Tag: cuccia
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Start Making Your Cuccìa For Santa Lucia Now
Sunday, Dec. 13 is the Feast of Santa Lucia. For those who wish to make cuccìa (pictured) with Alessia of Smile and Food during our online feast event (Details and registration at https://experiencesicily.com/santa-lucia-2020/ ), you should start planning now. Your farro (wheat berries) need to soak in water for 72 hours (and change the water…
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Let’s Have A Ball On Sunday
Sunday in NYC: Let’s eat rice balls!! Santa Lucia is the patron saint of grain, and as a result, arancine, or rice balls, are a significant element to celebrating the Feast of Santa Lucia. So much so, that in Palermo, her feast day is also the Sagra delle Arancine. Why rice balls (pictured)? To commemorate…
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Sweet Ricotta Cream, High School Students, and I
It may not be the season exactly for cuccìa, but in lieu of researching and writing a post, I spent the night making the wheatberry ricotta pudding pictured along with cannoli cream for dozens of cannoli, not pictured… All for a lecture/presentation tomorrow about the feasts and foods of Sicily at a high school in…
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Rice Balls, Glorious Rice Balls
Before I continue with the significance of the December 13 Feast for Santa Lucia, let’s talk about the really serious stuff! That is, that Palermitani celebrate the Saint by eating arancine. Arancine (as they are known in Palermo, pictured right; Arancini, if you’re from the east side of Sicily, pictured left), are rice balls filled…
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Santa Lucia Lunch Sun., Dec. 9 in New York City
In Siracusa, Sicily last spring, I thanked Santa Lucia for guiding me through last winter–a particularly long and arduous one for me. Now, days from the winter solstice, I invite you to join me for our annual Experience Sicily luncheon celebrating the patroness of light, eyes, sight, and wheat on Sunday, Dec. 9 in New…
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The Famine of 1646
In the days leading up to the Feast of Santa Lucia, December 13, many Sicilians refrain from eating pasta and only eat un-ground wheat grain, or “farro,” that is prepared as a dish called cuccìa. Devotees observe this ritual to remember the severe famine that struck Siracusa and Palermo in 1646. During that time of…
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Light Up the Dark
Please mark your calendar to come celebrate our shared light in New York City on Sunday, Dec. 10 at 2PM at Cacio e Vino, where we’ll have a full luncheon with traditional Sicilian dishes for Santa Lucia, a presentation about the Patroness of Siracusa, and a short live concert of traditional Sicilian songs. Reservation and…
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Passing It On to the Next Generation
Today in Connecticut, USA, I presented a lecture and tasting of the foods of Sicily, and talked about the feasts associated with the foods. Pictured is the cuccìa we prepared for the event. After they stuffed and ate their own cannoli, among other foods, 75 Italian language students joined me and my dance partner, Pete,…