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

Saint Martin's day, his cookies and the Moscato wine!

Have you ever heard about the  S. Martin festivity? Well, November the 11th is the day of Saint Martin and in Sicily is usually accompanied by a lovely tradition. We eat some crusty dry rounded cookies sold in bakeries (and now supermarkets), usually broken in pieces and sopped up in the extraordinary Sicilian Moscato wine.
Ingredients for 8 people: 500 gr flour - 200 gr caster sugar - 100 gr lard - 200 gr brewer's yeast - Aniseeds - Cinnamon powder - Butter - Salt

Preparation:
Preheat the oven at a temperature of 200° degrees. On a kitchen surface put the flour and make a hole in the middle of it. Mix 1 dl of warm water and a pinch of salt, plus the lard, mixing everything together carefully. Add the brewer's yeast, the sugar and a teaspoon of aniseeds with a pinch of cinnamon. Knead the dough well until is soft, smooth and homogeneous.
From the dough make some sticks long about 5-6 cm, then try to bend or fold each stick on itself,  giving a kind of spiral shape. Put them on a buttered baking tin. Cover them and leave it there to rise for at least 3 (or 4) hours in a warm place (it really depends on how warm is the place). As soon as the cookies are risen and ready to be cooked put them in the oven at 200° degree for 10 minutes. 

 
Take them out and reduce the oven temperature at 160°degrees. Put them inside again for about 20 minutes for a second baking carefully checking that they won't get too brown. 

Of course because in Sicily we never miss a single occasion to get fatter we do also have the "patisserie version" which is slightly different from the original recipe, obviously softer because it cooks less and it's filled with ricotta cream and has icing sugar and cinnamon on top.

Then we have a third version that I like to call the "baroque" one because is all decorated with a frosting and little chocolates on top, just like in the picture below.

So, if you happen to be in Sicily on the 11th of November (or near that date) try at least one of the three Sammartinellis. And don't forget the Moscato wine.

You won't be disappointed!!!

Sicilian folklore: "U fistinu di Santa Rusulia"

Do you know what "u fistinu" is? Fistinu is the Sicilian word to indicate the Festino of Santa Rosalia, a huge festivity dedicated to the Patron Saint of Palermo: Saint Rosalia. Tradition wants that on the 15th of july 1624 in a cave inside mount Pellegrino, the famous mountain of Palermo were founded the remainings of this virgin saint that had lived as recluse there.



The legend:

In that period Palermo-city was suffering from a terrible plague. The Saint appeared to a man saying that those bones were hers and she suggested that if he would put them on a carriage and go around the city she would cure the people and save them from the plague. So he did and the miracle happened, people actually recovered from the terrible disease and Palermo was safe again.

That's at least the legend we keep remembering. So since then, this great tradition got a foothold and every july the 14th (on the eve of the feast) in the city there is a huge parade.

The carriage (big pic above) with the statue of the Saint starts moving from the Cathedral of Palermo (pic up on the left) to the "Quattro Canti" (pic here on the right) and down to "Porta Felice and the Foro Italico", near the sea (pic below), where everything usually ends with one hour of the most beautiful and colorful fireworks.

A very important moment is when the Mayor gets on the carriage and says the very traditional words: "Viva Palermo e viva Santa Rosalia!" (literally 'Hurrah for Palermo and Saint Rosalia').

It's definetely a mixture of myth, devotion and popular tradition that make this event so particular but it's also important to understand the metaphor behind. We remember those ancient days in which she saved our city from plague, but we hope and pray she can help us cure once again our diseases, setting us free from the evils that afflict our society and our troubled lives. 


While walking in the crowd I met a small group of American tourists looking a bit deafened and dazed about what this was all about. A girl looked at me and said: "We don't understand!"... so I tried to explain a little bit of this story. Hilarious!

If you want to visit western Sicily you are very welcome all year around, but there is no more popular and traditional event than this one to feel and get in touch with the real atmosphere of the capital of Sicily. 


Just remember that you should be prepared to tolerate the tremendous heat and walk for about 4 hours with thousands and thousands of noisy Sicilians chatting and folkloristicly shouting: "VIVA PALERMO E SANTA ROSALIA!" :-)))


Definetely an experience that cannot be missed!!!