“Being a travelling monk in sixteenth-century Sicily couldn’t have been easy. During Lent, the season of austerity preceding Easter, monks were expected to hike on foot day after day for forty days, ministering to the faithful across the land. Although they were able to stop at monasteries for sustenance, eating meat was prohibited…”

“There’s an excellent Sicilian pasticceria in my neighborhood in Brooklyn called Monteleone, owned by a man who was born and raised in Sicily. His pastries taste as authentic as any you’ll find in Sicily and, lucky for all of us, he makes cuccidati year-round, not just at Christmas time. (That’s when he makes a larger, ring-shaped version called buccellati, or bracelets.)…”

“It’s not clear whether the reference to wealth here relates to the caloric value of this chocolate-topped caramel slice, or the fact that sugar and chocolate were out of reach for the average Scottish peasant back in the day. Let’s just settle on the fact that this is R I C H. And delicious. A small piece, savoured slowly, is perfect….” – Michael & Pippa James