Sicilian Pastries from Shop of Maria Grammatico

[John DePaula]

In April of 2004, I had the good fortune to travel to the home of my ancestors in Sicily. One of the first towns that we visited after Palermo was Erice (pronounced EH-ree-chay), which sits atop Mount Erice on the western side of Sicily just above the seaside town of Trapani.

Erice is the home of Maria Grammatico, a justly famous Sicilian baker. Everything we tasted was just so delicious! Different from the kind of sweets that my mother baked when I was a child, but still wonderful.

Just next to her shop was a fabulous display of her work. I am trying to match names to the photos that I took so that I can bake some of these delicacies at home.

Can you identify and/or post recipes for these pastries? Even if you just have a name, it would be helpful in trying to locate a recipe.

Thanks very much.

Figure 1 – Display Case with Beautiful Pyramids of Pastries

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Figure 2 - Désirs (?) (Desirs for the search engine)

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Figure 3 - Sospiri (?)

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Figure 4 - Belli e Brutti (?)

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Figure 5 - (?)

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Figure 6 - Palline al Cioccolato (?)

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Figure 7 - (?)

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Figure 8 - (?)

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[JeanneCake]

do you have her book (written with Mary Taylor Simiti?) Bitter Almonds? It's a great read, and recipes for some of the pictured items appear in the book.

Carol Field's The Italian Baker will also have a lot of these.

How lucky you were to go! What was your favorite pastry item from Maria's shop? Did you get to see any of the marzipan fruit she's famous for (among other thngs!)?

[JeanneCake]

Found my copy of the book....

Figure 7 and 8 are Cuscinetti (almond pillows), which she says uses the same almond dough as the desirs and sospiri - the pastries are just filled with different types of jam.

Figure 5 could be bocconcini but in the book they are not dusted with confectioners' sugar so it might not be that. The description for sospiri has them heavily dusted with the confectioner's sugar after baking, though....and both these pastries are formed and baked the same. The bocconcini are rolled in granulated sugar before baking but not coated/dusted with anything afterwards.

Hope this helps...

[rooftop1000]

do you have her book (written with Mary Taylor Simiti?) Bitter Almonds?  It's a great read, and recipes for some of the pictured items appear in the book.

Carol Field's The Italian Baker will also have a lot of these.

How lucky you were to go!  What was your favorite pastry item from Maria's shop?  Did you get to see any of the marzipan fruit she's famous for (among other thngs!)?

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Sorry cant help with the pastries....but I have been trying to remember Carol Field's the Italian Baker for years and years....must go shopping before I forget the name again

tracey

thank you thank you

[John DePaula]

Found my copy of the book....

Figure 7 and 8 are Cuscinetti (almond pillows), which she says uses the same almond dough as the desirs and sospiri - the pastries are just filled with different types of jam.

Figure 5 could be bocconcini  but in the book they are not dusted with confectioners' sugar so it might not be that.  The description for sospiri has them heavily dusted with the confectioner's sugar after baking, though....and both these pastries are formed and baked the same.  The bocconcini are rolled in granulated sugar before baking but not coated/dusted with anything afterwards.

Hope this helps...

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Hi Jeanne, Thanks!

Yes, I do have the book that you mentioned above, but I wasn't sure about matching up some of the recipes e.g. the Cuscinetti since she says they're filled with Citron Preserves. I guess that could be Figure 8; however, I thought Figure 7 was apricot preserves.

I also wasn't sure about figure 5 for the same reason that you stated.

Thanks for your suggestion of The Italian Baker. Seems like I saw that in a book store a few years ago and I was impressed. Now I can look it up again.

The trip to Sicily was great. Wonderful food wherever we went! My favorite of Maria's pastries? Hmmm... maybe Figure 7 which we now think was Cuscinetti with Apricot preserves! Mmmm...

[John DePaula]

do you have her book (written with Mary Taylor Simiti?) Bitter Almonds?  It's a great read, and recipes for some of the pictured items appear in the book.

Carol Field's The Italian Baker will also have a lot of these.

How lucky you were to go!  What was your favorite pastry item from Maria's shop?  Did you get to see any of the marzipan fruit she's famous for (among other thngs!)?

←

Yes, I did see the marzipan fruit. It's really amazing especially if you've ever tried to do it yourself! I *did* and the results were, uh..., somewhat less than pleasing to the eye.

Here's another display case full of the beautiful marzipan. Sorry, no closeups of that one:

[Wendy DeBord]

do you have her book (written with Mary Taylor Simiti?) Bitter Almonds?  It's a great read, and recipes for some of the pictured items appear in the book.

Carol Field's The Italian Baker will also have a lot of these.

How lucky you were to go!  What was your favorite pastry item from Maria's shop?  Did you get to see any of the marzipan fruit she's famous for (among other thngs!)?

←

Maybe I'm missing something............. what is the title of the book, etc...?

[jackal10]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055381465...580909?n=283155

Bitter Almonds: Recollections and Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood (Paperback)

by Mary Taylor Simeti, Maria Grammatico

ISBN: 0553814656

The book is the tale of Maria Grammatico's upbringing in the convent that derived its income form making these almond delicacies. When the convent disbanded she continued the tradition.

Very delicious they are too. Herve This's Molecular Gastronomy Workshop takes place in Erice, and I was fortunate enough to visit the shop, buy the book and pastries, and meet the author.

Edited December 30, 2005 by jackal10 (log)