(also called or, in
Sicilian, ) is a
Sicilian marzipan
Marzipan is a confectionery, confection consisting primarily of sugar and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract.
It is often made into Confectionery, sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzipan and ...
sweet
Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...
in the form of fruits and vegetables from the provinces of
Palermo
Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...
and
Trapani
Trapani ( ; ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') with 54,887 inhabitants, on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the mai ...
.
Realistically coloured with vegetable dyes, it is said to have originated at the
Benedictine
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
nunnery of
Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, Palermo, known as La Martorana after its foundress, when nuns decorated empty fruit trees with marzipan fruit to impress an archbishop visiting at a season when the trees were not fruiting. It is traditionally put by children's bedsides on
All Souls' Day.
SicilianFoodCulture.com: ''The history of the "Frutta Martorana"''
13 October 2019
See also
* Sicilian cuisine
Sicilian cuisine is the style of cooking on the island of Sicily. It shows traces of all cultures that have existed on the island of Sicily over the last two millennia. Although its cuisine has much in common with Italian cuisine, Sicilian foo ...
* List of Italian desserts and pastries
References
Further reading
* Lilliana Ballina: ''La frutta martorana''. Aurora Books, Santiago de Chile, 1992. .
* Maria Oliveri: ''I segreti del chiostro. Storie e ricette dei monasteri di Palermo''. Il Genio Editore, 2017. , .
External links
Martorana fruit
Commercial page with image
Italian confectionery
Cuisine of Sicily
Marzipan
{{Italy-dessert-stub