Scorzette d'arancia

When I lived in Venice, my friends used to say that I was too fussy about two things: the beach and oranges. Now guess who spoiled me? Sicily, of course! The free golden sandy beaches of the Ragusa's coast line and the fresh top quality oranges this land produces.

I grew up eating oranges brought to us by friends who had small orange gardens in the area, mostly of the Tarocco variety. One of my mother's friends in particular, Mariuccia, still has a wonderful garden right in the archaeological area of Cava Ispica and, luckily, her son is currently taking good care of it.
Whenever we meet, we often talk about the times when we used to go to the garden as children and laugh about the fact that while we were supposed to help our parents picking oranges and lemons, we spent most of the time eating the big, firm, pulpy oranges straight from the trees.
They never shouted at us though, I think they were not even expecting much help at all. But my mother used to get upset if we threw the orange peel away. We had to keep it as we were 100% sure these oranges had not being sprayed with chemicals and she could use the peel for cooking. She still does so. We both use fresh orange zest in many recipes, prepare candid orange peel and dry it so that we can use it even when oranges are not in season.

For my Sicilian dessert recipes series here is a simple family recipe:

You take orange peel from fresh organic unwaxed oranges. You place the peel in a bowl of water for three days changing the water every day. Then you dry them carefully, you weigh them and place them in a saucepan with the same amount of sugar (for example 500gr orange peel and 500gr sugar). Then you keep starring until they are ready. The sugar will go through three phases, it will melt, then foam and finally coat the orange peel.
Let the pictures on the side guide you. Then you line them on kitchen paper and let them dry.

Their are a great sweet to have on their own and, as my friends at Antica Dolceria Bonajuto reminded their fans on Face Book a week ago, they also perfect to help you digesting an heavy winter meal. By the way, they make their own delicious version that you should not miss if you visit the shop.