Pasticceria Costa
I’m no expert at Palermo, in fact this city is elusive and I think it prefers things stay that way. But the past couple of days I’ve been pressing my nose up to pastry shop windows and of the ones I’ve seen I think I can safely say that Pasticceria Costa looks the best.
Take for example their 𝗕𝗼𝗰𝗰𝗮 𝗱𝗶 𝗟𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 (“Mouth of the Lion”); pâté choux dough baked into a hollow puff, filled with whipped cream and 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘪 𝘣𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘰. Fragoline di bosco are kind of a big deal, in French they are 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘪𝘴, which is also the name we use in America for them, in the UK they call them Little Scarlets. They are wild strawberries about the size of a child’s pinky tip, they are as sweet as a good ripe strawberry but much more floral, more perfumed.
Costa’s window proudly features Frutta Martorana:
Marzipan shaped and painted to look like figs, quince, and prickly pears. Today you can find these worldwide but they were basically invented in the convent across the street. They painstakingly take the time to mimic imperfections, because real fruit has imperfections.
