This is a truly historic dessert. Cicero, the Roman philosopher and politician born in 106 B.C., is among those who first publicly praised it. He had spent some time in the Sicilian city of Marsala, on the west coast of the island, and described a “farinaceous lactose tube: a very sweet dish”.
A specialty of Arab women
The Sicilian cannolo was made by the Arabs, specifically Arab women, who lived in the secret chambers of the harems built in Sicily during the Arab reign. But Cicero’s description proves that they didn’t invent this delicacy. In fact, the name comes from canna (“cane”), from the thin and edible leaves of a specific cane with which the shepherds would roll the ricotta cheese made from the milk of their sheep. Resembling a large cigar, they would add some honey and enjoy it as a snack.
When the Arabs developed the recipe, they added candied fruits to the filling, while the outer layer became a wheat wafer that was fried and rolled to maintain the original shape. The Arabs left Sicily in 1072, when the island passed under the Normans, but a few Arab women hid in the impenetrable cells of the first Christian monasteries and this recipe spread, becoming increasingly popular. The recipe changed as well and, as the centuries passed, more sweet pieces were added to the filling, most notably fragments of chocolate and powdered sugar.
A self-service version
Since its conception, the cannolo was offered as a self-service food, with wafer and filling available separately. Each person could add inside the fried little cylinder what s/he wanted and in the desired portions. The reason was practical; after a while, the ricotta filling and all the little sweet pieces would sag the wafer.
Some pastry chefs have tried to solve the issue by lining the inside of the wafer with a thin layer of chocolate, especially the wafers hailing from the Sicilian city of Modica, which has been producing chocolate since the 1700s.
The right wine
The cannolo is a close relative of the Sicilian cassata, since they both share the ricotta cheese and other ingredients. In both cases, the best wines are sweet Sicilian wines like Moscato, Passito di Pantelleria, Malvasia delle Lipari and aged Marsala wines.
