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LA FESTA DEI MORTI (CELEBRATION OF THE DEAD)

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LA FESTA DEI MORTI (CELEBRATION OF THE DEAD)

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The "Festival of the Dead" in Sicily is a very heartfelt holiday, dating back to the 10th century, it is celebrated on November 2nd to commemorate the deceased. It is said that in ancient times on the night between 1st and 2nd November the deceased visited loved ones who were still alive, bringing gifts to the children.

In addition to toys of all sorts, there is the custom of giving new shoes, sometimes filled with sweets, such as the particular biscuits typical of this festival: the crozzi 'i mottu (dead man's bones) or the pupatelli filled with toasted almonds, the taralli donuts coated with sugary icing, the white and brown nucatoli and Totò, the former veiled in sugar, the latter in cocoa powder.

Dried fruit and chocolates accompany 'U Cannistru', a basket full of seasonal first fruits, dried fruit and other sweets such as martorana fruit (it is said that some nuns' garden was full of every goodness with fruit and vegetables and the bishop himself wanted to go and admire its beauty, but since the visit arrived in autumn the garden was bare and so the nuns decided to decorate it with a sweet fruit that imitated the real one as much as possible) and "Sugar Puppets" painted sugar statues.

An exclusively Palermo tradition, they are called "pupi a cena" or "pupaccena", due to a legend that tells of an Arab nobleman who fell into poverty, and offered them to his guests to make up for the lack of delicious food.

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Ingredients:

250 g of wheat

250g of chickpeas

1/4 organic lemon

extra virgin olive oil

pork lard

laurel leaves

salt

Soak the wheat grains in water for three days to soften, be sure to change the water once a day.

After three days, simply pour the wheat into a pan full of salted water and cook it for at least 5 hours.

Do the same whit chickpeas but you can also add aromatic herbs such as bay laurel leaves.

Add, preferably, pieces of pork lard to accentuate the flavor of the wheat and chickpeas.

Serve the wheat together with the chickpeas and a drizzle of EVO oil.

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Ingredients:

-500 g peeled and chopped almonds or almond flour

-500 g sugar

-125 ml water

-vanilla aroma

-food coloring

-arabic gum

-plastic leaves and fruit stalks

Finely grind the peeled almonds or alternatively use the almond flour. In a pan heat the water up and dissolve the sugar until it boils.  Turn off  and add vanilla aroma and almond flour.  Stir continuously until you get a soft but solid dough,and wait until it is lukewarm.

Start kneading until the dough becomes smooth and homogeneous and then model it into fruit and vegetables shapes. Let the little sweets  dry for at least 20 hours, after that you can paint them with bright food coloring and polish with a finishing lacquer of Arabic gum. Complete your fruits with  plastic leaves and fruit stalks to make them more realistic.

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Ingredients:

2 kg of sugar

½ liter of water

250 g of glucose

2 tablespoons lemon juice

vegetable colors

almond oil to taste

Pour the sugar into a pan and dissolve it with the water, place the pan on the heat and bring to boiling point. Stir continuously. Now add the lemon juice and glucose, continuing to mix. Check the cooking with a wooden spoon. If a small bubble forms on the tip, continue cooking, otherwise if the bubble is large, turn off the heat and quickly immerse the pan in cold water to stop cooking.

Let the mixture cool. Grease some molds representing puppets with almond oil, fill them with the sugar mixture and leave them to harden. When they are cold, remove them from the mold and decorate them with vegetable colours.

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Ingredients

300 g Flour

300 g Sugar

75 ml Water

1 pinch Cinnamon powder

6 Cloves

In a bowl mix the cinnamon with the flour and set aside. Pour the sugar, water and cloves into a large saucepan, mix and place on the heat. When boiling, remove from the heat and pour the flour little by little, stirring continuously and quickly until the mixture is smooth.

Pour onto a lightly floured work surface and leave to cool for a few minutes.

Form loaves about two cm thick and cut into pieces of about 4 cm. Make shallow cuts on each one or mark with the edges of a fork and place them side by side on a tray lined with baking paper.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180° for 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on the biscuits during cooking, they will be ready when the magic happens, that is when the sugar melts and forms the caramelized base, separating from the white part which will remain empty.

Remove the bones of the dead from the oven and leave to cool completely before serving.