For those of you who know me well, you know I will order cheese over dessert any day of the week. In Sicily, I might have to order both!
Sicilians do not take their pastries lightly. I mean this literally and figuratively. It's a good thing I do not have a serious sweet tooth or I might be leaving this island with a few more kilos than I came here with!
Cannoli Siciliani
A fried pastry dough, filled with fresh sheep's milk ricotta cheese and speckled with chocolate chips, dusted with powdered sugar. The cannolis in Sicily are rich! Because the cheese is so fresh, you can actually taste a bit of the "barn" (in a good way). This photo is of me enjoying my cannoli while taking a rest while biking on Favignana island (Egadi Islands). I thought it was a good reward!
Genovesi
These pastries are a speciality of the hill town of Erice. The outer "shell" is made of flour, sugar, butter, eggs, cream and a hint of lemon. Hello ... delicious!
The center is filled with a rich vanilla custard.
Dusted with powdered sugar and served warm, Genovesi are a unique Sicilian treat!
Marsala strawberries
They are mini strawberries but packed with intensely sweet strawberry flavor. One of my favorite desserts I have had in Sicily was strawberries with sugar and drizzled with Limoncello.
The gelato here is consistently some of the best I have had in all of Italy.
Sfoglie
It is literally puff pastry. Many layers of dough are folded together to form these airy delights. They are twisted and made into beautiful shapes, sometimes filled with jam and dusted with powdered sugar.
Vino alla Mandorla (Almond wine)
This is a very sweet, dessert wine from the east side of Sicily in a town called Castlemola. It is served chilled, with a Sicilian lemon twist floating and is delicious when used for dipping almond biscotti!! Eating the lemon rind at the end is a citrusy and refreshing way to end the experience!
Granite
It is the Italian version of a slushy. Made from pure, seasonal fruits and nuts, these cold desserts are very refreshing on a hot day! The ice is pureed with the flavor of choice and made into a velvety iced texture. Most popular flavors are lemon, strawberry, coffee and almond.
Paste di Mandorla
These almond cookies are to die for! They are essentially a marzipan cookie. They have a fudgy texture and are intensely sweet and almond flavored. The dough (paste) is made from almonds, sugar and glucose. No wonder why they are so sweet!
This one is also filled with a lemon gel. YUM!
Typical pastry shop in Sicily. The entire bottom 2 shelves are marzipan. The top shelf is entirely Torrone (nougat, mixed with almonds)
More marzipan fruit!
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