CHOCOSHOCK

It seems I wasn't the only person in Modica to be a little perplexed a few days ago to see "Cioccolato di Modica" advertised in the Lidl leaflet at €1,49 per bar [the usual price being around €2,00]. Some citizens have gone into what I will call "chocoshock" at this underselling of a traditional product of which the city is justly proud and which certainly interests tourists.

It must be said that the chocolate maker who landed the contract had a perfect right to do so, if these bars are being made by traditional Modican chocolate methods, but other chocolate makers and some politicians here feel that it is high time Modican chocolate received Igp [ EU Protected Geographical Indication] status.  A dossier applying for this has been in preparation for some time and is said to be "almost" ready [which, given Italian flexibility, could mean tomorrow or five years from now]. Then there will be an interminable wait for a decision.

This is one case in which that plentiful Sicilian quality, pazienza, is likely to melt away.

Chocolate being made to traditional recipes at Bonajuto, Modica

TRIUMPH AT EXPO

Chocolate to taste and buy at Bonajuto, Modica

Congratulations to my adopted city and its chocolate, which, it has been announced, has outsold chocolate from its two other great Italian homes - Perugia and Turin - at Expo 2015 [closing at the end of this month].

At the Cocoa and Chocolate Cluster, the 22 exhibitors from Modica sold chocolate products worth €217,546,  amounting to 46% of chocolate sales there.  Chocolate from Perugia accounted for 29.10% of sales and chocolate from Turin 24.64%. 

Chocolate being made by the traditional method at Bonajuto, Modica

Mayor of Modica Ignazio Abbate said that these figures prove that the human and financial resources the city has put into Expo were a good investment for both its image and its most famous product. The city's own chocolate festival, ChocoModica 2015 [5th - 8th December 2015] will, he said, benefit from the success of Modican chocolate at Expo.

BOAT OF HOPE

After writing about so many tragedies and so much sorrow regarding migrants in the Mediterranean, it is nice to be able to bring you a positive story on this theme: When I read about the Barca di Cioccolato ["Chocolate Boat"] project, I contacted Pierpaolo Ruta of the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, Modica, who in turn, put me in touch with the project's creator, the artist Jonida Xherri.

Jonida is from Albania and is currently living in Modica and Florence. Jonida, too, had dreamed of coming to Italy so felt that she could identify with the migrants and, having received a Modican welcome herself as an immigrant seven years ago, she wanted migrants at the Pozzallo Reception Centre to have a similar experience. Thus, in January this year she launched the first Barca di Cioccolato project and, at the end of August, the second. 

Jonida wanted to demonstrate not only the economic links that we have with Africa, but also the important cultural ones and the ways in which our traditions are connected. The project was carried out in three phases:

1.  The historical phase: It was the Spanish colonisers who brought the Aztec method of making chocolate to Sicily but the cocoa bean of course had to come from Africa.  At first, it arrived by sea, just as migrants in search of a better life do today, even risking that life to do so.  For this reason, it was decided to make the second "chocolate boat" out of 'mpanatigghi [the word has variant spellings] the traditional Modican pastries containing chocolate and minced beef which, in times gone by, were carried on long journeys, because they would keep. In all, 600 'mpanatigghi were made by the migrants with the help of the staff at Bonajuto. The public were able to see the finished boat from 29th August - 1st September and when it was dismantled the 'mpanatigghi were distributed to the migrants in the reception centre.

2.  Ceramic tiles:  The migrants painted their own designs or wishes on to the tiles, often using African colours or chocolate themes.  Then the tiles were fired and displayed in the reception centre.

3.  Video: the viewing of a video about the first Barca di Cioccolato project, with the aim of showing people that even the poorest countries have a rich cultural heritage and can contribute to the world economically.

After making the boat, the migrants were offered lunch at the Osteria dei Sapori Perduti and ice cream at the Caffè Adamo, both in Modica. They visited the Salvatore Quasimodo exhibition at Modica's Palazzo della Cultura and the town's Garibaldi Theatre.

