January 2013 Edition

T h e S i c i l i a n A s s o c i a t i o n o f A u s t r a l i a N e w s l e t t e r

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As we bring in the new year, TSAA would like to thank its members and friends, for the support that has given to each and every event organised during 2012. The truth is that an event is simply an opportunity for people to come together, and it is the people that give the event its soul.

The year began with events in late March – the first of the Sicilian Language classes on 21st April and the Sicilian Trivia night held on 23rd March, both held at the Italian Institute of Culture, followed by the annual Sicilian Vespers dinner, on 28th March, again held at Mezzo Restaurant. In April, it was the Youth Group’s turn to step out with a coffee and cake night at Brunetti in Carlton on 19th April.

May saw another Sicilian Language class, on 16th May, followed on 20th May with the first of the Sicilian Cooking Classes, again held at Princes Hill Secondary College. Finally, the first of the SWAG evenings (the Sicilian wine appreciation group) was held at The Sicilian Restaurant, Richmond, on 22nd May. June saw the Youth Group hold its first dinner, at Il Posto Nostro, on 1st June, followed by anoth-er Sicilian Language class on 13th June.

July saw TSAA hold its first Castagnata, at Pitruzello Winery in Sunbury. A very large number of you attended for pizza and castagne

on a pleasant Sunday afternoon.

2012 – A THANKYOU TO OUR MEMBERS

January 2013 Edition Page 2

August saw Melbourne winter arrive, with cold and wet nights, and a perfect excuse to hold another wine appreciation

dinner. August was also the time to remember a legend in photography and film making, at least for we who lived in the inner

suburbs of Melbourne in the 60’s and 70’s, Giorgio Mangiamele, with TSAA holding a Mangiamele Retrospective at the Italian

Institute of Culture.

With football finals’ fever upon us in September, nearly 200 members and friends attended the second Annual Gala evening at St.

Kilda Town Hall on 8th September. The evening, thanks to you, was a resounding success, with paintings by Sicilian artists and the

beautiful young voices of the Young Opera Singers of Australia complimenting the marvellous ambience of the St. Kilda Town Hall.

Later in the month, over 30 people participated in the final Sicilian Cooking class for the year, which was followed by a lunch at-

tended by over 40 people who enjoyed the delicious dishes that had been prepared, in an alfresco setting.

November saw the AGM, and the election of a new committee, followed by the Youth Group’s Briscola night, which proved a

success, as there were a fair few people playing briscola at the Christmas Picnic at Olinda on 2nd December.

From an information point of view, the regular newsletter has been the avenue through which TSAA has kept you all informed about

what it is doing and planning. TSAA has also launched its new website, which will provide members and the public information

about what TSAA has done and is planning.

So that was the year. The many and varied events gave TSAA an opportunity to bring together as many of you to enjoy what we all

know and love – Sicilian hospitality. We have mixed art with culture with food and wine with entertainment to ensure that TSAA has

something to offer all of you.

We hope that you have enjoyed what has been offered during 2012, and look forward to another exciting year in 2013.

The Committee.

January 2013 Edition Page 3

La Vigilia (Christmas Eve) and the so-called “Feast of the Seven Fishes”

Recently I was asked which seven fish I would be cooking on La Vigilia (Christmas Eve), the time to celebrate the so-called “Feast of the Seven Fishes”.

I am not planning to cook seven different types of fish for La Vigilia, but I DO notice that this “tradition” is beginning to creep into Australian Culture. The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a tradition which is strong among Americans of Sicilian background and where they strongly adhere to eating seven different fish presented in seven different dishes.

I remember first hearing about this tradition when Mary Taylor Simeti and I were interviewed by Jane O’Connor for an article in the December 2010 issue of Italianicious. Mary is a highly respected and widely published writer on Sicilian cuisine and culture. Neither of us has ever found any trace of this tradition in Sicily or with Sicilians in Australia. We agreed that it may be an example of how a little known custom may have travelled with Sicilian emigrants and taken on a greater significance in America. It is not the norm in Australia yet and we ought not confuse what is fact and what is fiction.

What is traditional in Sicily is usually traditional in other parts of Italy. And it is the custom to share a celebratory meal with family and friends on Christmas Eve. And yes, they do eat fish because traditionally in the Catholic Church it was a day of abstinence (when no meat was eaten on Fridays and specified holy days). Over time this meal has become the Christmas celebration. Midnight Mass follows and it made sense for Italians, who love food, to spend the time eating while waiting for Mass. They sleep in on Christmas day and eat sparingly. For Christmas lunch my parents had brodo and tortellini or polpettine (broth with tortellini or small chicken meat balls). They were too tired and replete from the night before.

