AUTUMN
2022
Aeolian colors and scents, the authentic experience of Al Belvedere Salina through its candied fruit
Candied fruit immediately brings to mind panettone, but perhaps few know that each of them has a precise meaning: raisins symbolized money, orange for love, and cedar for Eternity and health.
I was in Syracuse in a wonderful market. Suddenly I come across a multi-coloured stall, with on a shelf, inside large glass jars, candied fruit of all kinds: whole mandarins, cedrata, lemon peel, orange, and pumpkin.
An elderly lady asks for cedrata to prepare a traditional dessert for her daughter and while she pays, she adds, "In the end, she doesn't eat candied fruit because they are too sweet, but without these, the dessert cannot be made!"
I buy them all and we taste them immediately while we take a nice walk in the wonderful Ortigia.
Too sweet! Yes, definitely too sweet, I think.
I take these thoughts home with me and I link them to my family experiences, to the Aeolian traditions but above all to the desire to create an "authentic soul" for Al Belvedere Salina.
The small peasant village from which our small resort was born has always had a story to tell, and in my mind, everything began to take shape by itself. The tales of grandmothers and older neighbours, and traditional recipes, all this has become the unique experience of Al Belvedere Salina.
The first candied fruit I wanted to try my hand at was the whole candied mandarins. Whole mandarins because you didn't have to lose anything of that beauty and that symbol and because for me it is the intense scent of mandarin that brings to mind Christmas and its atmosphere.
Like everything in the kitchen, passion, dedication, and experimentation are fundamental steps so that the result is what you want, what you expect. I wanted my candied mandarin not to be too sweet and to keep its colour, scent, and intensity at the same time. This is how whole candied mandarins, whole candied Chinese mandarins (kumquats), candied citron, candied orange, and pumpkin are born.
Sweet but not too sweet, also because we can feel less guilty if we dip them in chocolate.
Today with great joy and a certain emotion, fourteen years after those first attempts, thanks to the collaboration with the Master Pastry Chef Antonio Pesaresi of Lipari and with Roberto Rossello's Aeolian Flavors, the first Panettoni with candied fruit from the Belvedere Salina and the candied capers of Sapori Eoliani are born.
If I had to say what candied fruit is for me, I would say that they are colours and scents that even just closing the eyes immediately return to the mind and give that sense of profound belonging to my beloved island, Salina.