UNIFICATION DAY LUNCH

When I went to university to study French and Italian in 1968 I had an Italian lecturer who always used to remind us that Italy had only been a unified country for just over 100 years.  Little did I think that, almost a half century later, I would be sitting in a Sicilian garden celebrating the 150th anniversary of that unification!  

On our morning stroll, Simi and I had seen that all along our street people were sitting outside the bars enjoying the sunshine and the holiday atmosphere.  The town's pastry chefs had come into their own and Bar Cicara was displaying these lovely swans and other pastries with a patriotic theme:

I decided to take one of these special desserts along to Linda's but first let me show you the other lovely fare:

There were delicious antipasti

followed by homemade ravioli with a tricolore theme:

They are filled with aita [a kind of chard] and ricotta:

Then there was spezzatino of sausage, chicken and potatoes:

Of course, it would not be a Modican party without trays of dolcini:

And now here is the dessert of choux pastry buns covered with tricoloured  crema pasticcera that I found at the Pasticceria Delizie d'Autore which has recently opened in our street:

A worthy ending to a celebration meal, don't you think?