Sicilian Festive Desserts: Cassata, Sfince and Cassatelle

An experience in Ileana's own home — a professional cook and Slow Food member — in her kitchen in Mondello, a few steps from the sea. Not a cooking school: a real Sicilian home, where you cook together and then sit down to eat.

Some Sicilian desserts represent the island all over the world, but alongside cassata and sfince there are lesser-known sweets that are just as traditional.

Between craft and technique you'll discover the sweet heart of Sicily, savouring sheep's milk ricotta cream and letting yourself be won over by the scents of citrus, spices and delicate marzipan. At the end you'll taste what you made, served with a good dessert wine.

Desserts to choose from

• Sicilian cassata — sponge cake, ricotta cream and marzipan
• Buccellato — shortcrust pastry with dried figs, candied fruit, raisins and spices
• Sfince di San Giuseppe — soft fried pastries filled with ricotta cream
• Cassatelle — fried pastries filled with ricotta and chocolate
• Almond biscuits — only in combination with sfince or cassatelle

Available all year round, subject to ingredient availability (buccellato depends on dried figs, a seasonal local product).

Good to know

• Small-group experience, from 2 people
• Ingredients and kitchen equipment included
• You get the recipes from the lesson in digital format
• Comfortable clothes recommended
• Hosted in Italian and English