Dessert PAT

Cassatella di Agira

Half-moon shortcrust pastry filled with cocoa, almonds and chickpea flour

also known as cassatelle di Agira, cassatedda

A golden half-moon of shortcrust dusted with icing sugar, hiding cocoa, chopped almonds and chickpea flour: the sweet of Agira, in the Erei mountains, a recognised traditional product with its own municipal denomination.

The shape is a half-moon of soft, golden shortcrust covered in icing sugar. Inside is the «conza»: cocoa, chopped almonds, chickpea flour, sugar, dried lemon zest and, depending on the family recipe, a little cinnamon. The classic size is 10 by 6 centimetres and the test is in the bite: the pastry must stay soft, and under the cocoa you must taste the almond.

It comes from Agira, the birthplace of Diodorus Siculus, in the Erei mountains, and from there it spread across the whole province of Enna and much of eastern Sicily, as far as the restaurants of Catania. The town protected it with a municipal denomination and the Ministry listed it among the traditional agri-food products. The making is long, with steps handed down within families, which is exactly why imitations are many.

You find it all year round in the bars and pastry shops of the Enna area, and Agira holds a festival in its honour. Some pastry chefs make a pistachio version, but the real one is cocoa and almond.

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