Inside One of The BEST Pastry Shops in Catania #gjwtravel #gjwrisingstar

Did you know Sicilians love their sweets from breakfast, lunch and dinner? Any time of the day, sweets are a very important part of the cuisine here as well. And we're going to go into one of the best, the legendary Quaranta, outside of Catania to show you a family-run business and step-by-step how to make the famous Cassata along with other delicious sweets. Oh, this is going to be such a treat. Come with me. Look at the beautiful presentation on these scoops. Frutta Martolano, which is marzipan. And here are the specialties for Carnevale. Chiacchiere. Chiacchiere, which means chit-chat. And we have the pistachio, the chocolate and the powdered one. And of course, by the way, all these are handmade. This is something very, very special. In 40 years, they've only perfected these cakes. Of course, the famous pistachio with the little strawberries. Buccellato. That's with the figs. Gelo di cannella. Yes, yes. Like cinnamon. It's a sort of pudding, also cinnamon. And that's the peel of the orange that you boil and you dip in sugar. Or you dip it in chocolate. Or white chocolate. This is a specialty for San Agata. Tarone di San Agata. And you can see there's nuts and fruits in there and then the marzipan. But of course, the most popular is the Minuzzi di San Agata. And here are the Olivette di San Agata. Marzipan shaped olives. Castagnola. These are deep fried with cream and ricotta and Nutella. Single portions. Seven layer cake right here. You guys know what a babà is? That's sort of a sponge cake with a little bit of rum. And usually it looks like this. Let me show you. This is what a babà looks like when you get it in a shop. Now it's not a Sicilian sweet, but it is very, very popular in Sicily. Crema of limone. He is so proud of the work. Eighty-four people work intricately. You can tell that all of this is handmade. Let's put carne d'alde. Mascherina. Pasta frolla. Okay, so he's got the whole family working for him. His nephews. Look at the heart-shaped cake that he's making. Maestro Giacomo. Wow. Now that's a beautiful cake right there. This is why they're one of the best. They don't buy any cream. They just make the whipping cream and everything from scratch. And there's the cake that he's going to use for the cassata. Pan di spagna. Come si chiama? Pan di spagna. Che c'è il burro, qua burro non ce n'è. Okay, there's no butter in there. Ci sono le uova, lo zucchero e la farina. Eggs, flour and sugar. Uova, eggs, sugar and flour. And that's it. Okay, then we take the form. Rectangle piece of the same cake. Look at the concentration of making this cake. Quanti anni sta lavorando così? Quanti anni che faccio il pasticcere? 34 anni. 34 years he's been making cakes. Very, very soft. So if you know how to make a sponge cake I'm sure there are a lot of recipes out there and that is the basis of a cassata cake. Next is, we have cinnamon and sugar and chocolate chips. Poco per il profumo. Just for the smell. Cinnamon is a very popular ingredient in sweets. E ora mettiamo la ricotta. Now the ricotta. Ricotta con zucchero o ricotta? Pecora? Okay, this is from sheep ricotta with a little bit of sugar. Dolci preferito? La torta con le fragoline. With a little strawberry on the top. Riccardo? La pistachiosa. Questo cavallo di battaglia nostro. Pistachio. And Silvio? Torta Savoia. And even the cassata. Yes, because you know, cassata is a very ancient cake. A little bit more of the cinnamon and sugar. And then a little bit more of the chocolate chips. From the leftover little pieces what he did is a little bit of crumbs. Sponge cake crumbs. Nothing goes to waste. That's a cool idea I bet you could do bread like that as well. Now the sponge cake pieces go right on top. Look at that form. Wow. So what happens is that all the juices from the ricotta will go to the bottom. You don't want that. And how long does it take? One or two hours. You can do it the day before and do it the next day. So that's why if you touch it now it's a little bit it's going to be too shaky. So he's going to put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. This is very solid. And that one he's going to put in the fridge for a couple of hours. So you have to put some weights on top of that so it solidifies. If your mouth is not watering yet it must be now. It's going to form it into a little piccola salsata. Very particular in everything handmade. And let's see what he's doing. Look at the detail. And over here the heart cakes. Meanwhile look at how this guy is advancing with the red cake. Aguri 25 years. Aqua, zucchero e sciroppo di glucosio. Syrup. So that's what this is right here. E questo si cucina, si porta ad ebollizione poi si mette sul tavolo e si lavora con le mani. Si, arriva a temperature alta 120, 125. Ok, so he has to melt it. Si scioglie. Però ci sono i cristalli di zucchero che quando si raffredda diventa duro. Ok, so when it cools down it becomes hard. Più caldo lo fai più duro diventa. The hotter you make it the harder it will become. That becomes this. Però questo lo puoi sciogliere un'altra volta. Ok, so you can melt this again. Però noi non lo facciamo così duro. Now over in Palermo they use the marzipan but here they use the sugar mix that we talked about. So it's nice and liquidy. Let me see. Yup, it's not hot hot hot but this is how he tests it. Devo sciogliere un'altra volta. Ancora è freddo. Se no si mette termometro dentro. Come si dice termometro? Termometer. Test again. Buono? And he gave it the ok. Ok, the story of the Cassata really goes back to the Roman times that it wasn't as sweet it