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What to eat in Sicily? Top 50 Sicilian Desserts

Last update: Tue Apr 15 2025
Top 50 Sicilian Desserts
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Brioche con gelato
Brioche con gelato infographic
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Brioche con gelato is a traditional dessert hailing from Sicily. This dessert sandwich consists of a soft, buttery brioche bun that's stuffed with a generous amount of gelato. It's especially popular during the hot summer months, and it's sometimes even eaten for breakfast.


If desired, finish it with a sprinkled of chopped nuts and a pinch of powdered sugar for extra flavor.

02
Granita di mandorla
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Granita di mandorla is a variety of Sicilian granita—a frozen dessert that comes in a wide array of flavors. This almond-based version can be made from scratch, using ground almonds, or with the already-prepared almond paste. The latter will usually be smoother, while the one prepared with ground almonds will have a slightly coarser texture.


The ingredients are simply mixed with sugar and water, and the combination is then frozen. In Sicily, granita is often enjoyed for breakfast, and it is often served with Italian-style brioche (brioscia) on the side.

MOST ICONIC Granita di mandorla

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Torta Savoia is a layered chocolate cake that hails from Sicily. It consists of several sponge layers coated in a rich chocolate hazelnut cream. The entire combination is covered with a glossy chocolate glaze, and in some variations, sponges are lightly soaked with rum.


It is said that the cake was created when Sicily was merged with the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The legend says that the Benedictine nuns from Catania thought of the recipe and included hazelnuts from Piedmont to honor the House of Savoy—hence the cake's name. 
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Sweet Pastry

SICILY, Italy
4.2
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These decadent, crispy fried pastry tubes filled with luscious ricotta cheese cream are perhaps one of Sicily's best known desserts outside of Italy. Cannoli are believed to have originated around Palermo during the 9th century, while Sicily was under Arab rule.


Legend has it that they were originally prepared by the women of the ancient city of Qal'at al-Nisā' (lit. castle of women), the modern-day Caltanissetta, which at the time served as the harem of a Saracen emir. Later on, the recipe later somehow found its way to the monasteries of Palermo where nuns would prepare this lavish dessert during the carnival season. 

MOST ICONIC Cannoli

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Frozen Dessert

SICILY, Italy
4.2
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This classic Sicilian semi-frozen dessert is just the thing to cool you down during the dog days of summer. It is served all across the island, and traditionally enjoyed for breakfast alongside an espresso and brioche. Granita is made with water, sugar, and fruit juice or various other flavorings.


It is sometimes confused with sorbetto, though granita has a much grainier texture, hence the name, while its origins can be traced back to the sweet Arabic chilled drink sharbāt which was introduced to Sicily during Arab rule. However, traditional granita is not simply chilled but almost frozen - in fact, it was once called rattata (lit. grated) and made using snow and ice from Etna that was collected during winter, then stored in mountain caves. 

MOST ICONIC Granita

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06
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Named after Salome's dance to make Herod crazy with lust, torta setteveli (cake of the seven veils) unsurprisingly achieves more or less the same results. This traditional Sicilian birthday cake consists of an alternating combination of chocolate and hazelnut layers.


From bottom to top: chocolate sponge, praline crunch, hazelnut Bavarian cream, chocolate sponge, hazelnut Bavarian cream, chocolate mousse, and finally, a layer of chocolate glaze on top. It is still unclear who had created this delicious cake, so some credit Capello of Pasticceria Capello in Palermo, while others claim that Luca Mannori from Prato made it first (and won the 1997 Pastry World Cup in France).

MOST ICONIC Torta Setteveli

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07
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Lemon granita is believed to have been one of the first versions of this frozen Sicilian specialty. Granita al limone is made with lemon juice, water, and sugar, while lemon zest is often used as a flavoring. The combination is frozen and then stirred with a fork to partially break the ice crystals and give granita its distinctive granular texture.


Like other types of granita, this lemony version is often accompanied by a Sicilian brioche (brioscia), and though is it is commonly enjoyed as a refreshing dessert, the Sicilians prefer to enjoy it as a sweet breakfast.

MOST ICONIC Granita al limone

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Amaretti, the famous Italian almond cookies are so popular in their homeland that almost every region has their version of the recipe, using different proportions and combinations of the basic ingredients: sweet and bitter almonds, apricot kernels, eggs, and sugar.


The Sicilian version is made with egg whites, sugar, and both bitter and sweet almonds, preferably the world-famous ones grown in the province of Syracuse, in south-eastern Sicily, around the cities of Noto, Avola, Rosolini, and Canicattini Bagni.


Besides almonds, Sicily is also renowned for exquisite pistachios, so it is also possible to stumble upon amaretti made with pistachios instead of almonds.

09

Cake

SICILY, Italy
3.8
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Arguably Sicily’s most famous dessert, this traditional cake consists of liqueur-drenched genoise sponge cake layered with sweetened ricotta and fruit preserves, decorated with a marzipan shell and colorful candied fruits. It is believed that cassata originated as a simple sugar, egg, and ricotta cheesecake while its name is thought to have been derived from the Arabic word qas’ah, which refers to the bowl used to make the cake.


This is traditionally a winter and spring specialty, and it is most often served around Easter. It’s usually chilled for 3 hours before serving. By the 14th century, cassata had become a dessert of the aristocracy, and even today, few people outside of the culinary world are brave enough to prepare this elaborate delicacy at home. 

MOST ICONIC Cassata

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Cookie

CATANIA, Italy
3.8
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Rame di Napoli are soft, chocolate-covered cookies hailing from the Sicilian city of Catania. They are typically made with a combination of sugar, milk, flour, crumbled biscuits or cookies, eggs, cocoa powder, butter, baking powder, honey, orange marmalade, cinnamon, cloves, and orange rind.


Once baked, the cookies are covered with a mixture of melted dark chocolate and butter before being garnished with pistachios or other nuts such as hazelnuts. Different variations of these sweet biscuits call for using Nutella, pistachio cream, other fruit marmalades, or even stewed fruits and vegetables instead of the traditional orange marmalade. 
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Cookie
PROVINCE OF SYRACUSE, Italy
3.7
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Sweet Pastry
CALATAFIMI, Italy
3.6
14
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Cake
SICILY, Italy
3.1
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Cookie
SICILY, Italy
n/a
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Ice Cream
SICILY, Italy
n/a
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Cookie
METROPOLITAN CITY OF MESSINA, Italy  and  one more region
n/a
28
Dessert
SICILY, Italy
n/a
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Cookie
MODICA, Italy
n/a
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Shortcrust Pastry
SAMBUCA DI SICILIA, Italy
n/a
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Cookie
CATANIA, Italy
n/a
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Cake
MAZARA DEL VALLO, Italy
n/a
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Cookie
SICILY, Italy
n/a
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Dessert
SICILY, Italy
n/a
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Sweet Pastry
PALERMO, Italy
n/a
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Porridge
SICILY, Italy
n/a

TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “Top 50 Sicilian Desserts” list until April 15, 2025, 1,971 ratings were recorded, of which 1,497 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.

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Sicilian Desserts