You could spend a lifetime eating desserts in Palermo! Maybe you remember the famous scene in The Godfather. After Clemenza and his men kill the traitor Paulie in the car, he says, “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” The line about the cannoli was improvised by the actor, but it helped make these Sicilian pastry tubes filled with fresh ricotta famous around the world.
There are many legends about the origins of cannoli. One of them takes us back to the harem during the period of Arab rule in Sicily. To please their emir, the women created a new dessert whose shape resembled… well, you can probably guess. Another version says they actually invented it as a joke.
Another legend links cannoli to Sicilian convents. In fact, these stories can easily fit together. Convents often took old Arab recipes for sweets and adapted them in their own pastry kitchens to sell. If you’d like to try cannoli from a convent, I recommend visiting the Monastery of Saint Catherine. Sadly, the cannoli are no longer made by the nuns themselves, but they are still prepared in the monastery kitchen using the old recipes. And it’s a real pleasure to enjoy one in the peaceful monastery courtyard. The pastry shop is free to enter, although you need to go through the main entrance to the monastery museum.
One of the biggest secrets behind a great cannolo is fresh ricotta. That means the best cannoli are found where the ricotta is made. One of those places is at Ballarò Market, where the wonderful Benedetta makes fresh ricotta every day. No, that’s not the name of the stall—it’s the name of the woman. If you enter the market from the Cathedral side, walk almost all the way to the end, past the touristy stalls. And make sure you come before lunchtime. A cannolo costs just €1, but the filling is incredible. I have to admit that when I made my first cannoli, I even asked Benedetta about a few details of the recipe I wasn’t sure about. Once you’ve seen and tasted this ricotta cream, you’ll always know what a real cannolo should be like.