And why is seven the significant number? That’s anybody’s guess, and it is fun to speculate. There are so many things were seven is magic number: Is it the number of sacraments or the seven virtues or deadly sins? I also know that there are Seven Hills of Rome, a dance of the seven veils. I could go on.

In my book, Sicilian Seafood Cooking, there are many recipes that could serve for Christmas Eve. I quite like the idea of cooking several courses and one could easily begin with a seafood salad or a marinaded fish (like a carpaccio) and progress to a lightly cooked whiting and then a heavier braised fish dish like a ghiotta. Traditionally eel and baccalà or stockfish are eaten on Christmas eve so here is one recipe for baked baccalà. You can cook any firm fleshed fish this way. Large thick pieces are best.

Baccalaru o fornu

Baccalà. has to soak for a couple of days before it is cooked, so begin preparations beforehand (min. 24 hours, but if it is extra salty it may need extra time. It can be purchased pre soaked in some stores that sell Italian and Spanish food: INGREDIENTS 1–1.2 kg baccalà, pre soaked, flour for lightly coating the fish, 1 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 large onion, finely sliced, 2 cloves garlic, chopped, 1 cup finely cut parsley, 500g (17.oz) tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (or canned) or 2 tablespoons tomato paste mixed with ½ cup water, ½ cup salted capers, soaked and washed, ½ cup sultanas or currants, ½ cup pine nuts, 1 cup white wine, ½ cup black olives, pitted and chopped, salt and freshly ground pepper. METHOD

Cut the baccalà into square portions and leave to dry on a paper towel.

Heat ½ cup of oil in an ovenproof casserole. Add the onion, garlic and parsley and cook until the onion is pale golden.

Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste and seasoning and cook until thickened. Lightly coat the baccalà with flour and fry in hot oil.

Arrange the baccalà in the casserole with the capers, sultanas, pine nuts and ½ cup of wine.

Bake in a preheated 180C (350 F) oven for 30–45 minutes. Add the rest of the wine and the olives and bake for another 15–30 minutes until cooked (the fish should flake).

During cooking, check to see if it is dry and either add more wine or water. Sprin-kle with fresh basil leaves or extra pine nuts.

BY MARISA RANIOLO WILKINS

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TSAA Committee member Sebastian Agricola has been appointed to the newly

established Federal Government Ministerial Italian Consultative Committee.

According to the Government’s media release, the new Committee will help the Italian Community to talk with senior Government ministers about what is im-portant to them and will ensure that the 850,000 Australians of Italian ancestry have a direct link to Government. The Committee comprises 10 members drawn from community leaders all over Australia and is chaired by Tony Zappia MP for Makin and Tasmanian Senator Lisa Singh. Chris Bowen Minister for Immigration & Citizenship and Senator Kate Lundy Minister for Multicultural Affairs will also meet

with members for direct input.

The first meeting was held in Canberra on the 31st October 2012 and Sebastian at-tended and reported “It was a very good meeting with other members of the Committee and many members of Parliament including senior Government Ministers such as Minister Chris Bowen and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese. The Government wants to hear the Committee’s views on any issue involving the Italian community that the Committee believes should be the subject of Governmental policy review. Whilst many issues were raised, it was evident that there was general consensus amongst Committee members that aged care requires consideration. Another issue that I am very passionate about and raised is the

fostering of an interest amongst our younger generations in their wonderful Italian heritage”.

Sebastian invites TSAA members and the wider Italian community to email to him any submissions that they consider important as this is a wonderful opportunity to bring such matters directly to the highest level of Government decision making. Sebastian’s

email address for submissions is awassociates@iprimus.com.au.

TSAA Committee member Sebastian Agricola (seated, second from the right of picture) with other Committee members and members of Parliament including Chris Bowen, Anthony Albanese, Tony Zappia and

Senator Lisa Singh.

The 2012 TSAA Annual General Meeting

Sebastian Agricola on the Federal Government’s Italian Consultative Committee

On the 25th of November 2012 the Annual General Meeting of the TSAA was held at the Ibleo Social Club. Justice Pagone

presented his report as the outgoing President of the TSAA, outlining the points below:

During its second year the association has continued to build upon its success of the previous twelve months. It has a solid,

committed and responsible committee which diligently oversees the various activities of the association. The TSAA

continues to provide a mix of activities and events which are well supported by its members, an example of which is the

annual Gala dinner, held at the St Kilda Town Hall, that has built on the success of the previous year.

In addition, the association's accounts have been regularly and properly maintained and the website has been revamped and

improved. The website in conjunction with the newsletter, provides information to all TSAA members about Sicily, TSAA

upcoming events and activities and a photo gallery of past events.