Jonida writes.

"The young migrants want to use art to express their dreams.  These dreams have led them to undertake a very difficult journey and to risk their lives.  They want to say that they are here and that they need the help of the whole of Europe to have a normal working life."

Slideshow - Barca di Cioccolato 2

Barca di Cioccolato - Video Maker

Jonida did not receive any public funding for the project and wishes to thank the following private sponsors:

Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, Franco Ruta e Pierpaolo Ruta

Osteria Dei Sapori Perduti

Caffè Adamo

Alessandro Di Rosa

Girolamo Pavingross Srl Carpentieri

Paper Copy Design

Giovanni Modica Scala (fotografo)

Thank you, Jonida, for the information and photos.
All photos are the work of Giovanni Modica Scala.
Giovanni Modica Scala on flickr

A SWEET COMPLIMENT

"These are sweet, like you", said the student who brought me these scrumptious cannoli today. One is filled with Modican chocolate and the other with ricotta:

What a sweet thought!

A DELIGHT

I had to take yesterday's post down as the video had been taken off Youtube. I'm sorry I lost some of your comments in the process. However, the video has now become available, with an embedding code, on La Repubblica so let's try again.

As I said yesterday, I have no intention of skateboarding around Modica myself but this delightful clip does remind me why I came here in the first place. Thanks again to my friends at the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto for bringing the video to my attention.

Here's the link to the video on La Repubblica, too - just in case!

Muòrica

CHOCOLATE GODDESS

And I'm not talking about Britain's goddess of cuisine, Nigella! No, tonight's post is about another of my favourite ladies, the Greek goddess Demeter, and that most divine of foods, chocolate.  

Those clever people at Modica's Antica Dolceria Bonajuto have put the two together and produced a chocolate medallion featuring the head of Demeter. They got the idea two years ago when they worked on a project for the Museo Biscari with Sicilian goldsmith Massimo Izzo and Catania-born designer Marella Ferrera. Back then, they produced a gold chocolate impression of the goddess but now they have decided to produce a whole line of chocolate deities, each made with the same type of mould that Massimo Izzo uses to make his "real" jewels and presented in its own jewelbox. The line, appropriately, is called cioccolato-gioiello.

For those of you who do not know of Demeter and Persephone's connection with Sicily, here is an edited version of a post I wrote about this in 2007:

Persephone [Core / Kora], daughter of Zeus and Demeter [Ceres], was abducted by Hades [Aidoneus / Pluto] whilst gathering flowers at Enna*. Demeter's grief for her daughter knew no bounds and she wandered the earth trying to find her, neglecting her duties as goddess of corn and so causing a worldwide famine. Zeus, forced to intervene, persuaded Hades to allow Persephone to return from the underworld, but she was tricked into eating some pomegranate seeds, the "food of the dead". [According to Robert Graves in The Greek Myths, there was an ancient taboo on red-coloured food.] This precluded Persephone's return to earth. Sources vary in their accounts of how many seeds she ate - Homer says one, Graves seven, Tennyson assumes three, other sources six - but it was agreed that Persephone would spend a month with Hades for each one. Let us believe, for the sake of the story, that it was three or four. Thus Persephone spends the winter months with her husband, returning to earth and Demeter for the spring. She brings much-needed rain for the crops with her as the lucky girl had received Sicily as a wedding present. Therefore it is only fitting that she should take special care of it.

* The Sicilians, and I, believe it was at Enna. It could have been almost anywhere in the Greek world.

LASAGNE WITH CHICKEN & MODICAN CHOCOLATE

I've mentioned this pretty pasta, made by CioMod, before. The sheets are made from the hard wheat flour of Puglia and the colours are worked by our Modican chocolate maker using cocoa, spinach, beetroot, paprika and turmeric.  I've used them for lasagne before but this time I decided to add some chocolate to the sauce.  After all, there was cocoa in the pasta sheets so surely a little chocolate would compliment it?

