I wanted to make something simple today. Simple and sweet. Something with the unmistakable taste of Sicily, so I went for oranges soaked in the gorgeous rubino wine of Marsala.
In Sicily, when you can’t smell the sea, you smell the orange groves. And that’s every day and night, unless their powerful fragrance is overshadowed by the lemon groves.
The beautiful blood oranges are common here.
OK, the oranges are in hand, now the marsala.
This wine is named for the lovely little town of Marsala, an entrancing place, built on the ruins of the ancient Carthaginian Lilybaion and once one of the most important cities of Sicily.
I visited the Donnafugata Winery in Marsala and had to be prised out of the place. I had no idea that the marsala tasted so different to what I had sipped, slowly, back in Australia, where it was synonymous with tackiness – served on red and white checked tablecloths with bowls of uninspiring penne drowned in a faux bolognese sauce.
The real marsala wine is nothing at all like tacky. It’s a beautifully rich dessert wine with a sweet, enticing aroma and I could easily drink too much of it!
Here’s the oranges with marsala recipe
It’s not really a recipe, just a way of serving orange slices Adults only.
Ingredients
- 6 oranges
- 1 large cup of marsala
- handful of toasted almonds
- tiny sprinkle of sugar
Method
- Peel the oranges
- Slice and put into layers in a bowl
- Sprinkle the final layer with the teeny amount of sugar.
- Leave them in the fridge for a couple of hours
- Place them on a plate or bowl , dribble some marsala over and garnish with a few almond slivers
