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December/Januar y 2023 XV MAGAZINE round. The Tondo Liscio cluster is bright red in colour while the single-fruit variety tends towards dark green. The Costoluto variety has larger fruit than the other types. Its colour is dark green with red nuances. The flesh is compact and has a high sugar content. The Plum and Miniplum types, unlike the former, have a more elongated shape, and their flavour is particularly sweet. Finally, the Ciliegino has the shape of a cherry. It is small, round and bright red in colour. Since 1925, it was only cultivated along the coastal strip, where water for irrigation was more abundant. In the 1950s, when the first greenhouses appeared, production grew dramatically, and in the 1970s, it began to be marketed both domestically and abroad. Ragusano PDO cheese It is among the oldest cheeses in Sicily. Produced in the small dairies around the Monti Iblei. It is made from whole, raw milk from the Modicana breed of cow raised in the Ragusa area. With a pleasant aroma, it is sweet, delicate and very tasty. It Iis shaped like a parallelepiped with a square cross- section, with rounded corners thanks to the rope that holds it in place during seasoning. The rind is smooth, thin and 4 mm thick. The colour is straw yellow and brown for the more mature cheeses. At the beginning of the maturing process, its flavour is delicate, gradually becoming more savoury and piquant in the form intended for grating. The paste is compact and white to straw-yellow in colour. Ragusano PDO is so called because it is placed on supports to dry. In the past, it was called caciocavallo ragusano. Tools and equipment made of wood and tinned copper are used for its processing, which guarantee particular organoleptic characteristics. For this type of cheese, it is essential that the cows feed on wild herbs from the Ragusa plateau. Production is only guaranteed during the period when grazing is flourishing. Sicilian anchovies from Sciacca Coming from Sciacca in the province of Agrigento, they are highly appreciated for their unique taste and preservation technique. As soon as they are caught, they are cleaned, strictly by hand. They are then preserved in salt in tins in alternating layers or in oil in glass jars, a method that guarantees longer preservation. They are excellent for seasoning pasta, pizza, salads and vegetables. __________________________________ AT PAGE 52 RECIPES __________________________________ RECIPE Tuna and ricotta cheese balls It is an appetising recipe spread all over the island. Excellent as an appetiser but also as a main course. Ingredients: • 230 g drained tuna in oil; • 200 g cow’s ricotta cheese; • 20 g anchovy fillets in oil; • 20 g salted capers; • 50 g breadcrumbs; • 8 g chopped parsley; • 2 eggs; • 50 g Parmesan cheese PDO; • salt to taste; • black pepper to taste. Breadcrumbs for frying: • 40 g breadcrumbs; • plenty of peanut oil. Preparation: Start with the dough. Place the ricotta, Parmesan, crumbled tuna and drained anchovies in a bowl. Continue by putting the capers, chopped parsley, two beaten eggs and breadcrumbs into the bowl; mix everything together with your hands to create a compact dough, if necessary add salt and pepper and if the dough is too soft add breadcrumbs, on the contrary if too compact soften the mass with a little milk. Now you can make the meatballs by taking about 30 g of dough and rolling it with your hands to obtain a round, slightly flattened meatball. Roll the patties in breadcrumbs and then little by little put them in peanut oil at 180° and fry them until golden brown. TDrain them and place them on kitchen paper to remove excess oil. They are now ready to be served. __________________________________ RECIPE Pasta alla Norma It is one of the symbols of Sicilian cuisine. It was created in Catania to pay homage to Norma, the most beautiful opera by composer Vincenzo Bellini. It is a tasty pasta dish, seasoned with fresh tomato sauce and sliced and fried aubergines. Ingredients (for 4 people): • 500 g Sedani rigati; • 1 Vittoria purple aubergine; • 150 g salted sheep’s ricotta; • fine salt to taste. For the sauce: • 1.5 kg ripe Catanese ribbed tomatoes; • 4 cloves of garlic; • fine salt to taste; • 1 bunch of basil. For frying: • extra virgin olive oil to taste. Preparation: Wash the aubergine, then cut it into thin slices of about 8 mm, and place them in a colander; sprinkle them with salt and leave them to drain for about 15’; enough time to wash the tomatoes, cut them into four pieces and place them in a pan with three cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt and a bunch of basil. Leave everything to cook on a low flame for about 30’. After the 30’, remove the garlic and basil and pass the tomatoes through the vegetable mincer. Once the passata is obtained, transfer it to a frying pan and put in a clove of garlic and a sprig of basil and let it cook for about 40’. In the meantime, pour some extra virgin olive oil into a high-sided pan and bring it to a temperature of about 180° and fry the aubergines a little at a time until they are