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X Italian Breads and Pizzas
Pellegrino Artusi's Foccaccia coi Siccioli o ciccioli
Pellegrino Artusi's Focaccia coi Siccioli o Ciccioli (Sweet flat bread using sugar, Marsala and greaves)
Originated from: Italy
Occasion: Any time
Contributed by: Taken from "La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene" compilato da Pellegrino Artusi (1891, 1907)

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Ingredients

500 grams (about 1 pound) flour
200 grams (about 7 ounces) of fine powdered sugar
150 grams (about 5-2/3 ounces) butter
150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) greaves [pork cracklings], minced*
60 grams (about 2 ounces) lard
4 tablespoons Marsala or white wine
2 whole eggs and 2 yolks
lemon zest

for decoration
icing sugar

Original Italian text
Farina, grammi 500
Zucchero in polvere fine, grammi 200
Burro, grammi 160
Siccioli, grammi 150*
Lardo, grammi 60
Marsala o vino bianco, ucchiaiate N. 4
Uova, due intere e due rossi
Odore di scorza di limone

zucchero a velo

*Nowadays Italians generally spell "siccioli" as "ciccioli" (There used to be a variety of spellings, depending on the Italian region in question.). Cookbooks translate "ciccioli" as pork cracklings or grieves but those North Americans who were born in Southern Italy think of "ciccioli" as slices of unprocessed, unsalted, "fresh pork belly slices" sold in Italian butcher shops (the ones sold in American supermarkets are often salted and not right). However, fresh pork belly is hard to bake with. Most Italians brown it prior to using it. Still, because it is meat, and it is being used to flavor dough that is set aside in a warm room for hours and hours prior to baking there is always a risk of spoilage. So processed pork cracklings might actually be a better alternative to real "ciccioli".



Directions

Once the dough has been made, working it as little as possible, add the pork cracklings, minced.

Grease a copper baking pan with lard and pour in the dough, pressing it down with your knuckles to even it out (though the surface will not be smooth). But it shouldn't be more than a finger high.

If the cake is to be served in pieces, using the tip of a knife score it into squares, before you put it in the oven. Repeat this operation when the cake is half way done, because the cuts close up easily.

When it's done, sprinkle with icing sugar.



Original Italian text

Formata che avrete la pasta, lavorandola poco uniteci i siccioli sminuzzati, ungete una teglia di rame col lardo e versatecela pigiandola colle nocche delle dita onde venga bernoccoluta; ma non tenetela piu alta di un dito.

Prima di passarla al forno fatele, se dopo cotta volete servirla a pezzi, dei tagli quadrati colla punta mente si chiudono, e quando sara cotta spolverizzatela di zucchero a velo.


Notes

The recipe in this entry was taken from "La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene manuale Pratico per le Famiglie" compilato da Pellegrino Artusi. The book was first published in 1891. Since then many Italian editions have been published. Olga Ragusa's selection of recipes from Pellegrino Artusi's famous cookbook, titled "The Italian Cook Book," can be found in its entirety at www.archive.org (It's free). The University of Toronto recently published a new English edition of Pellegrino Artusi's "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well"; many of the recipes in this edition can be found at www.books.google.ca..... P.S. I tried this recipe and found it unbelievably strange. I had no idea Italians combined pork cracklings with sugar. As this recipe is in the dessert section of Artusi's book, it must have been presented as one. Many regions offer fried pizza dough topped with sugar as a dessert, so it's not all that weird to combine "flat bread" with sugar. The weird part is combining sugar with pork cracklings. On the other hand rustic Italian Easter pies sometimes combine a variety of meat products with a sweet dough, so maybe it is not that weird at all. It could be that in the 21st century we've become accustomed to a standardized list of Italian foods (Doesn't include such recipes as this). In Montreal Italian pastry shops all seem to offer the same foodstuffs -- the almond cookies sold in St. Leonard look no different than those sold in downtown Montreal. You would think Montreal had one Italian pastry chef, rather than dozens. There is very little variety. The prices are high, but the choices are limited. Most of the sweets are Sicilian in origin but that's O.K. as Sicilians have some of the best sweets in the world, the problem is that so few Sicilian sweets are represented. Going into an Italian pastry shop in Montreal is as exciting as tearing opening a Mars chocolate bar. You know exactly what you are going to get. Too much said.... Personally, this recipe does not appeal to me, but then it's possible I didn't quite do it right. Comments and photo: Mary Melfi.

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