SCIFITIEDDU: tomatoes, caciocavallo ragusano cheese, basil

Dame e Cavalieri di CONTI IN CUCINA, Sabbinirica,

The story goes that Heracles’ tenth labor was to fight the Geryon, a monster with three trunks, three heads and three pairs of arms in order to obtain the Cattle of Geryon . Defeated Geryon, Heracles went to Sicily.

Here, after having challenged in a boxing competition Erice, Aphrodite’s son, Heracles was robbed of the Cattle. Motia, a woman, came to the aid of the greek hero pointing him the three possible places where he might have found the scarlet beasts . Heracles, found the symbol of his triumph against the Geryon, in grateful recognition, built three cities named as the woman who helped him: the Motia on Cape Lilybaeum, the Motia near Agrigento, and the last, the Mediterranean Motia, where Modica is placed; for this reason, until the nineteenth century Modica was called the "City of Hercules."

This is the legend but the history is different. In the seventh century BC in Sicily there was the greek colonization: the foundation of Naxos and Syracusae in the eighth century. BC, the building of Akray in 663 BC, the foundation of Kasmenay and Kamarina, the early tyrants, democratic regimes, the kingdoms of Dionysius and Timoleon, until the final Hellenistic age.

A skyphos (Greek: σκύφος; plural skyphoi) is a two-handled deep wine-cup on a low flanged base or none. The handles may be horizontal ear-shaped thumbholds that project from the rim (in both Corinthian and Athenian shapes), or they may be loop handles at the rim or that stand away from the lower part of the body. Skyphoi of the type called glaux (owl) have one horizontal and one vertical thumbhold handle. This vessel was mainly used by the poor people to drink or to eat. The Sicilian word "scifu" indicating a stone sunken container used by farmers to feed the pigs, derives from skyphos. Continuing a not so pleasant analogy, the "Scifitieddu" is a bowl of pasta that contains some of the columns of the temple of our gastronomy, Pomodoro Pachino tomatoes, caciocavallo ragusano cheese and extra virgin olive oil.

Ora travagghiamu, this is the recipe:

Ingredients:

6 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp of salt
1 ¾ oz of active dry yesast
10 cups of flour
2 ½ cups of water
4 oz of Caciocavallo Ragusano cheese cut into pieces
Pomodoro Pachino tomatoes

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour onto a board, make a hollow in the flour, add warm water and yesast ,the olive oil, salt and begin to knead the ingredients into a dough

2. Impastare energicamente tutti gli ingredienti e lavorare l’impasto fino ad ottenere un composto liscio ed elastico.