You may be thinking that chocolate does not really do that much for savoury sauces and a few years ago I would have agreed with you but if there's one thing I have learned from my friend Katia Amore, it is that if you are going to add chocolate, you have to use the real McCoy - pure chocolate with no other ingredient than cocoa, as made by the Bonajuto chocolate makers of Modica.

Inspired by Katia's chicken with prosecco and chocolate recipe, I also wanted to use chicken so I looked up chicken lasagne recipes by several Italian chefs and they all used leek in the sauce rather than onion.  Well, it is St David's Day on Thursday so I was happy to incorporate this symbol of Wales into my creation!

Here's what I did:

The day before you want to make the dish, marinate 500 gr minced chicken meat - in Italy you may have to get polpa and mince it yourself in a food processor - in white wine to cover.  Grate just one square of pure chocolate over it and leave overnight.

The next day, chop the white part of a leek finely and soften it in 3 tablesp olive oil in a wide pan.  Add the drained chicken mixture and cook it on all sides, breaking it up as much as you can as you stir it.  Then add 250 gr sliced mushrooms, a little chopped parsley, a sprinking of fresh thyme and some dried oregano. Stir everything well and add the contents of a 680 gr bottle of passata.  Season well and cook over low heat for about 40 mins. Meanwhile, soften the lasagne sheets in hot tap water in a large bowl.  Gently heat 400 gr ready-made béchamel sauce in a small saucepan and smear a little over the base of a lasagne dish.  Now add layers of pasta, chicken sauce and grated parmesan, grana or ragusano stagionato cheese - I like to use the latter - finishing with a layer of pasta.  Pour over the rest of the béchamel, sprinkle the top with a little more grated cheese and dot little knobs of butter all over.  Bake at 180 C for about 30 mins.

Trust me - that tiny amount of chocolate will give the sauce quite a kick!

ANOTHER JUBILEE

Congratulations to Modica's Antica Dolceria Bonajuto upon its inclusion in the "golden list" in Sua Eccellenza Italia, a volume published in December by Gambero Rosso, the multimedia food and wine publishing group, in celebration of its 25th anniversary.   

The citation reads,

"There is no gourmand who does not know of Modican chocolate and they will know of it because of Bonajuto, Sicily's leading chocolate makers, who continue to excel in their work after almost 150 years."

20 [NON-MAFIA RELATED] REASONS TO VISIT SICILY

I was sad and disappointed to learn, over the Christmas holidays, of tour operators who are again setting up "Mafia tours" of  Sicily.  I am not going to pretend that the Mafia is dead and I have expressed my thoughts about its continued existence in this post.  However, there is so much that is lovely to see here, such a varied and fascinating culture to explore and there are so many fantastic taste sensations to be enjoyed that I cannot understand why anyone would want to persist in promoting the stereotypes.  Sicily and the Sicilian people deserve better so here is a very personal and eclectic list of good reasons to visit my island in the sun:

1.  Marvel at the Greek sites of Agrigento, Segesta and Selinunte.

Tempio della Concordia, Agrigento

2.  In the summer, attend a performance of a Greek play at the Greek Amphitheatre in Siracusa.

Performance of Medea at Siracusa in 2009

3.  Visit the Infiorata [carpet of flowers] in Noto in May.

4.  See the breathtaking beauty of the Val di Noto towns, which collectively form a World Heritage Site.

Duomo di San Giorgio, Modica

5.  See the Venere di Aidone, over two thousand years old and home after so many years of enforced wandering.

6.  Relax on clean, unpolluted beaches.

7.  See the settings of the Montalbano films.

8.  And, talking of that gourmet detective, try the local arancini!

9.  Breathe in the heady scent of orange blossom and buy some zagara cologne.

10.  Eat a Sicilian vanilla orange!

11.  Take a bus ride along the edge of the Stretto at Messina.  It is stunningly beautiful.  While you're there, gaze over at the Calabrian coast - you could even take the ferry across if you have time - and remember all who passed along this route as they emigrated to Northern Italy and far, far beyond.  Like migrating peoples today, they wanted only a better life. 

