The cookery of the children of abraham

The Sicily of Giacinta is a bridge linking Mediterranean Europe, made of exchanges, recognition and contamination. The reason, besides its historical vocation and its coastal territory, is that it is a frontier which looks ahead with intellectual curiosity to know the languages and the cultures that are born and are developed from the sea.

Various rich tastes, triumphs in which several influences are mixed since ancient times. Giancinta's journey could have a historical double: Abraham, father of the three religions monotheist.

The Mediterranean appears with its archetypes and ancestral myths: vegetables, cereals, fish, milk products, olive oil. These culinary customs were the heritage of the ancient people of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Giacinta brings all this to the table beginning with a salsiccia di ostriche : the intestines of a horse is filled with oysters and field vegetables. This combination dates back to fenician idea from the first millennium b.c.

The first dish is instead a Sicilian recipe of the first millennium b.c. it is the lasagne all'uso sicano , pasta with honey, ricotta, flavouring and meat fillets. For the Hebrews honey symbolized manna; at first the sugary substance extracted from dates, passing then to the use of honey, despite the fact that the bee was not considered pure, as it was seen as an insect. For the Hebrews it was the symbol of the promised land and matrimonial love. It was a good preservative for foods and it is said that Herod preserved for many years the body of a beloved youth in honey.

Amongst an endless variety of specialties, those which have a fish base, of extraordinary quality as the fish come from the three seas that surround the island. The second dish is comprised of pesce secondo l'uso degli ebrei in Sicily, a recipe from the first century AD where the fish is cooked with wild vegetables, oil and sea salt.

It is said that the Hebrews came to Sicily, as castaways after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. According to others, they arrived together with the Arabs when they conquered the island and settled, living peacefully with the natives and the Muslims. Giudecche was founded where rigid alimentary rules were imposed. The fish was eaten in the "Kedera" (blackened) or in the " ilpas satum".

As a dessert Giacinta brings to the table the spirali dolci alla cartaginese , a recipe influenced by the punica wars of the VII century B.C.: the basic ingredient is flour which is fried in olive oil resulting every time in the sweet having a different shape.

The wine that accompanies the meal is flavoured with spices and flower petals which are the influences of the Romans in Sicily; the water instead, as it was in the ancient Jewish times, is flavoued with cedro, honey and sage. The cedar tree, whose fruit was very pleasant provided, together with the cypress, wood with which King Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.