Update: We really didn’t plan this…Shelley from At Home in Rome is talking about Sicilian-Swiss pastries (and frutta martorana) today on her blog, too!
After I stopped salivating over the Setteveli cake at the Pasticceria Cappello, I noticed that they indeed sold other things in the pasticceria other than the setteveli. Many, many, salivation-worthy creations.
Gelo di Melone – Anguria – Cocomero, Gelu di muluni (dialect)….many names to call what is Watermelon Gelatin, served mainly during the summer when the melon is in season.
Lovely pistachio crumbled on top. Pistachio and watermelon together? Da provare! Something to try immediately!
This a fruit tart I’m sure my mother would have enjoyed.
The most impressive display of craftmanship was in the frutta martorana display.
You may think you know marzipan. It’s a great big lump of sticky sweet almond goodness. You’ve probably never seen it like this. Not only beautiful, but edible!
Frutta martorana, the depiction of fruit using marzapane (marzipan) is traditionally Sicilian due to its initial use at the Chiesa di Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio, a monastery near Palermo which used these treats to decorate the bare trees of the convent when an important guest was visiting. These sweets were traditionally eaten on the occasion of Tutti i Santi, All Saints’ Day (November 1) and All Souls’ Day (November 2), though they can be found year-round.
Marzipan in Italy is reputed to have less sugar to almonds than in the States, and I tend to agree. Every time I ate marzipan before moving here, I didn’t enjoy it. Now, though I can’t eat much more than a piece or two, I enjoy the taste, and I especially admire the craftsmanship and time it went into preparing each piece. If you’ve sworn off marzipan, as you think you know it, be sure and try the Italian version if you come to Italy.
Luscious strawberries straight from the field?
This orange couldn’t look more real. I wonder how long it took them to make it. And the walnut look real, too!
Have you eaten frutta martorana before? Marzipan? Love it or leave it?
How we pull off these ESP posts without telling each other, I’ll never know! But for all my making fun of marzipan fruit on my blog today, I have to say that you are hands-down right when you say that “fruit” like what you captured in these photos is craftsmanship! I don’t think I’ve actually ever tried one, but maybe I’ll wait until I actually visit Sicily for the first time.
I love these photos of the Clementine and other fruits.
Beautiful!!!!!
Hehe…”pastry porn”, cute!
Your pictures are simply amazing! Do such delights actually exist?! too pretty…
YUM!! I have had marzipan in Sicily, Milan and Mexico and I loved every single one!! Your pics make me hungry for one. That’s what I will ask Ale to bring me on his next visit :)
Crazy mouthwatering goodness. Love the detail in your photos, btw.
And just when I though you had crossed the food porn line with the post on the sette veli cake. Have some mercy please, I’m drooling looking at those photos of the marzipan fruits. They’re the most artful ones I’ve ever seen- the mandarin is breathtaking!
that “fruit” is so beautiful. so realistic looking.
I had marzipan for the first time in Sicily – after some confused English from the shopkeeper telling me the fruit was “real, not real – sugar”. There was something so bizzare about eating it – I could imagine the taste and texture of the real thing even on top of the marzipan flavor! Beautiful pictures, and thanks for the post.
@Claire – oh shoot, I forgot to write about that. Pasta reale is actually ROYAL almond “paste” which can then be used to make the frutta or other things :) It sounds like “real” though – that’s probably what she was saying! Often they flavor the coatings.
Hah! You just solved a life mystery for me. Thanks!
That orange and those strawberries are simply remarkable! If I’m ever in Sicily I will definitely have to try one out. I don’t have a feeling either way about marzipan here in the States, but I’d imagine less sugar would be better.
Great, great photos as always.
Ciao Sara, mi dispiace interrompere questa scorpacciata di ottimi dolci :)
Se hai tempo e voglia di partecipare, ti ho invitata qui
Ciao!
Where in the world is this place? What gorgeous foods~my mouth is watering!
That orange is fantastic. What artwork! Neat post with great photos. Thanks :)
@Elisa – grazie per l’invito! Vado a leggerlo. :)
@Jann – read my previous post, I have the address at the bottom. :)
wow. the marzipan is AMAZING–i’ve seen it pretty detailed before, but that orange is incredible. yum. i could eat the whole store :)!
If you like the almond confectionery of Sicily and the other interesting pastries you should try and get your hands on a book ‘Bitter Almonds: Recollections and Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood’ by Mary Taylor Simeti. It recounds the life of one Maria Grammatico who went into a convent as a child in the town of Erice (near Trapani) where she learned to make traditional Sicilian pastries (the sale of which was that convent’s primary source of income). Once she left the convent she opened her own pastry shop in Erice which is still going today. Worth a read.
Wow, I really thought that was a real orange. I think M.F.K. Fisher writes about these in her book Two Towns in Provence. I had tried to imagine them when reading, but didn’t really understand until now. I am totally amazed.
My mother’s uncle used to make these when she (and later I) was a child for Christmas gifts. Sad to say, since it wasn’t like Amercian candies, I thought less of it. Oh to be able to go back in time and thank “Uncle Steve” for his thoughtfulness. He was well into his 70’s when he made them for me. He came from England, where his family had a village bakery in Tenterdon. He was a regrigeration specialist, so he must have learned the art of marizipan confectionary in the family bakery as a child.
These looks simply amazing! You are so fortunate; and are wonderful to be sharing these adventures with us.
Loved your photos.
Could you share with us the names of the towns and shops where you discovered these little gems?
@cheryl – I put the address in a previous post – check the top of this article, there’s a link to the post about this Pasticceria.
If you want to see or eat the very best Frutta Martorana, you must go to Messina; where you will also find the best gelato and granita as well as the famous Pigniolata .
GREAT BLOG! please travel more so we can all enjoy your writing!
Greets from the netherlands!
I have strong memories of living in Collesano, PA, as a small child, and regularly visiting Cefalu a few miles away. We would usually stop for my father to have coffee at a small shop on the edge of the main piazza and I can still picture the wall full of marzipan fruit baskets just like these.
Recently, twenty years later, I looked up the cafe on Street View and you can still see some of the marzipan fruit in a case at the front of the shop.