The committee and members would like to thank Tony for his excellent leadership over the first two years of the TSAA's

existence and in recognition of his contribution, we have appointed Tony as a patron of TSAA.

The AGM also incorporated the election of the new TSAA committee and president, following the retirement of Justice Tony

Pagone. The new office bearers are:

President: Massimo Petterlin

Vice President: Magistrate Nunzio La Rosa

Treasurer: Frank Vitale

Secretary: Emma La Rosa

Committee Members: Carlo Corallo, Marco Cimino, Sebastian Agricola, Sebastian Costantino, Laura Cavallo, Frank Gambera,

Tony DeDomenico, Joe Malignaggi, Giulia Agricola and Deanna Zammit

As part of a 3 month stay in Italia, we travelled in “Bedda Sicilia” for the month of July 2012 with our family of three young girls (at the

time aged 8, 6 and 3 years). It was quite an adventure…

Of the many ways to arrive in Sicilia, one of the most relaxing is the 20 or so hour trip by ship, leaving Genova at around 9.00 pm and arriving in Palermo at around 5.00 pm. The ship is usually full of Siciliani returning home for the summer, and the fun starts from the moment you board. None of the polite, mannered behaviour we became accustomed to in the Dolomiti or in Piemonte. No, just lots of yelling, arguing and good-natured animated discussion. A word of warning, however: if you don’t want to be in the middle of an angry mob, avoid the bar onboard early in the morning. I Siciliani start queuing for un caffe’ at around 6.30am but the shutters on the bar don’t

open until 7.30am. Two hundred or so caffeine deprived Siciliani ain’t a pretty sight.

We spent our first week in Scopello, around midway between Palermo and Trapani near Castellamare del Golfo. The waters are crystal clear, and the paese itself is tiny, centered around a small fountain where the locals fill their water containers, and a delightful piazza with the best pizzeria al’aperto in paese, “Il Baglio”. The highlight of the paese is the forno, where every morning, u pane cunzatu appears. Thick freshly-baked panini, filled with sweet pomodori, olio, olivi, origano, sale e pepe – troppo

buono. Their arancini were pretty good too.

After Scopello, we journeyed to Marina di Ragusa. A little commercial (Rosanna dubbed it the Port Douglas of Sicilia), but home to the most exquisite bar/gelateria, “Caffe delle Rose”. Every day, from 6.00 to midnight, the place is packed. Of course, the gelato was good (in our experience, nowhere in Italia does the gelato have the sweetness and inten-sity of flavour as here in Sicilia), but you know you are in the right place when you ask for cannoli di ricotta and they ask “Con quale ricotta, di pecora o di mucca?”. And the granita di caffe e panna montata for breakfast, with brioches just out of the

oven…. hmmmm!

As a fan of Montalbano, we of course paid the obligatory pilgrimage to nearby Punta Secca (where Salvo’s house is located) and swam in the bay in front of his “home” (now a B&B). However, our trip to the centre of Ragusa Ibla, where many scenes of the pro-gramme were shot, was a little less pleasant. By 11.00 am it was already 44 degrees. Thankfully, the baroque splendor of Ragusa’s main cathedral, San Giorgio,

provided some respite from the oppressive heat.

After Marina di Ragusa, we spent time in the more touristy part of Sicilia, around Giardini Naxos and Taormina. Perhaps the best times here were the trips inland. As those who have been to Catania know, Mungibello (Mount Etna) is always a looming presence, gently belching smoke overhead. I did a lot of cycling around here, not only up Etna (which was brutally hot, even at 7.00 in the morning), but to some lovely paesi like Savoca’ (famous for being the paese where Coppola shot parts of “The Godfather”) about 6 or so km up in the hills from the coast. A little further away, Marzamemi, an old tonnara near Siracusa, is interesting. And Siracusa itself remains a delight of baroque architecture; on the night we visited, there was a concert and dance performance in the main piazza,

which was magical.

Finally, after a few days on the island of Salina (verdantly green and very relaxing), we stayed in a converted Benedictine monastery in Castelbuono, just outside Cefalu’. It was a highlight for us all, as the monastery is also a fully-operating winery producing some special biodynamic wines. I Siciliani have an ever-growing number of young, modern winemakers producing some excellent wines – in many ways, they have embraced new

techniques and styles in ways that their brethren in Toscana and Piemonte have not.

Although July was unremittingly hot, our girls loved Sicilia. Travelling with children of a young age presents all sorts of challenges, but the Sicilian love of children makes things so much easier. Often, the girls would be caressed on the top of their heads, or along their faces. “Ma che belle bimbe” was an expression we heard often. The combination of mare, sole, caldo (e dolci) brought a degree of peace and harmony to our family that we didn’t really experience to that level anywhere else in Italia. Also, bringing the girls to the birthplaces of their nonni (Randazzo e Vizzini) and meeting their Italian parenti left a lasting impression on them; besides filling the nonni back home in Melbourne with

joy!

