Teste di Turco Sicilian Recipe

The gastronomic tradition of Sicily is built up on the melting pot of different people that governed the island. This is also the case for the traditional Teste di Turco (Turkish Heads), one of the traditional sweets from the city of Scicli, in the Noto Valley.

Discover more about this Sicilian delicatessen and learn how to make them on your own with the original Teste di Turco Sicilian recipe!

The tradition behind of the Teste di Turco

Teste di Turco are strongly linked with the Festa delle Milizie, a great event that takes place on the last Saturday of May in the city centre of Scicli. On this very day, the population celebrates the victory of the Normans over the Saraceni, the Turkish population that wanted to conquer Sicily at the beginning of the XI century.

The battle took place in the area of Donnalucata, and the local people managed to win over the Turkish with the help of the Holy Virgin, who still today is strongly celebrated in all the Scicli territory.

Honouring the victory, the Sicilian sweet has the shape of a Turkish turban. Teste di Turco are like very big puffs, filled with pastry cream or ricotta cheese, and they are made with choux pastry and a sac-a-poche. 

If you happen to tour around Scicli or Ragusa in one of our magnificent villas (find here the perfect retreat for you), we strongly recommend you to have a bite of this delicious sweet - you will take with you an incredible memory of your holiday in Sicily!

In the meantime, try to make them in your kitchen. Following our recipe, inherited from our grandmothers, you will feel like being in Scicli every time you need a Sicilian break from the day-to-day. Seeing is believing!

Teste di Turco Sicilian Recipe 

Ingredients for 4 people: 

• 350 gr flour 00

• 5 eggs

• 100 gr of lard

• 350 gr fresh sheep's ricotta

• Sugar and honey to decor

You will need your oven, a sac-a-poche with a star decorating tip (the best is 8 pointed star), greaseproof paper and an oven pan.

Preparation

First of all, melt the lard over low heat. 

When melted, remove the pan from the heat and add slowly the filtered flour, mixing well in order to not make clumps.

Let it rest until cold, then incorporate the eggs one at a time and knead the mixture (the dough should not be too much liquid) - here you have your choux pastry!

Put the dough in a pastry bag, and create some big puffs. Work on spirals, they should be large as a teacup saucer more or less.

Bake in the oven for half an hour at 180 degrees, then let them completely cool down.

Now, make the ricotta cheese cream: mix the ricotta cheese with the sugar in a bowl, and that's it. Then, melt a bit of honey in a small saucepan and when the time to taste Sicily comes, fill the Teste di Turco with the ricotta cheese cream (or with the pastry cream) and cover them with honey, and they are ready to taste!