The historical chocolate of Modica

Chocolate of Modica

Chocolate has always been considered an extraordinary food, almost as if it was food of gods. But the beloved today's chocolate is very different from the original product that was consumed in pre-columbian central America. The Aztecs called it Xocoatl (spelled "choco-wotel"), and they loved to drink it after toasting, mincing and beating it, obtaining a sort of energetic and foamy "caffè Americano" of that time: bitter, not so tasty and perfect to get you though a stressful aztec's working day.

The codex Nuttall represents two aztecs noblemen drinking xocoatl

North of Aztecs, in what nowadays is Mexico, Xocoatl was consumed differently, in a much more tasty way: cocoa beans were minced above a traditional working stone until the greasy part came out, the cocoa butter, creating a sort of grainy and soft paste. Once that the spanish Conquistadores arrived, that beans was brought to the homeland. Still nowadays, in some places in Spain still nowadays something called "chocolate a la piedra" (in english, "chocolate onto stones") is produced, at the same old way it was produced in Mexico and Guatemala.

The exterior typical looking of chocolate of Modica

Spain at that time owned Sicily too, one of the most fertile islands of Mediterranean sea. During the 1500 chocolate beans arrived in Sicily too, in a land of breathtaking beauty, the Modica county in Val di Noto. At that time, Modica boasted the most developed agricolture of the island. During the XVI century, cocoa was just a fashonable product for popes and empereors.
But we all know sicilians aren't people that accept a product without adding their own genial  and inimitable touch. And this is when the chocolate of Modica was invented. Originally it was a special sweet that noblemen used to eat during their celebrations and parties, then it became more and more famous, until nowadays is recognized by gourmands worldwide as one of Sicily's most fascinating gastro-historical products, even if it still awaits a proper recognition in the mass culture.

How do they produce this very original kind of chocolate?  Once that cocoa beans are toasted and minced you'll obtain a sort of a "dough" rich in cocoa butter, you'll warm it up a little bit, but never above 40° C. Next step, add in that dough the sugar crystals, usually cane or granulated sugar. It is important to keep the temperature low during the whole process in order to keep incact the sugar crystals: in the chocolate of Modica, crystals must be seen and must be tasted. Because of its grainy texture and its aromatic and "raw" taste, this chocolate is perfect with strong tastes, unlikely to be added to other kinds of chocolate, like pepper, cinnamon, ginger and of course vanilla, but also lemon and orange zest: we're in Sicily at the end! These kinds of chocolate have little in commons with the other "chocolates with taste of...".

Intact sugar crystals inside of the chocolate

The quantity of cocoa is generally pretty high, usually 65% or above, until 90% or so. The chocolate historically was minced above lava stones, lightly warmed up. Cocoa beans were pressed with heavy roll pins known as "pistuni" in sicilian dialect. Here we can find the main differences between this chocolate of Modica with the modern one, invented in 1880 by Rudolphe Lindt (we'll talk about this history in another occasion). In Lindt's process, melted chocolate is mixed very well, letting it become homogeneous and creamy (this process is known as concage), while in Modica's chocolate we have no mixing at all, and this keeps all the bitter and elegant flavour of the tannines intact, giving to the chocolate of Modica a sort of rustic refinement.

The duomo of San Giorgio, the cathedral of Modica

From year 2000 on, we've witnessed a strong both touristical and gastronomical rediscovering of the Val di Noto in Sicily, partly due to the assignement of Unesco World Heritage site title to the Noto Valley because of its extraordinary heritage of baroque achitectural jewels in the valley, making it undoubtedly one of the World's art capitals of Settecento, or the 1700s. In 2003 was created a consortium to protect the original and traditional product, and some 20 producers were listed. A quality guarantee IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta) was then established. Since 2009, along with the international organization FCO (Fine Chocolate Organization) a chocolate festival called Chocobarocco was organized.

How high will reach the chocolate of Modica in this rise, is yet to see. But wherever will go, we'll be there! We advice you to see this gogeous part of Sicily, both for gastronomical and artistical merits!

yong or old, everyone loves chocolate of Modica!

Very heartful sicilian greetings!

Tom

A brief history of Gelato

Summer's coming, and nothing seems more appropriate to us than share with you a good Gelato! Refreshing, tasty, creamy, gelato has it all! Ice creams are probably World's favourite sweet, but what's behind it? What's your history, gelato? We all know it's a typical italian gastonomical product, but how was it invented? During ancient times, we know that fruits, honeys and milk was conserved in cold rooms filled with ice and snow, called icebox. Then, during the Arab domination of southern Italy, Sicily and Spain, the sugar cane arrived to Europe, and they started to sweeten a little bit the simple sorbet they used to eat.

There are various legends and history about who invented the modern ice cream first. Very popular is the story about Ruggeri da Firenze, who was very famous in Renaissance era Florence for a iced and creamy sweet dish made with milk cream, italian eggnog (zabajone) and fruits. Its dish was so popular at the time that even Catherine of Medicis wanted it at her royal wedding with Henry of Orleans. The Tuscan-born queen of France brought then others things along with ice cream, like bechamel sauce, foie gras or also the fashonable macarons (or their grandma), creating in this way the french cuisine. Today's ice cream seemed to be a little bit later. We're in Sicily now, in year 1686, when the chef Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli finally managed to perfection the until then still not-so-working creation of his grandpa Francesco, a machine to produce Gelato!

