[Sca-cooks] some recipes and questions

[Terry Decker]

Cassata is a dish named after the bowl it is formed in and derives from 
Arabic cooking.  There are a number of cassata recipes, but I suspect 
cassata al fiorno (baked cassata) may be the closest to the original.  I 
haven't seen any period recipes for it, but I haven't been looking.  It 
might be worth looking in the Arabic corpus for the original form.

Bear

> The third (and final, at least for now) is Cassata. The book spends a page 
> and a half telling me all about its history and cultural significance, and 
> then does not provide a recipe. The description is good enough for me to 
> make one, and I have found several modern recipes, since it is a major 
> Sicilian food item.  Do any of you have a reference for a period recipe? 
> (It is a cake filled with a sweetened Ricotta cheese filling.) It is 
> supposed to be an adaptation of an Arabic dish, and the cake is based on 
> the "pan de Spagna" and/or the Spanish "bizcocho".
>
> Pax,
> Aoghann