A taste of Genovesi

A couple from Germany came in last night after taking a tour of Sicily's bakeries. They were incredibly generous with their platter of citrus slices dipped in Madagascar chocolate, cannoli, torta Savoia, Buccellati and Torta Volo... it was quite an evening...You would think I had enough. But this afternoon, after one of the waiters at a cafe on Via Roma warned me that the stuffed squid might have some shrimp in it, I decided to extend my inquiry into Sicilian dolce and opted for a cafe macchiato and a pastry. 

Cafe macchiato topped with ribbons of frothy milk

I've never tasted a Genovesi. Traditionally from Eurice, this pastry is filled with ricotta and chocolate or a sweet vanilla cream. The outer layer of pastry tasted like a cookie and a cake - not too sweet, not too dense. One of the pastry chefs described the outer layer as a Sicilian style shortbread. The ricotta was made from sheep's milk. Depending on what is available, the Genovesi can be filled with custard, marmalade, or chocolate cream. 

Made in the shape of the Virgin's breast (St. Agatha's to be exact - another brutal story of torture),  the Genovesi is sometimes decorated with a red cherry to imitate an aroused nipple. Below is a variation of the recipe created  by the Monastery of the Virgins of Palermo as described by writer June di Schino in her essay, "The Waning of Sexually Allusive Monastic Confectionery in Southern Italy." Di Schino's beautiful book, which is hard to find,is called Disappearing Foods.

The traditional Genovesi,  shaped like the breast of the Virgin, is called 'minni di vergine.' 

                        The Genovesi 
 Prepare a greased baking sheet and set your oven at 430 F. degrees.

Ingredients( for the short crust pastry): 

• 2 cups of durum wheat flour
• 2 cups of all purpose white flour flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cold
• 4 egg yolks slightly beaten
• A few tablespoons of cold milk
• 1/4 Teaspoon of baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• Zest of one lemon
• Flour for dusting
• 1 egg, a dash of sugar and 1 egg white lightly beaten for the wash

Making the Dough: 
In a medium size bowl,mix the flours,salt and baking powder. Cut the butter into the bowl and blend. Add the honey, vanilla, and the lemon zest and egg yolks. Blend the dough until it holds together  Transfer the mixture onto a flour dusted work surface and knead for a few minutes. Add some water or milk if the dough is too tough to knead. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in wax paper  and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour. 

The Cream: 
2 lbs of ricotta 
1 cup of cane sugar
zest of one orange
2 pinches of cinnamon
1 drop of vanilla 
1/4 cup of chocolate chips or bitter chocolate shavings
 
Assembly: 
Divide the dough into 4 pieces and then divide each piece into 3 pieces. Shape each into a ball. Roll each piece into a 1/4 inch circle (about 6 inches across). Brush the edges with the egg wash.   

In the center of each circle, place 1 tablespoon of filling. Pull the edges of the dough together to form a crescent and then shape into a breast like form... Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until brown. When cool, sprinkle with confectioners sugar. 

"Il Movimento Disoccupati"

On the morning of the 4th of July, as I crossed Via Maqueda,a procession of over 400 people walked in  protest against the  unemployment in Palermo.   




The bipartisan movement began a few months ago, according to what the police officers told me, with the spontaneous collective request by construction workers "to respect the protocols for the employment of local labor in Palermo." It appears that firms are hiring workers from Monreale, Bagheria and Partinico, but not residents of Palermo. 

A walk through the Orto Botanico (botanical garden)

To cool off, I took a late afternoon walk through the Orto Botanico garden housed on Via Lincoln.  

Spread out not far from the sea in Palermo,it's the oldest botanical garden in this part of Europe (first designed in 1785 - it now belongs to the University of Palermo). 

Literally an open air museum, the gardens are filled with a range of species, many of extraordinary size… like the magnolia trees below… 

This year, the gardens were dry and barren (these photographs were taken from my visit in March a few years ago). Then, I took photographs of the Magnolia trees, all knotted and haunting, exotic buds, flowers, orange and lemon trees, pineapples, small citrus buds hanging from vines, and birds of paradise. In the back yard of one of the orange stucco palazzos,were picnic tables covered with bowls of fresh mozzarella, baskets of hot bread, bottles of wine and an "amor bio" or digestivo  named Barcho.  Barcho is a thick liquor  infused with plants, herbs and fruits including Salvo… I remember having a small glass and tasting almonds and anise… 

The most vibrant images on display this year were sketches of the gardens made by high school students who had just finished up a study of medicinal plants.

  
  

Renato Gutusso (1911-1987), The Vucciria, 1974

A section of Guttuso's "Vucciria" hanging in the Steri Palace

A monk rings a bell (auto da fe- act of faith) to announce those doomed to die

Yesterday afternoon, I walked along the Piazza Marina looking for Renato Guttuso's iconic painting of Palermo's Vucciria Market. It's housed in a quiet room on the third floor of the Palazzo Steri where the Inquisition in Sicily carried out one brutal execution after another in the Phillippine Prisons below. The Inquisition has been described as a reactionary machine that  destroyed the freedom of expression of any independence movement that threatened the Catholic Church's grand design. Any movement that valued the principles of participatory democracy or equal rights among social classes was made a victim to this shadow state. Thousands of victims deteriorated in the prison cells of the Pallazo Steri as they awaited torture and death.Many were women accused of witchcraft. The prisoners etched elaborate human drawings,scribblings and graffiti into the limestone walls, leaving behind traces of the prison's horrors… and in some cases evidence of Stockholm Syndrome - expressions of absolute faith to the church.


