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« La cassata siciliana » : origins
" Sicilian Cassata " as its name indicates is a cake of Sicilian origin. It name comes from the
Arabic, meaning "ball" or from the Latin meaning "cheese".
There are numerous varieties. Some include additional ingredients like pistachio nuts, pine
nuts and cinnamon.
- The "palermitana" (city of Palermo) (the most widespread)
- The "messinese" (city of Messina)
- The "catanese" (city of Catania)
- The "nissena" (city of Caltanissetta)
The origins of the "cassata" date back to the IXth and XIth centuries during the Arabic
domination in Sicily. Indeed, the Arabs had introduced the tillage of sugar cane, lemon, citrus
fruit, orange, mandarin and almonds.
About the recipe’s last ingredient (the ricotta), it is a soft white ewe cheese that was
produced in Sicily since the prehistoric times.
Here are the ingredients of the recipe which, originally, was a crust pastry sugar cake stuffed
with ricotta.
During the Normans domination, in the Martorana Convent in Palermo, the nuns prepared
at Easter the "pasta reale": a dough of almonds flour and sugar, coloured by herbs which
replaced the original sugar crust pastry.
The candied fruit-based decoration was introduced in 1873, on the occasion of a
demonstration in Vienna.
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