For
Breakfast or Dessert
Granita, Sicilian Passion.
( in italiano )
A
recent well-known advertising emphasizes on a series of
primacies Italy shares with other Countries. A special leadership,
though, unconditionally belongs to Sicily. We are talking
about a delight, a summer coolness that preserves our palate
from the stifling heat of this land. Ladies and gentlemen,
here's the queen of the summers; the one which holds out
against all fashions; in a word … the granita.
As
belonging to the royal family - the regalness of the refined
taste and of the greedy - every city claims its paternity,
its first steps, the original print and the success. Ragusaonline
offers its visitors an Iblean version of the granita, and,
even better, what for Modica is a tradition, and that, along
with other sweet specialties, has made this town famous.
The
granita came out of ancient experiments. One of these concerned
with preserving some snow, then sprinkled with syrup, under
a paillasse. An earliest rough equipment to produce granita
is kept at the renowned "Caffè Orientale" of the Cavaliere
Civello. A tub was turned around inside a small well, arising
ice from between, which was "kept" by means of coarse salt
(2 parts of salt and 1 of ice). After that the "monsù",
a typical figure of the time, used to load the tub on his
back and delivery the granita where mostly ate, that is
to say, at the numerous aristocracies' parties.
"Mezza"
was the term, sometimes still used, to call the granita.
Literally meaning "half", it indicated, according to Giuseppe
Iacono - once apprentice at the "Orientale" and today owner
of a "temple" of the granita, the well-known "Caffè dell'Arte"-
the approximate amount of half a lemon, needed to flavour
the ice of one granita "al limone". Once coined, the term
was extended to all the different flavours of granita.
Nowadays
modern equipments, like the so-called "mendecatrice", work
automatically, yet the wise and magic hand of the "pasticciere"
is always fundamental. How many times do we happen to eat
an over-frosted granita, because over-sugared or scarcely
stirred once put in the counter?
As
to the flavour, a lot of choice is available. Lemon or coffee
are classics at breakfast, unfailingly accompanied by the
celebrated brioche, a bugbear for lovers of fitness and
diet - in this case a lighter "panino" is an excellent surrogate.
White or roasted almond or strawberry meet the most refined
tastes; chocolate for the greedy and mulberry, rigorously
black, for the gourmet - white, though sweetest, does not
sufficiently keep its flavour. Coupling, too, have rigid
rules: ok for chocolate, coffee, mulberry, strawberry with
panna; never, lemon with panna.
An
original alternative has been created by Iacono fifteen
years ago: it's called "anti-rust" and consists of granita
"al limone" sprinkled with some Aperol".
Antonio
Casa
Translated
by Silvio Sammito
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TOUR
FOTOGRAFICO
ARTICOLI
COME
NASCE IL
CACIOCAVALLO RAGUSANO
LA MASSERIA E' BOTTEGA D'ARTE, IL CASARO L'ARTISTA
A
Colazione o per dessert LE
GRANITE - passione siciliana
INTERVISTA
CON PIERO SELVAGGIO, modicano, ambasciatore della
cucina italiana nel mondo.
Antica
Bettola dell'800
in
una grotta, nei pressi del Castello di Modica, Giuseppe
Lucifora ha ricavato un Museo di storia modicana dove si
possono gustare i succulenti piatti della vecchia tradizione
siciliana.
RICETTE
Salate
Dolci
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