You are about to leave and spend Christmas 2015 in Sicily. Your itinerary with things to do is ready. Remember: Sicily is not only to see but also to taste, especially on December. Don’t go back home home until you have tasted these 5 typical Christmas sweets.
- Cuccìa. In a sense, this is the sweet that inaugurates the Christmas season because it is prepared on Saint Lucia’s Day (December 13). It is a kind of savory cake made with wheat, fresh ricotta, sugar, dark chocolate.
- Buccellato. You can see it in the picture above and it is one of the most typical Sicilian Christmas sweets. It’s a large donut-shaped cake which is prepared with lard, lemon, dried figs, raisins, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, honey and candied fruit.
- Cubaita. Do you know the classic nougat? So, the cubaita (also called cubbaita or cobaita) is the Sicilian version of nougat. They are thin and crispy pastries made with honey, sesame seeds, almonds and sugar.
- Aranciata. Literally, the name means orange soda but It’s not a drink. Aranciata is a very old Christmas sweet. It is prepared with orange peels that is left to macerate for a day, boiled and flavored with almond oil.
- Sweet couscous. An original variant of the famous North African dish. Sweet couscous, a typical Christmas recipe of Agrigento, is prepared with durum wheat, pistachios, toasted and chopped almonds, cinnamon, icing sugar.
Surely you have noticed that, among these specialties, there aren’t the great classic sweets of Christmas in Sicily, such as cassate, cannoli, mostaccioli. You can taste them during this vacation but we preferred to suggest 5 less-known specialties that will enrich your trip.
Image source: “Buccellato 1” di Dedda71 – Opera propria. Con licenza CC BY-SA 3.0 tramite Wikimedia Commons
