Whenever Stefano and I are shopping around the Duomo - or just tooling past on our way to the Camper store - we stop in at a cramped café with Sicilian specialties. They have piles of amazing sweets and pastries, one sweeter than the next, and a single tall table to perch at once you've decided.
The sweetest sweet - and the one we order regularly - is the cassatina. A cassatina is a pretty little bite of a cake compared to its full-sized mother, the cassata. (In Italian adding "ina" to the end of a word creates a diminutive; thus a small cassata is a cassatina.) We've found the smaller-sized version to be perfect for sharing and a wonderful accessory to a strong Italian coffee.
These cakes are originally from Sicily which is known for over-the-top sweets and splurge-worthy edibles. From what I can tell by taste and internet research the cassata is made from sweetened ricotta cheese, sugar, candied fruit, tiny chocolate chunks, green almond paste, cake and Maraschino liqueur.
The inside has the texture of slowly melting frosting and is surrounded by a very light wall of cake. It tastes of maraschino cherries and vanilla and occasionally you run into a chocolate bump. The outside is a ring of marzipan almond paste that manages to lasso the whole concoction together. The large cakes are decorated with candied fruit and peel and the smaller variety are given a single maraschino cherry.
I have to admit that my original reason for ordering a cassatina was the fact that it was green. I appreciate the idea of a green cake especially one that is packed with enough sugar to give a tired shopper the jolt they need.
I'm trying to think of green colored pastries found in the states and all that comes to mind are those corn flake wreaths at Christmas. Oh and scary jello abominations from decades past where broccoli and carrots hover in a quivering mass of clear gelatin -- or worse, orange.
Score one for Italy.
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