Grazie alla bravissima Gaia! Gaia Mencagli wowed the ICC audience yesterday with her original piece, “Stories of Eggs and Flour.” She took us on an amazing journey of memory, love, and pasta, of course. Thanks to all who attended and to the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, pappalecco, and to gaiamencagli. (fb)

Why We Love... / Perché amiamo... (Episode 2) Frutta di Martorana / La frutta marturana Is it cake? The story goes that a Mother Superior at the Monastery of the Martorana (attached to the stunning Arab-Norman church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio) once planned a playful trick for the Archbishop's Easter visit. She ordered her nuns to fashion their almond paste ("pasta reale") into perfect replicas of fruit and hang them in the cloister garden trees. The Archbishop was charmed, and the tradition stuck. Today, frutta di Martorana floods Palermo's pastry shop windows each October before All Souls' Day (Festa dei Morti), when children receive marzipan and sugar statues from their passed relatives in exchange for prayers. The displays are breathtaking: figs split open with crystalline drops oozing out, strawberries, pears, bananas, walnuts with broken shells revealing the "meat" inside, roast chestnuts dusted with ash. Even vegetables get the treatment, like peas, fava beans, artichokes, and asparagus. E tu, cosa ami dell'Italia? (fb)