Grandma's snack - Visit Sicily

Grandma’s snack

Dettaglio

To discover the most genuine, exciting, unconventional Sicily, you should follow an Italian grandmother into the kitchen. There is her magic kingdom, where you will find that the simplest snacks are the most surprising. So you can prepare new recipes and leave everyone speechless.

If Italian grandmothers ruled the globe, world hunger would not exist. They are always ready to whip up a beaten egg, to fry and bake steaming pans with their bare hands.

Nowadays we are always in a hurry, and there is little time for cooking. In the past, the day was shorter and ended when the sun went down, but there was always time to spoil the children. Once upon a time, there was Grandma’s snack, which was delicious and healthy. Thinking about it still makes you sigh with nostalgia. Grandma’s snack brings everyone together.

We propose a sweet and savoury version of the typical Sicilian snack.

THE BIANCOMANGIARE

It is a delicious snack for the eyes and the palate. It came out of the blue, no one knows how or where. Sicilian biancomangiare is the childhood snack par excellence.

All you need is milk, sugar and flour. It is a dessert, with a soft and delicate taste, flavoured as you like: lemon peel, vanilla or cinnamon. The real transgressive touches are hazelnuts or pistachios crumbled on the surface.

The biancomangiare withstands the passage of time and fashions. It is still made in various versions, some faithful to tradition, others revised in a fit and gluten-free key. Cow’s milk can be replaced by vegetable milk (soy, almond, rice). It’s possible to use rice flour instead of wheat flour.

FRICATO BREAD WITH TOMATO

In summer, during the afternoons at grandma’s house, it was traditional to eat a nice slice of bread with tomato. The tomato was rubbed on the bread (u pani fricatu cu pummadoru) and seasoned with a pinch of salt, a drizzle of oil and a little oregano. It was a time when having a wood-burning oven in the house was essential, the bread was made about once a week.

If there were children in the family, a small loaf would be made for each of them, called ‘minnittu‘, because of its round shape, which recalls a woman’s breast shape.

This snack is the essence of human labour, concealing a primitive, visceral pleasure. All you need to create a recipe for happiness is some homemade bread, freshly picked tomatoes from the garden, oregano picked in the mountains and new oil with a sharp taste.

Remembering grandma’s snack indeed makes the heart beat faster.