Cassata Siciliana

Cassata siciliana is a Sicilian cake made by enclosing ricotta in sponge cake, chilling it, and decorating it with icing and other toppings. Soft ricotta, yellow sponge, white icing, green almond paste and brightly colored candied fruit come together in it, and it is also served to celebrate Easter. Under the same name, there are also sweets that wrap ricotta in a baked crust, as well as frozen desserts.

Draining the ricotta and enclosing it in sponge

The cream is made by removing excess moisture from the ricotta and combining it with sugar until smooth. In the method set out in explanatory material on traditional Sicilian food products, sheep’s milk ricotta is used, with additions such as chocolate, cinnamon and chopped candied fruit. Passing the ricotta through a sieve makes its fine grains uniform and gives it a smooth texture in the mouth. Unlike creams made by whipping a large amount of butter and letting it set, this cake places the soft ricotta itself at the center of the filling.

The ricotta is surrounded by a sponge cake called pan di Spagna. The sponge, baked using the lift of whipped eggs, is cooled, cut and fitted along the bottom and sides of a mold. It is moistened with a liquid containing sugar and liqueur, among other options, filled with ricotta, and closed with another piece of sponge. When it is rested in the refrigerator and then turned out, a thin layer of yellow sponge surrounds a thickly packed filling of white cream.

The resting time is adjusted to the moisture in the cream and to the thickness and layering of the sponge. Some methods chill it for 24 hours before unmolding; rather than moving straight on to decoration after assembly, time is taken to let the sponge and cream come together and to make the cake easier to slice. Settling it in the refrigerator and freezing it like ice cream are two different ways of finishing.

White icing, green paste and candied fruit decoration

Pasta reale, commonly seen in Palermo, is a paste made mainly from almonds and sugar. Besides being colored green and wrapped around the sides, it can also be arranged inside the mold, alternating with pieces of sponge. Finishing the sides with green almond paste makes the contrast with the yellow sponge and the white icing stand out.

White icings include those made by warming powdered sugar with water, and those with added egg white. Some are scented with orange blossom water. Because the icing is poured over the unmolded cake and smoothed before the fruit is arranged, the surface is made differently from cakes whose outside is simply spread with milk cream.

Candied fruits such as orange peel, cherries, citron and zuccata are not decoration for color alone. Their intense sweetness and the aroma of fruit and peel layer onto the soft ricotta. Small pieces in the cream and large fruits arranged on top also release their aroma differently when bitten.

In another recipe introduced by a cultural institution of the Region of Sicily, sponge moistened with Marsala is layered with ricotta and chilled, then covered with whipped egg white with sugar and lemon added, and placed briefly in the oven to brown the surface. This is a different finish from decorating with sugar icing and fruit.

Cassata wrapped in a baked crust

Cassata al forno is a baked sweet popular around Palermo. In some versions, sweetened ricotta and chocolate are wrapped in a pasta frolla crust, baked and dusted with powdered sugar. Some methods also combine sponge inside. Compared with a whole cake decorated with green almond paste and abundant candied fruit, it lets you enjoy the toasty aroma of baked pastry.

The chilled, assembled type and the wrapped, baked type share the ricotta filling, but differ in the pastry surrounding it and in the stage at which heat is applied. It is also made small as cassatina, and the proportions of icing and flavorings vary by locality and maker.

Two etymological theories: a cheese dish and a vessel

In the 14th century, “casciata” appears as a savory dish of fresh cheese and eggs placed in a crust. A Sicilian vocabulary record from 1348 also gives the meaning “bread mixed with cheese.” One theory links the name to the Arabic “qas‘a,” meaning a vessel, while a competing theory derives it from the Latin “caseata,” a cheese dish, by way of Romance.

The food-culture vocabulary dictionary VoSLIG presents side by side research pointing out problems with the sounds and the route of transmission in the Arabic theory, and research treating the two words as belonging to separate lineages; the etymology has not been settled.

The 1808 recipe and later decoration

The “cassata palermitana” in the 1808 “L’Apicio Moderno” is a specific recipe (ingredient proportions and method) in which sweet ricotta is surrounded by sponge and decorated with thin icing, pistachios and candied fruit. Later histories of pastry-making say that the elaborate present-day form with green sides was developed in 1873 by the Palermo pastry maker Salvatore Gulì. The method of surrounding ricotta with sponge was already recorded in 1808, but when today’s green sides and ornate decoration all came together is not clear.

Cleveland’s cassata with strawberries and custard

In Cleveland, in the United States, a cake under the same name of cassata, made by layering sponge with fresh strawberries and vanilla custard and covering it with whipped cream, is popular. Baker Shauna Sever introduces it as a local cake she even asked for on her own birthday, and records its history: at the shop of the LaPuma family, who emigrated from Sicily in the late 19th century, the ricotta filling, which children did not like, was replaced in the 1920s. It has been passed down as an origin story tied to that family’s history.

Whereas the Sicilian version is built on ricotta and candied fruit, the Cleveland version centers on custard made with eggs and milk and on fresh fruit. Its white surface, too, is covered with whipped cream rather than icing. While inheriting the same name of cassata, both its filling and its finish changed to suit the ingredients of the new home and the family’s tastes.

Cassata as an Easter and year-round sweet, and as a frozen dessert

The cassata of the Valverde monastery in Palermo is also said to have been renowned, and cassata has long been tied to monastery confectionery and the Easter table. Today it is also made throughout the year, and its fruit decoration brightens a whole cake served at a celebratory feast.

“Cassata” also became the name of an ice cream dessert containing fruit and nuts. This one is a dessert enjoyed for its layers of frozen milk. In the Sicilian ricotta cake, the chilling time lets the sponge and the filling come together, and the icing and candied fruit are layered over the outside.

Glossary