Cassata siciliana is a very festive-looking Italian dessert consisting of two or more layers of sponge cake, filled with ricotta, glazed with marzipan, and decorated with various kinds of candied fruit. This recipe is traditional not only in southern Italy but also in the U.S.A., among immigrants. Another version of cassata is made with different flavors of gelato (usually vanilla, strawberry & pistachio) arranged in vertical stripes. During the late '70s, this was the most expensive icecream you could get in a pastry shop, alongside French-style parfait. Because the name is likely derived from the Italian word 'cassa', modern versions of cassata are sometimes made to look like a box: the sponge cake is divided into rectangular pieces, most of them used for building layers, and some for covering the sides. Otherwise, traditional cassata is round-shaped. The individual desserts, or 'cassattine', are also round and predominantly green because the sides are decorated with glazed citron.
Although
traditionalists believe cassata was developed by the Arabs who
occupied Sicily between the 9th and 12th centuries, historians claim that no such dessert was known in southern Europe before
the 17th century and that striped cassata as we know it was introduced a hundred years later. According
to recent etymology, cassata is also not derived from cassa (or qas'ah, in Arabic) but paraphrased from the Latin word caseata, which means 'a preparation with cheese'. Paraphrasing is obviously not the same as developping a new word from another,
or else we might suggest that no derivative of the Italian word cacio uses the double -s. Perhaps cassata was named after some kind of bakeware after all. Custards baked in pots would often grace medieval, Renaissance
& Early Modern feasts. Whether these pots were defined as 'molds', 'cases' or 'boxes' is less important. It's possible that early versions of cassata were not layered, or filled with ricotta either. Or maybe they were: cheesecakes (and some of them elaborate) had been a favorite with Italians at least since ancient Rome.
Nearer our time, a 18th century Italian source mentions vanilla-flavored individual cassatas (cassettine alla vaniglia). Composed by Vincenzo Corrado, a gourmet intellectual from Naples, and published in 1793, Il Cuoco Galante unfortunately does not include a recipe for cassettine alla vaniglia, nor an ingredient list. Since there is no mention of ricotta or any other kind of farmer's cheese, it's likely that they were filled with, or entirely made of, custard.
We also know for certain that they were served as 'entremets'. 16th and 17th century English & Ottoman banquets were incomplete without those little dishes, both savory and sweet, that would appear between any two courses out of many. The Italian banquets, however, were organized in two parts. The first part, or service,
included dishes of meat, pasta, and vegetables; the second was made up of appetizers, desserts and entremets. A glossary of basic culinary terms in the appendix of the book merely described entremets as 'second service' food. Indeed, all of Corrado's menus finished with eight small desserts, the so-called 'round entremets'. For the August menu (featured on page 191) there were "pasticetti frolli con marmellata, merenghe ripiene all' Uova
molli, tartarette alla panna di latte, panettini alla pasta Reale,
pasticetti sfogliati alla Crema, spume bianche al Cedrato, cassettine
alla vaniglia, biscotti Amaricanti". Even if we lack recipes for some of these desserts, it's obvious they all fall under the category of small bites: tartlets, meringues, cookies, whips, biscuits and ...individual cassatas. Like the whips, these probably were eaten from a bowl or, if slightly denser than milk custards, upturned onto a plate. The name 'cassettina' might have referred to a utensil in which the dessert was baked, to the dessert itself after it was unmolded, or to an edible outer shell that bakers used for holding the custard together.
HOMEMADE CASSATA IN PICTURES
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Step 1 - Make the 'case' of biscuits.
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Step 2 - Strain the preserve. Make the ricotta filling.
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Steps 3, 4 - Fill the 'case' with layers of ricotta & biscuits.
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Step 5 - Lid with more biscuits.
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Step 6 - Unmold after refrigerating.
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CASSATA
This box-shaped cheesecake is made with petit-beurre although you can also use leftover sponge cake, optionally moistened with brandy.
I n g r e d i e n t s
100g powdered sugar
50g bitter chocolate, chopped
200g petit beurre
350g morello cherry preserve, strained
50g shelled pistachios, chopped
M e t h o d
1. Line the bottom and sides of an oblong metal or glass pan with biscuits. 2. In a bowl, combine ricotta with the sugar. Add the chocolate and mix, using a spoon. 3. Fill one third of the biscuit 'case' with this mixture. Sprinkle half of the cherries on top and press into the filling. 4. Cover with biscuits. Repeat with more cream, then fruit, then biscuits. Fill up with the rest of the cream and fruit. 5. Top with crushed biscuits and the chopped nuts and moisten with a little syrup from the cherry preserve. 6. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving.
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