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The no-knead bread (Jim Lahey/Mark Bittman)was great, of course I didn´t succed to 100%, but being a novice bread baker, I was satisfied anyway. I used a way too large Römertopf, so the bread was a bit flat, but rose perfectly and had a wonderful crust. I used 1 1/4 of tsp of salt, which I found too little, it might have been the sea salt I used...I definitely must use more salt next time. And yes, I am going to make this again, as it is a no fuss bread. Umm...did I tell that I also swapped 1 cup of plain flour to Graham flour?
I made the test with my own bottle and here is the result:
pretty good for a beginner ;)
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Labels: baked goods, beef, beverage, italian, Sicily, travel
I know I have promised more from Sicily but right now there are other things wanting to be blogged :D
The weekend after the visit I bought the pale blue plates too...

Not much left from the first jar...
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Labels: café, chocolate, Gothenburg, Göteborg, jam, strawberry
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I loved how these guys gathered on the steps of the church early every morning to talk about politics and God knows what and how later in the evening their places were taken by younger men and boys watching people on their evening passeggiata.
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Another black "thing" I became obsessed with was Mount Etna. Before actually seeing it (I call it "her" for myself) I thought it was such a tasteless thing, every tourist taking pictures of it and buying loads of kitschy postcards, but when I finally laid my eyes on it, I couldn´t stop staring. It kept me spellbound. I was looking at her while eating my breakfast, I was gazing at her from our hotel window in the afternoon and especially in the evenings when we could see the still glowing streams of lava.
But since this is a food blog I should here mention that the territory on the lower slopes of the mountain is extraordinarily fertile. In the cultivated zone there are oranges, lemons and tangerines, and on the higher slopes are planted with groves of olives, apples, pears, pistachios (the famous Bronte pistachios!), hazelnuts and vineyards. It is also one of the most important honey-producing areas of Italy, known for its citrus blossom honey.
I am not going to bore you with more talk, it feels like I could go on forever. Of course I just have to mention that I have never had such excellent bread in my life then in Sicily. The food (or shall I say our choice of restaurant or trattoria) wasn´t the best one every time, but the bread was.
Also a beverage I fell in love with is the latte di mandorla. Quite sweet but so refreshing! I made a test tasting in Catania, Taormina, Modica and Siracusa and I must say my favorite latte di mandorla was made by a very kind and modest man in Catania. I picked the place because it didn´t look "touristy", it was a simple place with a few green plastic chairs stacked upon each other.

We had Pasta di Mandorla and Cassata at the famous Bar Pasticceria Chemi in Taormina, but dare I say I was disappointed? I have had Cassata at every place I could but the best one I had at a little taverna in Catania. The Cassata at Chemi was overly sweet, as was the marzipan covering on it, and that made it impossible to detect even the slightest taste of ricotta.
The marsipan fruit was a piece of art!
More coming another day.
Posted by vonsachsen 8 comments


The cake is made with oil that makes it moist and I simply loved the filling. I didn´t have the orange blossom essence George used, only an ordinary orange blossom water, so I added some grated orange zest both to the cake and filling, and it was incredible! This is a keeper recipe, although - since this is Tea for ONE - I would halve the recipe because this makes enough cake for at least 12 people! I made the cake just before leaving to Sicily (wasn´t too smart) but luckily I was invited for a grill party so I took the cake with me. Yum!
Note: Even if I halved the cake I would leave the amount of filling as it is ;)
Previous post on The Color Orange http://vonsachsen.blogspot.com/2008/02/color-orange.html
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Labels: baked goods, chicken, color orange, condensed milk, human rights, orange