#New York, London, Oslo and Sidney: all my students ask for #Sicilian Cassata Recipe. Here is. Are you ready for a new Cooking Class?

This was really a challenge: to be able to prepare the real Sicilian Cassata that is very good and in a short time!

I must say that I have never liked the sweet “too sweet” and cassata, with its almond paste that covers it, the candied fruit, the sweetened ricotta … Well let’s say that I’ve never been attracted by it. In fact this is a dessert that one adores or hate it; in my case, even driven by the belief that it could “sicken” me, I never tasted.
But all my tourist-students from the most different parts of the world (New York, London, Oslo and Sidney) during our cooking classes in Tuscany, always asked for the recipe and I started to think to taste it, at least once.

That’s why since I went to Sicily last Summer … things have changed …

A friend of ours indicated us a dairy (near Fontane Bianche) where to enjoy delicious granita and almond milk, two typical refreshing and tasteful solutions to hot Sicilian Summer: Casa della Granita Siciliana (some pictures here).

We passed by car few times in front to the shop, but we would have ever imagined that such as insignificant and anonymous little shop on the road, would hide a paradise of taste and “Sicilianity” ..Such a beauty!

A glass counter showed the steel tanks with prickly pear, almond, tamarind and mulberry granite (slushes)…wonderful colors and smells, not replicable anywhere else, typical of that land.

And then, in a glass case, next to almond cookies that would make me crazy (I brought home five boxes !!) “she” was there, the Cassata, in all its glory, but that certainly did not attract me.

I had no time to set my eyes a single second on that dessert, that the shop owner and his wife, had already prepared a saucer with a tiny portion of Cassata, to taste it. I could not refuse … it seems that the Sicilians be offended if you do not accept their generosity : D

And so for the first time I tasted this typical dessert from Sicily.

OMG … at first impact I felt the freshness of the ricotta cheese with its creamy, then came up with the crunchiness of the chocolate slightly bitter and finally I even tasted the candied fruit, which I do not like, but this time they were different… citrusy.

As regards the almond paste (marzipan) well, that is always sweet sweet sweet.

I liked very much the Sicilian Cassata, despite my prejudices, and was even the cake that I asked preparing for Ale’s birthday…such a fantastic memories… while the sea quieted at sunset, the volcano Etna greeting us with its smoke, and everything seemed so magical about that vacation that our family will never forget. Once back from this wonderful trip (here’s the post about it), I started to look at how to prepare the real Sicilian Cassata as quickly as possible … not a small feat considering that this is a sweet of the tradition. However, after several tests I succeeded!

And so, after the successful recipe about the terrific Sicilian Cannoli (my students from USA really love them), I post on my blog with great joy how to prepare this Sicilian dessert in a short time … and I assure you that the result will be super!

Here are some tips and advice:

you can prepare the sponge cake before and freeze it; or you can buy already prepared sponge cake
syrup to wet the sponge cake is delicious with a little ‘of limoncello
I used half the dose of sugar with the ricotta cheese
if you do not like candied “allfruit”, replacing it with candied orange peel (in my opinion there is no comparison, are much more good)
Instead of hurling the dark chocolate, buy the chocolate chips
you can color the almond paste before and leave it in the fridge (it lasts few months)
here in Italy you can buy almond paste (marzipan) from Sicily, or in supermarkets you find marzipan Paneangeli; to you who are abroad can order online the almond paste
Niederegger
for coloring marzipan always use gel colorings, they’re the best and have a higher yield; I use a few drops of bright green to get the classic light green typical of Cassata
Sicily is famous for cakes and desserts, in the book Sweet Sicily: Sugar and Spice, and All Things Nice you find how to prepare a lots

Then I thought how nice it would be to add this dessert in our Cuoche in Vacanza cooking classes in Tuscany and private dinners too and then I thought about using single portion molds, as you can see from the photos.

It’s true that our student-tourists come from all over the world…so let me know if you like this dessert and if you have trouble finding the ingredients; so I’ll take care of the matter. Also send me the pictures, I will post here on the blog and on Facebook.

#SICILIAN CASSATA

Recipe by Erika Elia

5 people

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes (if you already have sponge cake or you buy it)
Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 sponge cakes (36cm baking tin)
10 oz ricotta cheese
2 oz caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 oz candied orange
2 oz chocolate chips
1 oz apricot jam
1/2 glass water
3 tbs limoncello (optional)
1 oz caster sugar
1 lemon
10 oz almond paste marzipan
1 egg white
7 oz icing sugar
12 small pieces candied orange

Cooking Directions

Pour into a bowl the ricotta, sugar and cinnamon
set aside a around twenty pieces of candied orange peel and
add candied remaining ricotta
refrigerate
prepare the syrup:
heat water in a saucepan with the sugar and the juice of one lemon and
stir for a few minutes
remove from heat when it’s all dissolved and set aside
add the limoncello
line 6 small molds with plastic wrap that comes out from the edges
Cut the sponge cake with a round mold of the same size of the base of the tinfoil baking cups
insert the small disk of sponge cake in baking cups
cut (helping you with a pasta wheel) a strip of sponge cake long about 20 cm and high about 3 cm
line the edges of the baking cups with the strip
Cut the sponge cake with a round mold of the same size of the opening of the baking cup and set it a part
Repeat these steps for the remaining 5 cups
soak the sponge cake of all the cups with the prepared syrup
fill the cups, up to cm1 from the edge with the mixture of ricotta
cover with the larger disk of sponge cake to close
drizzle with syrup
fold the plastic wrap to enclose the desserts
refrigerate for at least 2 hours
roll out the marzipan with a rolling pin
cut the marzipan with the wheel into strips long as the perimeter of the cups, but 1/2 cm higher than the edge
remove the cakes from the fridge
freeing them from the film and place them in a tray for desserts
brush the sides with apricot jam
line the sides with the strips of marzipan, sticking well
preparing the royal icing by mixing the egg white with the icing sugar (in the absence of egg you can use the juice of a lemon)
pour the royal icing on cups
decorate with candied orange peel
ready to taste this terrific dessert?!