Arance alla Siciliana

January 18th, 2009

Arance alla Siciliana, Oranges Sicilian-Style, emigrated with the first waves of southern Italians and is one of the few recipes to have remained virtually unchanged here in America.

Among the myriad gifts Arabs brought to the Mediterranean, citrus fruits had been cultivated for centuries throughout much of the Italian peninsula and Sicily, where they were a winter fruit. Here, too, in North America, where they had been grown commercially since the mid-19th century, citrus were seasonal.

Italians assembling this dish in America could easily procure oranges, the main ingredient. And in the early days of their settlement, the olives and olive oil had to be imported from Europe and, thus, were very similar, if not identical, to what the immigrants had known back in Italy. So with this dish, unlike most others in the Italian-American repertoire, there was no need and little possibility for New World adaptations and substitutions.

Yet, you’ll be hard-pressed to find this presentation on any menu; perhaps its very simplicity has kept Arance alla Siciliana at home. This is no Caesar Salad, offering an opportunity for exuberant restaurant showmanship… It is not a grappa-soaked cake ignited by a maitre d’… Whether served as a salad or as a dessert, Arance alla Siciliana has always exemplified la cucina casalinga, home cooking.

Distinctive precisely because it is devoid of the abundant excess that typifies the rest of the Italian-American cuisine, it is one of our favorites and evokes particularly cherished memories…

When I was growing up in Connecticut in the 1950′s, a family friend or relative would invariably vacation in Florida and return with a crate of oranges for my grandparents. For several weekends thereafter, my grandmother would make this desert to follow either Saturday supper or Sunday dinner.

One of my favorite recollections of this time was the way our home smelled. As my grandmother peeled her oranges, she’d always place a couple of the peels over the pilot lights on the stove. Before long, the whole house would be perfumed with the warm aroma of orange peel.

And going back a generation, my mother used to talk about watching the clock during her last class of the day because she couldn’t wait to run home from school to see if her mother had prepared arance.

Unlikely as this combination may sound, it makes a refreshing dessert, especially after a rich meal. Salting the orange slices actually brings out more of their natural sweetness, while the lemon adds a bright aftertaste. And that little bit of olive oil brings all the flavors together.

Ingredients:

16 Large oil-cured Sicilian black olives
Juice of ½ medium lemon, or more to taste.
4 Medium Navel or other sweet oranges–seeded, peeled, and sliced crosswise into thin rounds
2 Tbs. Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs Fresh mint,* finely snipped with scissors

Note: We favor spearmint, but peppermint works, too. While there are scores of edible wild mints and cultivars, many of them are more decorative than appropriate for kitchen use. If you aren’t sure, ask someone who makes mint juleps or who is a Middle Eastern cook; whatever they use on Derby Day or in their tabbouleh will be fine for the arance.

Preparation:

Marinate the olives in the lemon juice for approximately 30 minutes. Arrange the orange slices on a platter.

Remove the olives from the lemon juice and scatter them atop the oranges. Drizzle the olive oil over the slices.

Sprinkle the platter with the salt and let it rest at room temperature for approximately 15 minutes.

When ready to serve, place several slices of orange on each of four plates. Add four olives to each plate, spoon the accumulated olive oil and lemon juice equally over each serving. Garnish with the snipped mint.

Serves four.

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