We travel back in time to the Palermo of the Arab period, considered the largest city in Europe.
In fact, it was at the Emir’s court in Piazza Kalsa that the cooks decided to wrap the sugar and ricotta mixture with a sheet of shortcrust pastry and bake it all in the oven.
Thus was born the first real version of the cassata.
In the 18th century, during the Spanish domination, sponge cake arrived in Sicily from Genoa, replacing shortcrust pastry and chocolate which was added in flakes to the ricotta.
It was the pastry chef from Palermo Salvatore Gulì who was the first to use the term “Sicilian cassata” and, to increase its salt, he created one “rich in all sorts of goodies produced by the house!”.
The success was immediate because that baroque triumph best expressed the exuberant Sicilian sensuality