12.  Go to a street market, such as the ones in Modica and Catania.  You'll be amazed by what you find there!

13.  Visit Bellini's house in Catania.

Image of Vincenzo Bellini: Wikipedia

14.  Admire Norman and Arabic architecture in Palermo and visit the seat of one of the world's oldest parliaments.

15.  See Modican chocolate being made to the Aztec method at Bonajuto in the town's Corso Umberto.

16. Don't miss out on the best gelato in the world!

17.  Take a trip up grumpy old Etna.

18.  Eat plentiful prickly pears in autumn and sip prickly pear liqueur.

19.  See traditionally painted Sicilian carts at Donnafugata in Ragusa or at the Mostra Permanente del Carretto Siciliano housed in the Museum at Terrasini [Palermo Province].

20.  Go to a Sagra, such as the Strawberry Festival at Casssibile in spring, the Prickly Pear Festival at Militello in Val di Catania or any number of chestnut festivals in the Etna area in autumn.  Relearn the art of living in tune with the seasons.

Finally, if you are genuinely interested in Mafia history but not in sensationalising tragedy, please pay homage to those brave Sicilians who lost their lives campaigning against the criminal organisation:  Giuseppe Impastato, Paolo Borsellino, Giovanni Falcone and others like them deserve wider world recognition, as do the thousands of Sicilians who work daily to preserve their best traditions and make their region a better place.

For all of them, please come and see the Sicily I love.

BEAUTY AND THE MAYOR

Franciscan Cloister of Santa Maria del Gesù, Modica

On Saturday evening the Mayor of Modica, in a very nice gesture, held a reception for "Modicani  d'elezione", meaning those who have chosen to live, but were not born, in his town.  The event was held in the stunningly beautiful setting of the recently restored Church and adjoining Franciscan Cloister of Santa Maria del Gesù in Modica Alta.

The Church, extant from 1343, was reconstructed in 1481 for the wedding of Anna Cabrera, Countess of Modica and Federico Henriquez, first cousin of King Ferdinand 11 of Aragon [Fernando il Cattolico].   Having been built high up and away from the then most populous areas of the city, both buildings survived and neither was badly damaged in the terrible earthquake of 1693. 

The columns in the Cloister were constructed in a variety of styles, among them Arabic, Arab-Norman, Gothic, Romanesque and herringbone.  Each one is different.

I took so many pictures of the Church and Cloister, which were even lovelier in the evening light,  that, for ease of viewing, I have compiled them into a slideshow.  I hope you enjoy them:

It was a pleasant evening which included an interlude of traditional Sicilian songs.  And naturally, it wouldn't have been a Modican reception without some enormous trays of delicious,  handmade pastries from the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto: 

I am enormously grateful to the person who uploaded this lovely video onto youtube:

I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my friends at the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto - Sicily's oldest chocolate makers - for posting this lovely link on twitter. You sure know how to cheer a girl up on a Saturday night!

Yes, it's official - dark chocolate is good for you, which just goes to show: if you sit at your computer for long enough, it will bring you some good news! Well, I'm off to eat some of the dark stuff.......

"LOVE SICILY" COOKERY CLASS - 3

Cookery teacher Katia [right] and me at loveSicily.

On Thursday morning your galloping gourmet blogger galloped down to Modica Bassa for the last cookery class with Katia of loveSicily. Katia had phoned me beforehand to suggest that I meet her with Lois and Amanda at Bonajuto's Chocolate Factory and Shop, and as time spent in Bonajuto's is time spent in "chocolate heaven", I was very happy to do so.



