The Palermo church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio, well known as la Martorana, is a treasure trove of Byzantine mosaics.
La Martorana
As you go in the door, you’re greeted by a stunning mosaic of Ruggero II, King of Sicily.
His father was Jarl Rogeirr, descendant of Vikings, basically a Norman thug who enslaved Calabria in 1057 and then turned his sights to Sicily. He duly became Ruggero I, or Roger the First, in 1061. His behaviour improved from then on, probably due to the charm of Sicily. I greatly admired his statue in Naples.
Roger the Norman, Palazzo Reale, Napoli
There were three Kings named Ruggero and Palermo has numerous statues to prove it. Almost as many statues as Garibaldi. (I took scores of photos of the Kings to send to my cousin, another Roger, in Australia).
I was reminded of Ruggero II when Joe Malignaggi sent me this interesting link What can the medieval King Roger teach us about tolerance? We can learn a lot from Ruggero II indeed.
Rugerro II was fortunate to grow up in a very cosmopolitan atmosphere with excellent advisors such as the Emir Christodoulus of Palermo. During his reign, Palermo (the Arabs’ splendid city of Bal’harm) emerged as one of the wealthiest royal capitals of Europe.
The Arab-Norman Kingdom of Sicily became the most culturally advanced court in the Mediterranean world, a luminous centre of culture which attracted scholars, scientists, poets, artists and skilled artisans of all kinds.
Muslims, Jews, Byzantine Greeks and Latin Normans worked together to form a society that created some of the most extraordinary buildings the world has ever seen. Indeed, for one brief shining moment Arab-Norman Sicily was the most civilised place in the western world, even beyond the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, a place coarse and crude by comparison, where other Normans had set themselves up as kings.
Rugerro and his court ate well too and I’d love to get my hands on a recipe from that time but strict secrecy was employed by cooks regarding potentially lucrative formulas. Few, if any, recorded recipes survive.
A lot of traditional Sicilian dishes are termed Arab legacies, but it’s more accurate to say that they were born in Sicily and incorporate both Sicilian and Arab traditions. The Pasticcio di Pollo of the Emir of Catania is a good example, since it contains olives, capers, and other ingredients introduced prior to the Arab conquest but reflects the Arabic penchant for stuffed foods as well as the use of pistachio nuts. And that’s what I decided to try.
I didn’t make the pastry but used, instead, a packet of frozen pastry sheets.
Ingredients
- Roughly 1 kg of chicken thighs
- 1/2 litre of stock
- 1 egg
- 60 g of pistachios peeled
- 60 g almonds
- 100 g fresh breadcrumbs
- 2-3 tablespoons of parsley chopped
- 1-2 tablespoons capers
- 60 g of lemon juice
- lemon zest
- salt
- pepper
- 2 sheets of prepared pastry
Method
- In a saucepan, brown the chicken in olive oil
- Sprinkle with a decilitre of stock and continue cooking
- Add, if necessary, a little stock at a time.
- When cooked, about 40 minutes, remove the pan from heat, and let the chicken cool and carefully remove all bones
- Lightly toast pistachios and almonds, then chop coarsely.
- Pour the remaining stock into a bowl and soak the bread, dried fruit, eggs, parsley, capers and juice and grated rind of lemon, chicken meat, mix well, salt and pepper. .
- Line a baking pan (about 24 cm in diameter) with baking paper and buttered sides.
- Layer one sheet into the baking pan, spread in the filling and cover with the other sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes. Withdrawn, let stand 5 minutes and serve.
