Just some rambling thoughts about women and food in Sicily and Southern Italy. The author of Sweet Sicily, when talking about Sfinci di San Giuseppe, compares this wonderful dessert (which I had at the Rosa Nero trattoria in Palermo) with a woman - soft, round and delicious in every way.
Sfinci di san Giuseppe is a sweet fried dough ball filled with cream of ricotta, sugar and chocolate chips. Sometimes it's decorated with orange zest and candied cherries. The origin of the name is uncertain, but the author thinks it might be from the Greek spoggos or Arabic isfang, both words meaning sponge, the texture of this sweet dessert. It's made usually for St. Joseph's tables on March 19 but I found it all over Palermo.
And speaking about feminism and women in the Middle Ages, my all time favorite is Sichelgaita, second wife of Robert Guiscard, a landless knight who had 10 brothers, all of whom came to southern Italy to fight originally as mercenaries for Lombard and Greek overlords. Naturally, when you're the muscle, why fight for someone if you can take it for yourself? Robert Guiscard, immortalized by that peerless author of Sicily and the South, John Julius Norwich, originally married a Norman noblewoman around the Troina area, but later moved on to bigger and better things. Sichelgaita was the sister of the Prince of Salerno, she was almost six feet tall, loved wearing armor and fighting. Legend has it that she turned the tide of the Battle of Durazzo when all the Normans fled from the Byzantine army, she raced to the front, whirling her weapon and screaming at her husband's army to act like men. She plunged into the enemy line hacking away and Robert's army was so embarrassed that they turned and fought like demons. They won that battle, by the way. Anna Comnena, the Byzantine princess who writes about the Normans (among other things) at the time, said that Sichelgaita was "a fearsome sight." I'll bet!
No comments:
Post a Comment