Dolci, pignolata, Carnival cakes, honey, white meringue, chocolate

Not that I'm thinking about birthday cakes or anything like that, but I just happened to be reading about pignolata last night, which Bill and I ate in Palermo.  The word "pigna" is Italian for cone and they are cone-shaped little cakes made from leftover doughs of the Carnival cakes.  Then they're fried and drizzled in honey- YUMMMMMMM - and nowadays they put chocolate on top or white meringue.


Another dessert we had occasionally at the Rosa Nero in Palermo, our favorite trattoria in the Kalsa, was arancine al cioccolato.  Arancine are usually rice and/or meat filled fried balls, delicious finger food and very satisfying to walk around and eat.  The Rosa Nero made arancine with part of the inside rice ball removed and stuffed with vanilla and chocolate bits.  Then fried.  I thought I died and went to heaven!

Sicily, Sortino, honey, Corleone

So okay, I'm obsessed with my trip next year to Sicily.  I want to go to Sortino, where there are famous beekeepers and try all the different kinds of honey - Check out www.honeytravelers.com and boy will you find some great places for honey.  I'm blown away that beekeepers move their bees thousands of miles in big flatbed trucks to take advantage of the different herbs and flowers blossoming at various times in Italy and Sicily.  The bees don't seem to get motion sickness either.  I'm looking forward to traveling in Sicily (no, not on a flatbed truck either - nor with bees) and this time I plan on seeing the medieval salt museum and the salt pans of Trapani, an olive oil farm, and maybe even some of the islands like Lampedusa or Egadi Islands.  Check out the site - www.bestofsicily.com for all kinds of fabulous info about my favorite island.  Buon viaggio!

Vegetables in the Middle Ages - and corned beef and pastrami

So I open up my email and there's this terrific article from Medievalists.net so feel free tocheck out cooking in the Middle AGes. Not that I'm obsessed with food or anything since I've come back from Chicago, having stuffed my face with steak, pastrami, corned beef, gyros - Greektown for the latter, Manny's and 11th Street Dinner for corned beef and pastrami and I HIGHLY recommend Benny's Chop House for steak with impeccable service and probably the best Caesar salad I've ever had in my life - that's why vegetables are somewhat on my mind (along with other Good Eats). Vegetables in the Middle Ages Image Vegetables: A Biography, by Evelyne Bloch-Dano, offer the stories of eleven different vegetables - artichokes, beans, chard, cabbage, cardoons, carrots, chili peppers, Jerusalem artichokes, peas, pumpkins, and tomatoes - offering tidbits from science and agriculture to history, culture, and, of course, cooking. Here are a few excerpts from the book that detail their history during the Middle Ages. Read More

Chicago, Caffe Baci, Italian food and Sicily, gelato, biscotti, cous cous

So while this may not have much to do with our 13th century, I couldn't help but think about Ysabella and tavern food as my girlfriend Alison and I were sitting at Caffe Baci, drinking mineral water from Sardinia and eating cous cous, gelato and biscotti. I think we hit some major food groups there. Spuntini is still a word in modern Italian which means snacks; in Ysabella's tavern it would usually be fried foods, bits of fried veggies and meat. And yes, they grew lots of salad stuff (but who writes about that?). Anyway, I'M GOING TO SICILY NEXT YEAR!!!! Yahoo! And in that trip, I am taking a page (literally ripped it out, yes) out of La Cucina before it folded which told about a famous gelato place in Sicily and baby, I'm going! I'm also going to a world reknown honey emporium which I'll report on when I'm there. These are in the Syracusa area, where my wonderful friends, Bruno and Lucia, will no doubt help to taste test these delicious treats.

While we're on the subject of food - medieval Corleone and Sicily

If you're wondering about medieval food in Sicily - I ran across this wonderful article that talks about the Arab history in Sicilian cuisine - lemons, oranges, sugar cane, sherbet and sorbets and a few other fascinating things - check out this link - as you know, Corleone is the setting in Book #3 of The Vespers Trilogy that Ysabella & Co. flee to after the cataclysm of Aragon and Angevin in Palermo.


Check out this link - https://www.academia.edu/2292026/Food_in_medieval_Sicily