice and the cinnamon stick and on low heat, stir constantly with a wooden spoon until thickened
Remove from heat, stir in vanilla extract and rose water.
Discard the cinnamon stick, pour it into a bowl (or individual bowls) and place it into the refrigerator until required. The pistachio and chocolate can be sprinkled on top when ready to eat or wait till the gelo is cool and then fold in the solids before refrigerating.
I prefer to grill squid on high heat for a short time; Italians (includes Sicilians) generally prefer to cook it on medium–low heat for longer.