was a salty type of food. Allora, ora non si deve toccare. Don't touch. Perché man mano che lui si raffredda It has to cool down. Quindi si deve provare prima a raffreddare un po'. You just have to let it cool down. And look at that. These are the toppings. Candied fruit that is so typical of a Cassata cake. They're so beautiful. Cedro is that ugly big lemon. Arancia. Orange. Pera. And cherries. So you have to do this 3-4 times. You have to boil the pears and then you take them out and then you put it again for sugar and water until it becomes this is nice and sticky here. Beautiful art. Flower. Flower. Beautiful. Water and sugar. Absolutely. So when you go into a pastry shop and you see this then you know that it's people like the chef who intricately take their time with precision to make this beautiful cake. These are the ones with matzo on it. And these are, look at them. And the cake making just keeps on going. This is the cake that Lucia made. With strawberry on the top. It's so beautiful. And strawberry inside. It's a white cream. White cream. Custard cream. Custard cream. There you go. And this one is lemon. And then we have the cassata. Very typical Sicilian. Very ancient origin. Sugarcane. Almonds. Pistachio. Oranges and lemons. So the pastor accidentally mixed sugar with ricotta in a container. In fact the name was cassat which means container. From there later in the court of the emir in Palermo they took this ricotta mixed with sugar and they put it in the pastry and they baked it. From there it was born into some kind of a cake and they baked it. And that's where it was born. Cassata that's baked. Which is sponge cake. So that's when the change happened. Especially in the convent of Martorana in Palermo they also started to work the decoration with the fruit of Martorana. How do we know it today? That we know. And then from there it became a dessert that before was eaten only at Easter. So it was typically Easter. And now it's consumed all year long. All over the world if we want. Right? During the Roman and Greek times they probably had some kind of sweets but it was the Arabs that solidified the sweet culture the pastries and so forth that are so important here in Sicily. Gabriele. My name is your father, your brother. Lucia's brother. He's going to make a ricotta. And this is how it's done. Now it's also important to talk about convents and the nuns that went to many of them came from aristocracy and they had to know how to bake and inside those convents they came up with some very creative sweets as well. We've been doing this for 40 years and it's a family business. We're four brothers and three of us do this job and one of us does another but it's a family business and we're always looking for Sicilian and Italian excellence. This is the temperatrice of pure chocolate. This is fondant chocolate, white chocolate and milk chocolate. This is for Easter. Pure chocolate. We want to leave our children the same idea, the same ideal, to look for the best quality and make our customers come in with a smile and leave with a smile. The quality has to be supreme. He wants people to come in and smile and leave with a smile. And here we are with all the delicious flavours of gelato. And let me tell you the quality of this gelato is very different than anywhere else. And they even have a lunch selection that is pretty mouth-watering. You can come here, have a great meal and then finish up with a little dolce. Queen of salmon Philadelphia Queen cheese Pasta alla Norma There's the rice with the fish Pistachio And there you go. And of course, street food. Pasta di mandorla This is a very typical Catanese Pasta di mandorla This is your favourite, right? She likes the cake design. Oh, she made this for Christmas. Look how beautiful. This is the one that's moon-shaped and stuck with Nutella. Almond, chocolate And that's what it looks like when you bake it. Her dream is that all of Quaranta, the deliciousness, will arrive everywhere. Thinking of coming to Sicily? We've got you covered. Imagine eating all those delicious sweets and all types of foods and visiting beautiful sites. We've got several tours, including one in May, one in June, one in September in Tuscany, and one in October here on the East Coast. And of course, all the information www.youmeandsicily.com Hope to see you and tune in with you here in Sicily. The gelato magic is done. This is hazelnut. Pistachio Zabaglione English soup And then here is where they harden up. This is where the magic happens right here. You put the liquid through there and this is where the gelato comes out. And this is the view from up top. It's a beautiful thing that you are doing. This is very important for all families. It's the third generation. Yes, practically. And her dream is to bring it to the entire world. Grazie mille! Salute a tutti! Ciao a tutti! Thank you Silvio for bringing us here. This place is always, always busy. Always, always busy. Here's the outdoor seating and it's end of January so you can see people are enjoying the beautiful weather that we're having. So what do you think? Did you enjoy the little tour inside the pastry shop? I think we're going to do much more with this family. Lovely to meet them and thank you Silvio for introducing us. And of course we'll have much more probably an arancini making or something else. Hey, what would you like to know how to make? Leave us a comment and thank you so much for being here and spending this time with us. We'll see you on another video of You, Me & Sicily, Sunday 4pm Sicily time every week. Ciao! Arrivederci! Ti voglio bene! Grazie mille for being here!