This is the oldest chocolate making establishment in Sicily and the chocolate is carefully made by traditional methods.

Here Pierpaolo of the Bonajuto family makes sure the display is perfect. Now we can sample some of the many flavours of chocolate. [I always go for the chilli one myself!]



Visitors can see the workroom at the back of the shop:





You will notice that the chocolate in the right-hand tin is smoother. The bubbles disappear when the moulds are shaken by hand:



The items in these cupboards tell the story of chocolate-making:





Chocolate to taste and chocolate to buy:



'Mpanatigghi to sample. You would never think that these delicate, sweet pastries contained beef. [When British people remark that it's weird I ask them how they think mince pies got their name!]



If you are a lover of chocolate - and who isn't? - you must come to Modica at least once in your life!

Lois and Amanda had acquired substantial parcels of chocolate to take home to their lucky friends and relatives so we had a leisurely walk back to the Cookery School, where Katia explained that we were first going to make salame al cioccolato [chocolate salame] for Friday's end-of-course dinner and then calamari for lunch. Don't worry - there's no salame in the chocolate dish! Let's get right to it:

Katia used 100 gr of cinnamon-flavoured chocolate but you could use a different flavour. Katia says that it is possible to use cocoa powder instead, in which case you will need to add some sugar. She crushed the chocolate, then bashed roughly 250 gr biscuits made with a short pastry:





Fork up 100 gr slightly softened unsalted butter and separate 2 eggs. Whisk the whites to the soft peak stage. Now mix the yolks with the butter and chocolate, crushing the chocolate further as you mix:



Next, add the egg whites and mix:



Add the biscuits and mix well:



Keep stirring till the texture changes and you have a nicely amalgamated mixture:



Dollop it all onto a length of baking parchment, roll the paper over the mixture and press with your hands until you have a plump sausage shape. Tie the ends of the paper and refrigerate. [You can freeze this for up to a week.]





Slice when ready to serve. You can see the sliced "salame" towards the end of this post.

Although I am allergic to all types of fish I was interested to learn how to prepare the calamari.

First of all Katia cleaned the squid well:




Then we peeled and chopped 6 tomatoes. Katia runs the blunt side of a blade over the skin, which then comes away more easily:




Peel 4 garlic cloves and chop some parsley and capers. Mix the parsley and capers with the tomatoes.

Chop up the tentacles:



Brown the garlic cloves in oil, then take them out. Add the tomato mixture and tentacles and cook:



Add some fresh breadcrumbs [about 12 dessertsp] to soak up the juices:



Add 3 dessertsp grated ragusano cheese:



Then use the mixture to stuff the squid:



Secure with a skewer:



I had to leave at this point but couldn't have tasted the fish anyway. I asked Katia how she finishes the dish and she told me that she sautés the stuffed squid in olive oil, then adds a splash of wine. She smears some left-over stuffing on the top of the calamari and simmers them for 30 minutes.

UPDATE: 4.10.09. See the finished dish and read Katia's instructions and a story about her grandmother here.

And so to last night's end-of-course dinner. A beautifully set table in a room with a view:



Pasta with pancetta, cream, chanterelles and pistacchi:



Tender and delicious beef fillet steaks which Katia had cooked in a salt crust and flavoured with Bonajuto's salt chocolate:



And the chocolate salame. Don't you like Katia's simple but elegant decoration of cocoa in the top corner of the plate?



Here is Katia



and here we all are, [left to right]: Katia, Amanda, Luisa, me, Lois, Ronald [Katia's husband] and Angelo. Luisa and Angelo work with Ronald and Katia.



Thank you for your company, Lois and Amanda. I hope you are both having safe and pleasant journeys home. Don't eat all that chocolate on the way! And thank you Katia, Ronald, Angelo and Louise for a wonderful week during which I learnt a lot, made new friends and discovered some fabulous new tastes. I recommend loveSicily.