I love oranges. Perhaps it’s got to do with this citrusy fruit being the symbol of my native land.
Sitting inbetween seaside and mountains, “La conca d’oro” (aka “golden valley”) in Palermo used to be entirely covered by citrus fruit trees before constructions works took over to cover in concrete the area. Nowadays about 5% of what used to be gold, represented by the trees, have survived the slaughter.
The orange is such a selfish-less type of fruit: it doesn’t ask for much and on the contrary gives out a lot. We like to take advantage entirely of the fruit, from the juice to the seeds, from the pulp to the peel.
From the freshly squeezed orange juice we separate the pulp to make homemade marmalade, also adding seeds and part of the peel to the mixture.
The remaining part of the Orange peel is used to make a gluten-free sponge cake which is one of our local’s fave: orange and almond loaf.
We also use the zest to add a zingy touch to our gluten-free brownies… but keep this quiet, it’s a secret ingredient!
Giuseppe