YOU, & ME LET'S CANNOLO YOU SOME MORE.
As a wee one, I often recall eating pastries at any one of Karachi's multi-ethnic pastry shops - from home grown Pakistani delights, & Italian pasticceria, to French pâtisseries, & Middle Eastern sweets, usually after my body was fried from tennis, & swimming. There was even a small enclave in Karachi, Pakistan where I could try Chinese treats.
However, it wasn't until I first went to Europe at ten whence my curiosity for sweets, & desserts followed me to my very first cannolo. You can imagine my epiphanic experience, & in Sicily especially whence the cannoli hails from. You better believe it - this time my body wasn't fried, & sore, but the cannoli shells were. :)
That hunger never died, & took me back again recently to Antica Dolceria Bonajuto - it's the oldest chocolate factory in Sicily, & in particular close to Ragusa, in a town called Modica.
As you may recall, in my last cannolo review of Pasticceria di Pasquale, most parts of the island of Sicily the filling is prepared with sheep's milk ricotta. Whereas in the southestern corner of the island, in the province of Ragusa, cannoli (are) made with cow's milk ricotta.
THE CANNOLO:
You can become one with this cannolo. The shell is neither too hard nor too fragile. The ricotta has the most beautiful fragrance of milk (it didn't taste "weepy". Cow's-milk ricotta tends to be weepy, & runny if it's overly fresh). The ricotta was sublime, & thick like a milkshake. You could put your spoon in one, & it wouldn't budge, just like a proper milkshake. The fragrance was less of fruit, but of pure pastoral bliss, of cows, & of grass, & of the earthiness of the milk that takes me right back to my childhood in Karachi drinking water buffalo milk. Ahhhh...
I've been around a lot of Italians, & Sicilians over the years. Heyyyy, it doesn't hurt that I'm part Sicilian myself (& Pakistani, & Burmese too).
I've got a confession.
I'm a truth walker.
I'll tell you like it is about everything I know. If I don't know something, I'm not afraid to say so.
Are you ready for what I'm about to throw at you?
How teary eyed ready are you?
No, it's not a cannolo I'm about to put in your mouth either.
Here:
I never saw a chocolate chip in a cannolo ever amongst true Italian cannoli. To me that's just like putting ranch dressing on a pizza or ketchup on a hot dog. I am absolutely gagging just thinking about it. Really there's no real need for any toppings - even pistachios, & citron/candied fruits are quite optional, but are definitely authentic nonetheless.
TASTINGS & TOURS:
You'll get to know the history of their chocolate, & of the company, & the old Mesoamerican origins of the entire process.
The tour is limited to a minimum of atleast 8 people, & includes the history, an explanation of Bonajuto's distinctive techniques, & access into the laboratory to participate in the "beating" stage of chocolate. This includes a tasting of about 20 to 30 sweets. Even if you're not going to be available for the tour, you can always taste their chocolate pro bono without any prior notification. No prior experience necessary to eat either. Just taste though. ;)
I've tasted uncountable numbers of cannoli in my life, & a good number of them in Sicily. Amongst the excellent ones, none really stand out any more than the others.
This is why you WILL objectively not find the best cannolo in Sicily. There are countless examples of perfection. It all comes down to tradition, preferences, terroir (atleast when it comes to the ricotta, particularly the milk itself), style, & personal flair. The only places you'll likely find utterly (udderly - milk does come from udders ;P ) good or utterly (udderly) wrong cannoli outside the world of Sicily, where you'll find everything from overly thick shells to other variations of fillings, inauthentic ricotta, other cheaper fillings to mimic ricotta, & the absurd overuse of chocolate in cannolo.
Highly recommend that you take your confectionaries (no, just don't take your cannolo or cannoli to go, as the shells will likely become soft, despite the fact it's just a 10 min. walk. Sicily is hot, & humid) over to the Duomo di San Giorgio, & eat them on the steps for an extra sensory cannolo experience. MAYBE WHEN I VISIT AGAIN, YOU'LL HAVE BECOME ONE WITH THE CANNOLO, & YOU MIGHT STILL BE THERE SITTING ON THE STEPS OF THE OLD DOME. ;)
11/2018 read more