The origins of cassata are thought to be of Arab origin, between the ninth and eleventh centuries.
The Arabs, in fact, introduced sugar cane, lemon, bitter orange, mandarin and almond to Sicily: the queen of pastry was born from the marriage of these wonders and ricotta.
The name “cassata” derives from the Arabic term “quas’at”, which means “terracotta vase”, probably referring to the mold in which cassata was traditionally prepare.
The first Sicilian cassata, apparently, was quite simple: a pastry shell filled with sweetened ricotta and then baked.
A turning point came with the creation of royal pasta or Martorana: a mixture of almond flour and sugar colored green with herbal extracts; almond paste replaced short crust pastry, and from baked cassata we moved on to cold-coposed cassata.
The history of the Sicilian cassata also has Spanish origins by virtue of the island’s art of chocolate making and sponge cake. And then the Baroque period which added candied fruit.
Tintu è cu nun mancia a cassata a matina ri Pasqua” or “Damned is he who doesn’t eat cassata on Easter morning”. It is actually impossible to resist the goodness of cassata, whether it is Easter, Christmas or Epiphany candied fruit
