Minne di Sant'Agata, Sicilian Pastries

Minne di Sant'Agata are the most good little Sicilian pastries made with a simple pasta frolla (pastry dough) and creamy sweet ricotta filling with chocolate chips and candied fruit. The pastries are topped with a simple icing glaze and candied cherries, so good and solid with coffee!

Minne di Sant'Agata, are symbolic Sicilian pastries that pay tribute to Saint Agatha, who was martyred in the third century for staying true to her faith.

We first tried these pastries in Palermo when we visited a convent called Santa Caterina. Inside the convent, there's a bakery run by nuns where you can buy all kinds of traditional cakes and desserts. It was an good experience and we were unbelievably excited to pick up their famous cannoli and a couple of these beautiful pastries.

They're made with a simple pasta frolla, we adapted our original pasta frolla recipe to add a little more richness and make it slightly softer which is needed to achieve the dome shape. Inside, they're filled with sweet and creamy ricotta, chocolate chips and candied fruit, which is such a classic and good flavour.

The pastries are topped with a simple glazed icing and a candied cherry. The dome shape is no coincidence and is a nod to Saint Agatha's tragic story, if you're interested you can read more about the history of Sant'Agata here.

We hope you enjoy these little pastries as much as we do, they're suited to breakfast with a cappuccino in the morning or as a good dessert.

Ingredient notes and substitutions

• Italian 00 flour – this is essentially used as an all-purpose flour in Italy and it's what we used in most of our baking recipes. You can use regular all-purpose flour instead.
• Candied peel – traditionally candied citron is used (cedro) and that's what we had in the pastries we bought in Sicily, although it can be hard to find outside of Italy. We used candied orange peel instead.

Visual walk-through of the recipe

See our step-by-step photos below to give you a visual representation of the recipe. The full written recipe with our top tips can be found in the recipe card below.

1. Make the pastry – put all the pastry ingredients into a food processor and blitz to form a dough. Knead it briefly to form a ball, then press it into a round flat disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 minutes (photo 1-4).

1. Make the filling – add the ricotta and powdered sugar to a bowl and whisk until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips and candied fruit. Refrigerate until needed (photos 5-8).

1. Cut out the pastries – roll the pastry dough out on a light floured surface to 2-3mm thick. Cut out 6 large circles with a 3 inch cutter and use them to line your dome shaped silicone mould (photos 9 and 10).
2. Fill – spoon the ricotta filling into each pastry, keeping a little space at the top (photo 11).

1. Seal and bake – cut out smaller circles for the tops (2.5 inches). Place them on top of each pastry and press the edges together to seal them. Trim off any excess. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes (photo 12).
2. Cool – let the pastries cool for 5-10 minutes then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
3. Decorate – once cooled, mix the powdered sugar and milk together in a mixing bowl until smooth. Pour the icing over each pastry and place a cherry on top. Let them set at room temperature, then serve (photos 13-16).

Swaps

Although this recipe is based on the ones we ate in Palermo from Convento Santa Caterina, there are some variations you might find in Sicily.

Some are topped with a layer of marzipan before the icing and made with sponge instead of pastry much like a traditional Sicilian Cassata cake.

More good Italian desserts

Italian Desserts

Homemade Baci Chocolates (Italian Kisses)

Christmas

Cuccia (Sicilian Ricotta Dessert)

Italian Desserts

Granita al Caffè con Panna (Coffee Granita)

Italian Desserts

Torta Barozzi (Rich, Flourless Chocolate Cake)

Ingredients

Makes 10 pastries

Pastry

• 250 g Italian 00 flour ((2 cups, spooned and levelled) can also use all-purpose flour)
• 80 g (1/2 cup) sugar
• 125 g (9 tablespoons) butter
• 1 whole egg
• 1 egg yolk

Filling

• 500 g (2 cups) ricotta
• 145 g (1 cup) powdered sugar ((icing sugar))
• 80 g (1/3 cup) chocolate chips
• 40 g (1/4 cup) candied peel (chopped)

Icing

• 290 g (2 cups) powdered sugar ((icing sugar))
• 4 tablespoons milk
• Candied cherries (for topping)

Equipment

• dome silicone pastry mould
• inch ring pastry cutter
• inch ring pastry cutter
• Plastic wrap (cling film)
• Cooling rack

Method

Pastry

1. Put all the pastry ingredients in food processor and blitz until a dough has formed. Very briefly knead on clean surface until it comes together into a ball then shape it into flat disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

1. Drain excess liquid from ricotta then put in a bowl with the sugar and whisk until smooth. Add the chocolate chips and candied peel and stir to combine. Refrigerate until needed.

Assemble

1. Roll the dough out until 2-3mm thick. Cut large circles out for the bases (using 3 inch cutter) and line 1 mould (6 domes). Put the mould on a baking tray.

2. Fill each dome with filling but leave a little space at the top.

3. Cut out smaller circles (2.5 inch cutter) for the tops. Place them on top of each pastry and gently press the edges together to seal. Trim off any excess pastry.

4. Bake in the oven at 180C/350F for 25-30 mins. Let them cool for 5-10 mins then move to a cooling rack to cool fully.

5. To make another batch of pastries you'll need to form the the pastry back into a flat disc and place it back in the fridge to firm up. We let it chill while the first batch are baking.

Icing

1. Put the powdered sugar in a mixing bowl and add the milk, whisk until smooth and lump free. Spoon the icing glaze over each pastry then place one candied cherry on top of each.

2. Let the icing set at room temperature then serve.

Kitchen notes

• Mould to get the classic dome shape we used a silicone mould bought online. Alternatively, you can use a muffin/cupcake tin (nonstick).
• Storage Once cooled completely, you can store the pastries in the fridge (with or without icing) for up to 5 days.