Rosanna and I have both been to Sicilia on a number of occasions. It continues to enthral and fascinate us. Sharing it with our girls made it even more wonderful.

By Joseph D’Abaco

January 2013 Edition Page 5

Un Messe In Sicilia with Rosanna Vecchio, Joseph D’Abaco and Chiara, Elena and Giulia D’Abaco

The crystal waters of Scopello

San Giorgio, Ragusa’s main cathedral

Taormina with Mt. Etna in the background

Benedictine monastery in Castelbuono

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N o t e : Visit our web site www.tsaa.net.au C o n t r i b u t i o n s

To submit contributions to this newsletter or to announce your events and activities please contact the editorial team: Massimo Petterlin at max.petterlin@tsaa.net.au, Sebastian Costantino at sebastianc.sds@hotmail.com or Nunzio La Rosa at nunziol@optusnet.com.au,

Our Facebook pages are: “The Sicilian Association of Australia”

“The Sicilian Association of Australia Youth Page”

D i s c l a i m e r

The Association has accepted and published the material contributed to its newsletter in good faith on the basis that it does not breach any copyright laws. In the event that a copyright claim arises, please contact the

Association and it will take all reasonable action. C o p y r i g h t

This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of The Sicilian Association of Australia, PO Box 418, Avondale Heights, VIC 3034, Australia, 2010.

Email address: information@tsaa.net.au

Copyright © The Sicilian Association of Australia 2012. All Rights Reserved.

D i d Yo u K n o w ? OLIVE OIL

Olive oil is considered quintessentially Sicilian and the thought of using anything else for cooking would horrify most Sicilians. However, although olive oil has been produced throughout in Sicily history, it was, until relatively recently, rarely used for cooking because it was too expensive and hence butter was the most commonly used cooking ingredient. In the Middle Ages, only the Jews bought olive oil in quantity as pork fat was forbidden to them. The Jewish cooks’ fondness for olive oil is partly behind this, but also most merchants dealing in Sicilian olive oil for export were Jews. Don’t let the abundant use of olive oil in contemporary Sicilian recipes fool you into thinking that olive oil was always abundant in Sicily. When olive oil, with its modest production, was used, it was used on bread or for seasoning dried vegetable soups.

CHEESE

Cheese was of the utmost importance in Sicily, both economically and nutritionally. In fact, cheese was the second largest export after grain in fifteenth-century Sicily. The Sicilians greatly appreciated cheese and it was an important part of their diet especially fresh cheese and ricotta. Cheeses that were made of cow’s milk and that were salted were more expensive because of the expense of salt and the requirements of raising cows. Owing to the effects of the Black Death in Sicily in the fourteenth century, a reduced agricultural population meant a greater number of animals to be corralled or shepherded. Cows were common in Sicily in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, but by between 1430 and 1460, a cheese made from cow’s milk, called vaccino, was replaced by a sheep’s milk cheese called pecorino or caciocavallo (today made mostly with cow’s milk). This is indicative of the difficulty of raising cows in a typically arid and vegetatively barren Mediterranean island. More sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeses were made, and many cheeses were made in the springtime, which also is the time of two important religious holidays, and these cheeses came to be associated with those holidays. Scaldato, a cheese like ricotta, was traditional for Easter; it was hardly cooked and cost as much as salted cheese for some reason. A goat’s milk ricotta was used to make a cake

WHO AM I?

I am American singer/songwriter born in New York but my family originally comes from Palermo.

I was raised a conservative Roman Catholic and attended a private all-girls Roman Catholic school.

I consider myself to be a family girl.

I began playing the piano at the age of 4.

At school, despite being studious, dedicated and disciplined I was ridiculed for being eccentric and felt like a freak.

I have appeared in “The Sopranos”.

I have composed theses, essays and analytical papers on art, religion, social issues and politics.

I contribute to many charities and to the fight against HIV and AIDS. I am a vocal supporter of equality and, in particular, gay rights.

I am known for my flamboyant outfits and stage performances and have been influenced by David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Queen as well as the, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Elton John.

Despite being known for performing “glam rock”, I continue to re-invent my musical style and I have recorded a jazz version of "The Lady Is a Tramp” with Tony Bennett. I have also performed duets with Cher and Elton John.

I was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.

I’m better known as?

Who Am I Answer: Lady Ga Ga

The Sicilian Association of Australia in 2013

TSAA is already hard at work planning this year's

events and we will soon be forwarding membership

renewals.

We look forward to receiving your positive response

to renewals in due course and seeing you at our

exciting events in 2013.