Voltaire and Diderot eating a Procopio's gelato

Francesco Procopio innovated using sugar (of arab sicilian ascent) instead of honey and using the salt to mix it with the ice, in order to make it last longer. This revolutionary machine had such a blasting success in his Sicily, and overall in his city, Catania, that Francesco Procopio decided to export it in Europe, internationalizing his creation. He decided to take the same route that Catherine of Medicis walked some centuries before him, and opened in Paris his gelateria, the Cafè Procope. Parisians went absolutely nuts about the sicilian man, and it became a mythological cafè in the city of St. Genevieve, where everyone from Voltaire to Victor Hugo, from Diderot to D'Alembert stopped by, and we imagine them with a cup of gelato discussing about the Encyclopedie. Even a young military used to stop by, he was from Corsica, and he was called Napoleon Bonaparte.

Vintage ice cream machine

We've seen that it seems to be an urban legend the fact that the gelato would be a neapolitan creation, even if their gelato is really really amazing.
At the end of the XIX century, the first economical gelateria shops started to appears. Ice cream started to become less and less expensive, and one of the oldest modern days working gelateria in Europe is the Pepino, in Turin, that started its production in 1884, that eventually became the official ice cream provider of the italian Royal House of Savoy. With the creation of cheap freezing systems, the gelato became a mass product, but we'll have the chance to discover the history of the Cornetto, of the Magnum and of the others mythical industrial ice creams in another occasion, since is a really interesting history too!

Greetings,

Tom

Mascarpone and Marsala spaghetti (freely inspired by Nigella Lawson)

Today we'll bring you a delicious pasta recipe!

To start April at best, we will show you our own take on a recipe by the great chef Nigella Lawson we found in her last book, "Nigellissima", about italian-inspired recipes.
We changed a little bit here, a little bit there, and here you are our own version, shared with you!

We informally call it "pasta mmm!", and that's not just because it it just sooo yummy, but also because of the three Ms that are the main ingredients for this recipe: Marsala sweet wine, Mascarpone cheese and Mushrooms.

Even Nigella Lawson loves our version of her recipe!

Marsala is a delicious sweet wine from Sicily, often used in southern italian cuisine, that really deserves to be rediscovered. Mascarpone is the creamy cheese from Lombardy northern region, quite famous because it is a key ingredient for Tiramisù...and mushrooms...well...we all know them because of Super Mario he he!

You can use many types of pasta, for example today we've used the classical spaghetti, a sure win, and specifically we choose our favourites: the spaghetti from Garofalo, created in Gragnano, near Naples.

Ingredients: (for two people)                                                    

• 4 or 5 fresh button mushrooms                           
• 60 ml. of Marsala wine
• 60 ml. of water
• 125 g. of mascarpone cheese
• Salt for the water
• 250 g. of pasta*
• 1 clove of garlic
• Parmigiano cheese ( or Grana Padano)
• nutmeg
• Black pepper
• Parsley
• half spoon of olive oil

* This recipe originally was specifically made for fettuccine pasta in Nigella Lawson's book, but you can also do it with bucatini or spaghetti, and it will just taste as good, but be careful, because in italian cuisine "different shapes creates different tastes" and not every kind of pasta deals well with every kind of sauce!

Preparation:

1º- Wash and cut your mushrooms, in my case I laminated them. Put them on heat in a pot with water and Marsala wine. Let it reach boiling temperature and then turn off the heat and keep it aside, without removing the mushrooms from the Marsala, in order to get more flavour.

2º- Put the water on heat to prepare your pasta. Do not add the salt until the water is boiling, otherwise the water will take longer to boil.

3º- Put your mascarpone cheese in a bowl, along with black pepper and nutmeg, according to your taste. It will taste better if the spices are zested at the moment. Add the mushrooms and the mix composed by water and Marsala, and stir it well.
 
4º- Pour a drizzle of olive oil in your pan, add the minced garlic and let it cook until it golden brown, but be careful not to burn it. Add then your sauce of mascarpone and Marsala, and let it all boil (it will not not take longer than some two or three minutes). Add parsley according your taste.

 
5º- When your pasta will be al dente, take out of the pot your spaghetti and put them in the pan with the sauce you've prepared. If you want you sauce to be more liquid or less dense, you can add a glass of the cooking water from the pot where spaghetti has been cooked. In this way it will just taste better!

6º- Serve it all dividing the spaghetti (or the fettuccine) in two dishes, adding a lot of parmigiano cheese above your pasta and, if you want, another little bit of minced parsley and...eat it all!

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If you can't find mascarpone cheese, you can eventually change it for Philadelphia creamy cheese, and you could change the Marsala, not yet so well distributed, with Oporto or Jerez sweet wine. But in this case, it will not quite taste the same!

Buon appetito!

 Greetings and have a wonderful April!

AnGie