An ancient tradition, older than the panettone, which comes from Sicily. But in Bagheria it has a particular evolution
Promote it "sfincione"And create a specification that protects and protects the Bagherese tradition. These are the main objectives of the nascent Bagheria slow food baker community, the city of eighteenth-century villas famous for having given birth to the neorealist painter Renato Guttuso (to whom a museum of contemporary art is dedicated within Villa Cattolica).
In the town overlooking the Sicilian Tyrrhenian coast – only 15 kilometers from Palermo – the sfincione was the king of the Christmas period, well before the advent of panettone. It is a mixture of Sicilian wheat flour, with a typical round shape, with a dressing of anchovies, you but (Sicilian cheese from raw sheep's milk) sliced, bread crumbs with grated pecorino cheese, onion, salt and extra virgin olive oil.
History: origins
In 1650 the prince Giuseppe Branciforte of Butera – prominent exponent of Sicilian politics – after the failure of the plot against the Crown to get the separation of Sicily from Spain, he decides to retire to his possessions near Palermo, having an imposing and majestic fortified palace built around which he developed over the years later, today's Bagheria. The entire court of servants of the Prince who previously resided in the Palermo palace also moved into the new residence. Among these there were also the Monsus, or cooks at the service of Sicilian aristocratic families, who used to reproduce the recipe for the sfincione created by the nuns of the monastery of San Vito for the Branciforte family. The dish of the religious – in turn revisiting an Arab or perhaps Greek recipe – included the use of bechamel, chicken offal and peas. Once in Bagheria the chefs of the Prince decided to use the raw materials of the territory (such as the sardines of Aspra, a seafaring hamlet of Bagheria) and replace the béchamel with the delicious tuma produced by the local dairy products. Second Antonio Mineo – selector of ancient Sicilian grains and food manager of Antico Forno Valenti since 1887 – the Bagherian sfincione can be considered the first real Sicilian gourmet dish, since it was born from a reworking of the Monsù on the basis of an ancient conventual recipe and destined for the nobility and the clergy.
History: our days
After the Second World War the price of tomatoes dropped considerably, becoming accessible to the people. And it is precisely in this period that almost all the ingredients are eliminated from the sfincione in favor of tomato sauce. Thus was born the famous red variant of the "sfincione palermitano", a street food purchased in the alleys and in the markets. A different story instead for the Bagherese variant: in the popular tradition families brought ingredients to create their own sfincione with the help of the maestro sfincionario.
The ancient wood oven
Bagheria is one of the few places in Sicily where still today there are the wood-fired ovens of the nineteenth century, fed exclusively by olive branches: Antico Forno Valenti since 1887, Ragusa oven and bakery Don Pietro which is reopening – after twenty years of closure – the ancient activity of 1864 of the Vella family (another historic family of Bagherese bakers).
Bakers of the Slow Food community
An unsurpassable goodness initially linked to the Christmas period – the first days of December began to end after Christmas – then cleared in recent times throughout the year. The best bakers, all belonging to the Slow Food community of Bagheria, where to try sfincione are: Carlo Conti of the Conti Bakery; Maximum Expired dell 'Antica Forneria Expired; Maurizio Valenti dell 'Antico Forno Valenti since 1887; Gaetano Morici of the Elitè Bakery; Giampiero Pecoraro of the bakery Don Pietro; Vita Gagliano of the La Spiga Bakery; Gabriele Ragusa of the Ragusa oven is Michele Mancino of the Mancino Bakery.
The Sfincione Fest
Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 November returns the appointment with him Sfincione Fest, now in its third edition. Two days to discover the secrets and taste the delicious sfincione of Bagheria in the stands of the community bakers, set up along Corso Umberto I.
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