Lindsay Marie Morris

Wheat first arrived in Sicily around the 3rd millennium B.C. Due to its ideal cultivation conditions, the region became known as the Breadbasket of the Roman Empire.

 

By 2021, the island had become Italy's second-largest durum wheat-producing region, with 343,500 hectares under cultivation and a production of 931,800 tons.

 

You may have seen durum on the back of a box of pasta. It's frequently coarsely ground into semolina, a common ingredient in Sicilian bread and pasta. 

 

One of the more popular semolina pastas is cavatelli, also known as cavateddi. This Sicilian version of gnocchi is served with plain red or meaty sauce. I recently caught up with private chef and cooking instructor Antonella La Macchia to learn more about this specialty and what differentiates her cavatelli recipe from typical gnocchi. 

 

 

What is your background?

I was born in Catania, Sicily, and live in Florence, Tuscany. I moved here 23 years ago because I married a Florentine, and I have been teaching cooking classes in Florence for more than 10 years now. 

What is the difference between cavatelli and gnocchi?

It's funny. When people take the class, they usually talk about potatoes and gnocchi because they are the more traditional or famous.

 

If I talk with my mother, gnocchi are completely different. Our gnocchi in Sicily, cavatelli, are made with semolina and water. The dough is very chewy and has a nice consistency. Of course, the flavor is completely different because we have the semolina flour. Also, the sauce that they require is different. Most of the time, Sicilian gnocchi are served with meat sauce because they have this consistency and want a strong sauce.

 

The shape is different because when we make gnocchi, we use a tool called rigagnocchi. You use the board to make a little cavity that holds the sauce. That's the reason why they're called cavatelli.

 

Semolina pasta can also be a little bit trickier than regular pasta. The regular pasta, the pasta from the north—ravioli and tagliatelli—has the classic dough with flour and egg. When we talk about pasta from the south of Italy, from Puglia to Sicily, it's important to balance the right amount of water to obtain the right consistency. This shape is usually made by pushing the pasta on a wooden board with your hand or knife. If the consistency is not perfect, it won't be easy to have the shape of the pasta you want.  

 

Once you have a good dough, you can make the cavatelli with your hands or use the rigagnocchi. It is important to get the right shape because, of course, if this pasta is thicker, it can be pretty chewy.

What makes this recipe Sicilian?

When I teach about pasta, I always say that through the pasta, we can see the difference between the countries. You can see easily that this country was divided for many years, and the food from the north and the south is very different.  

 

When we talk about fresh pasta, the first difference that we can say is that most of the fresh pasta that we find in the north is made with white flour. What makes this pasta really Sicilian for me is the use of semolina and, of course, the sauce. We don't have butter and sage; ours is mostly red, so tomato-based.  

What do you hope the readers will take away from this recipe?

What I like, and I always talk about this during my class, is that at the end of the day, the most important thing is when a recipe becomes yours. It makes the food real and, in a certain way, eternal.

 

>>Get Antonella's Sicilian gnocchi recipe here!<<

 

 

 

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Sundays of my youth were spent with my Sicilian grandparents. We'd gather in the kitchen to enjoy Nonna's afternoon supper. And at the center of the table, we could always look forward to her fresh-baked bread. Typical of Sicily, this bread was made with semolina, coarsely ground durum flour. She'd roll her loaves in sesame seeds, which added depth to the already nutty flavor. 

 

As a bread-baker myself, I have attempted to recreate Nonna's recipe, but apparently, I hadn't found the right recipe. My bread was too flat. 

 

That was before I stumbled on a semolina bread recipe on Marcellina in Cucina. This pane Siciliano was gorgeous, golden, and looked just like Nonna's. I just had to reach out to blogger Marcella Cantatore to learn more. 

 

 

Tell us about your background.

I'm the owner of Marcellina in Cucina and the second child of Italian immigrants Anna and Enzo. My mother, Anna, was from Reggio Calabria, Calabria, and my dad was from Piacenza, Emilia Romagna. I grew up in a traditional Italian immigrant family. We grew a lot of our food and cooked everything from scratch. I learned to cook by just watching my mother and father in the kitchen. There were no recipes, but I wanted to record our family recipes and those of others, so I started my blog.

 

How often do you travel to Italy, and have you been to Sicily?

I have traveled to Italy three times, and I plan another trip in the next year or two. I've been to Sicily, but not extensively. It's a beautiful place, and I will spend more time there next time.

 

What is your connection to this recipe?

This recipe is a traditional Sicilian bread but also very similar to the bread in my mother's hometown, Reggio Calabria. Reggio Calabria has many similarities to Sicily due to its proximity. At home, I wanted to recreate the bread I ate there, so I searched for recipes and tested them until I adapted this bread from Carol Field's book The Italian Baker.

 

Why semolina and why sesame seeds?

This is a traditional Sicilian bread that you'll find in all Sicilian bakeries and many southern Italian bakeries. Semolina is hardier and resistant to spoilage, so it was the flour used for bread for the common people who were poor and couldn't afford bread made with soft white flour. Semolina flour lends a beautiful yellow color and delicious flavor to the bread. Sesame seeds are much loved in Sicily and add extra flavor to bread. Plus, I adore sesame seeds!

 

Can you tell me about the shape of this bread and others?

The shape I have used in this recipe is called occhi, which means eyes and looks a little like eyeglasses. Another shape that you'll find this bread in is mafalda, which is like a snake zig-zagged back and forth, with the remaining length of dough laid over the top of the zig-zag. Sometimes, the dough is just zig-zagged without the extra dough laid over the top. In this case, it's known as scaletta or little ladder. 

 

What is the connection to Santa Lucia?

Santa Lucia is the patron saint of eyes. The swirled S shape, which is a little like eyeglasses, is a traditional bread shape made to commemorate Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy). However, this is not the bread eaten on the Feast of Santa Lucia in Italy; it's a whole other story!

 

When is this bread served, and what are some popular Sicilian recipe pairings?

This bread can be served with any meal. Its flavor goes particularly well with cheese, sausage, and salami.

 

Tell me what you hope readers will take away from this recipe.

I hope readers learn a little about Italian and Sicilian culture and enjoy this deliciously different bread. 

 

>>Get Marcella Cantatore's pane Siciliana recipe here!<<

 

 

 

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