And what of Gutusso's "Vucciria"? It seems oddly displaced in this fortressed palace. Gutusso was publicly anti-fascist, a devoted communist, and recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize.He was also seriously anti mafia and dedicated himself to openly  opposing the flagrant abuse of power he witnessed by the Cosa Nostra, Mussolinni and the Italian royalty. I was surprised to learn that Salvo Lima, remembered as Cosa Nostra's Ambassador to Rome, had a valuable preliminary sketch of Gutusso's Vucciria hanging on the wall of his villa near the beach in Mondello… Lima chose to hang this sketch near a photograph of himself with Bobby, Jack and Ted Kennedy.

Graffiti on the wall of the Steri prison

Apparently the mafia has expanded its markets. In 2009, a multi-million dollar archive of art was forfeited to the Italian government after a leading mafia financier, Beniamino Zappia was arrested for extradition for financial crimes and gangsterism. Among the confiscated art were paintings by Guttuso (and Salvador Dali, Boldini and Giorgio de Chirico). This seize is just one example of contemporary trends in crime syndicates. The mafia now extends its cutting edge knowledge of modern currency laundering to global art markets (perhaps with the hope of refining it's stereo-typic bad taste).

  

Celebrating Santa Rosalia and Human Rights

Preparations started well before I arrived in Palermo on the first of July - nightly fireworks, wiring her float for music, street cleaning. By the 13th of July, the city was hot with passion in preparation for the feast of Santa Rosalia... 

But, the celebration took a different turn this year. Projected onto the facade of the cathedral of Palermo were images of two men and two women symbolizing gay pride. 

I took a long stroll along via Victor Emanuelle toward the Cathedral of Palermo to take part in the festivities.  

Amy Boylan wrote to me from New Hampshire to ask about public reaction, but I missed the images in the midst of the dense crowds. The next morning, the papers registered a response from the Counselor for Culture, Francesco Giambrone to Don Fabrizio Moscato, secretary of Palermo Archbishop Paolo Romeo who wrote on a facebook page, "Shame! We are touching the bottom. The homosexual ideology projected on the noble southern portico of the Cathedral of Palermo for the Pastron Saint Rosalie! ... who can tell me this is not a dirty provocation?" 

"There was no provocation intended." wrote Giambrone. "The video was about love and human rights. The images were about love,not sex."     

   
Also registered in the papers were complaints that "Santuzza" a famous South Korean rap smash "Gangnam Style" and other American music was playing as 
Mayor Leoluca Orlando chanted "Viva Palermo and Santa Rosalia!"   

Macerie: An Art Exhibit in Ruins

Macerie, meaning rubble or ruins, is the name of an exhibit set in Palermo's Palazzo Constantino Di Napoli. The exhibit celebrates the Feast of Santa Rosalia, Palermo's beloved patron saint. Financed and curated by Roberto Bilotti Ruggi D'Aragona, Macerie  brings together a range of contemporary artists from the city who transformed the neoclassical spaces of decay and neglect into a strange space of beauty. 

It's dangerous to walk around. The place is in shambles - covered in dust, in crisis, subject to vandalism & left with no support from the state for renovation.

As people enter through the arched wooden door into the foyer of the palazzo, Roberto D'Aragona (who introduced himself to me as a prince) greets people with a sense of genuine warmth and extends an invitation to a private party that evening. I watched D'Aragona circulate with his wife among the installations built around themes of shadows, 
 

 childhood,

 and denial...

Later, at a cafe down the street,I overheard a couple talking about Andrea Mineo. Mineo created the concept for the exhibit. Born in Turin, having worked in Palermo for years, Mineo asked the artists joining the project to create art that provokes Palermo to address the state's  neglect of it's rich, Southern historical treasures.   

torta di fico...

I picked up too many figs the other day -  I couldn't resist... ripe, fleshy and with such a short season, it seemed wasteful not to.  

And so, I made a fig cake - inspired by Bill Granger  

rustic fig and hazelnut cake 
3/4 cup sifted flour
1 stick (1/2 cup)unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts 
1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts
6 fresh figs, halved
2 Tablespoons of honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line a 9 " cake tin.  

1) Cream the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric hand-held mixer until pale and fluffy (3-5 minutes).
2) Sift together the flour and baking powder. Use a large metal spoon to fold the flour and eggs alternately into the creamed mixture. Fold in the ground hazelnuts and then the chopped hazelnuts.
3)Spoon the mixture into the tin. Arrange the figs, cut side up, in a neat layer on top of the cake. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer poked in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
4) Leave to rest in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out. Drizzle honey over the top of the cake just before serving with a side of fresh whipped cream.   



Photo: Paola Bacchia,Italyonmymind (http://italyonmymind.com.au/2013/04/23/rustic-fig-and-hazelnut-cake)