Santa Lucia's Sicilian tradition in London? Yes we can!!!

The traditional cuccìa, Palermo typical dessert on December 13th.

I am very happy to share with you the success of my first Sicilian dinner in London on the occasion of the festivity of St. Lucy or Santa Lucia as we call her, last friday December the 13th. Do you know why the festivity of Santa Lucia is such a big deal in Palermo city?

Mediterranean starter

   Our tradition imposes to avoid everything made of wheat like pasta, bread or biscuits, except the "cuccìa", a typical dessert made of boiled wheat in grains and mixed with ricotta cream, the classic filling for cannoli and cassata. For this reason real queens of the day are rice (particularly arancine), potatoe pies and panelle.

     
   With some lovely guests from Uk, Australia and, of course Italy, we had shared our tradition and remembered the story of this incredible Sicilian Saint especially how she saved the people from Palermo from the famine, back in 1646.

Thanks to everybody for the fantastic night spent together and of course... W Santa Lucia! :-p

Santa Lucia & the tradition: let's find out what when & why

Do you know why on December the 13th which is the day of the Sicilian Virgin and Saint Lucy here in Sicily we eat some stuff called: "cuccìa", "panelle" and above all "arancine"? Let's make it clear once and for all :)

The story has got ancient roots: in the XVIIth century the city of Palermo and probably all the areas around were suffering from a terrible famine; people were starving and had nothing to eat, so they started to pray Saint Lucy who was originally from the Sicilian town of Siracusa. On the day of her festivity in 1646 (during the period of famine) a huge ship arrived in the harbour of Palermo and it was full of wheat.

People were so hungry that use the grain just as it was, boiled and eaten it with the few things they had like oil of olive, ricotta and vegetables. 

Little by little the tradition of cooking the wheat in grains spread on that day and people started to make also a sweeter version which in Sicily has always to be with ricotta cream. The name of this dish is "cuccìa" (the pic above is the sweet cuccìa), probably coming from the word "cocciu", which literally means grain. So this day is the only day of the year in which pasta and bread are banned from Sicilian tables to remind us the story of this miracle.

Now, having banned all the food made of wheat people had to eat other stuff apart from the cuccìa, so they started to eat potato pies, panelle which are chickpea fritters (the pic above), also in their sweet version filled with little custard and caster sugar on top (see the pic here on the right).

But the food that the majority of Palermo citizens relate to this day are the unique "arancine", scrumptious fried rice balls filled with different ingredients: ham & mozzarella cheese or minced meat ragout (the classic ones) but today you also find them with spinach, salmon and sometimes chicken as well.  

Hence, although it started like a day of penitence today by contrast it is popularly known as "the day of arancine", in which the "average palermitano" stuffs himself with 5 or 6 (and sometimes 8,9,10!!!) rice balls, and probably, if you ask him/her why there is no bread or pasta he/she doesn't even know how to answer.

 I am a huge fan of traditions, but I think it's important to know their stories and where they actually come from, so if you wanna try an arancina, or a sweet panella or some cuccìa on this very special day for us, feel free to do so, but at least you know why!