Palermo - Conca d'Oro, a golden conch is like the inside of the open sea shells, or the ancient amphitheater. From the north slope of closing them of Monte Pellegrino, the east mountain range of Monte Alfano and the port of La Cala. Epithet "golden" refers to the fertile land of olives and citrus budding.
Palermo is a piston, shocking contrasts, and the accumulation of traces of many cultures: the Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Germanic, French and Spanish. Immigrants live here, including Africa, Turkey, India ... sweet beginnings date back to Roman-era (IX-I century BC), when you put them as offerings to the gods, but provision was made at the beginning of the fourteenth century on the occasion of Easter residence of Pope Clement V, the nuns of Martorana tree with marzipan fruits, and their vivid colors obtained through the use of gum arabic. She gave an appropriate, sticky consistency of plant origin (with a rose, saffron, pistachio).
According to another version of the legend, awaiting the winter visit of the queen, worried that in the monastery garden has fruit trees in ubrały so marzipan.
Over time, created their own special shapes: sheep for Christmas, on St. horses. Anthony, the lambs at Easter. Today, joined vegetables, mushrooms and fish i. .. minni di virgini (virgins breasts) topped with candied cherry, also invented by the nuns. For me the most impressed fichi d'india (fig prickly pear, cacti with sukulent brought to Italy in the sixteenth century in Mexico). Confectioner who created bought my specialty, not only perfectly reproduced the shape, color and texture of the fruit ripening, but also its small spines. I also liked the mandarin partially peeled the skin - the interior is as realistic as the peel and leaf. Martorana fruit with almond flavor with a hint of vanilla is sweet and very expensive - 25-30 euro per kilogram, one fruit - about 1.5.
Marzipan is made from high quality aromatic almond (mandorla dolci) cracked into flour and sugar cooked in water with vanilla, flavors of almond, lemon, cinnamon (1 kg almond flour to 1 kg of sugar). This provision has penetrated from the monastery to the laboratory in Palermo, confectionery, and later to the premises of renowned throughout Sicily. While the mass execution of marzipan does not require special skills, so much for making sweets, what we see in the pastry shop in Palermo sites, the need for high artistic ability. Just leaving the main tourist routes, to see the neglect and chaos, disintegration and makeshift. It is true that a lot of monuments is under renovation, but many houses in the narrow streets (with hanging laundry on the top and retractable baskets over the balcony - "lifts" on the shopping) is in a deplorable state. But it is precisely here, in among the maze of shops and markets, beating pulse of the city. Wandering alleys can not help but look at one of the cafe and did not admire the fruit baskets arranged in the best Sicilian almonds. They look almost like real! These works of confectionary art are frutti di Martorana (fruit of the Martorana), also known as pasta reale (royal cake). With basket in hand sweets we'll go for their name in the church La Martorana, in which the late Middle Ages made it the first time.
Temple - its proper name is the Chiesa Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio (St.. Maria Admiral) - find the square of Bellini, one of the most architecturally diverse areas of the city. It stands opposite the baroque church of st. Catherine and next to an Oriental, a mosque-like church of San Cataldo. He built it in 1143 George of Antioch, Admiral Norman King Roger II of Sicily - that the fruit was named in his honor the king. The name often used to refer Eloisy Martorana, foundress of the Benedictine convent (1194 r.) - since 1433, the church served as a chapel of the nuns.
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