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Love your recipes. I was raised in an Italian family and of course we had macaroni every Sunday. But the treat was the extra meatballs, for breakfast, before they were put in the gravy. We had fried meatballs on hard rolls with butter, and of course no matter how young you were, a cup of coffee with "Lots" of milk. I have tired to carry out this tradition when my children were still living at home, and now they are still carrying it on.

I love the contrast between Sicilian cooking, and that of my grandparents from under the shadow of Mt. Blanc in the far north of Italy. It’s like Garrison Keillor’s Norwegians of Lake Wobegon meet the next door Puerto Ricans. What’s not to love.

Strawberry granita with just a small dollop of pane is, hands down, my favorite breakfast. Being second generation in America, some of my family's Sicilian traditions had not been translated to the younger generation. When I was afforded the opportunity to visit family outside of Messina, I jumped for it. This is what I ate every morning, with a caffe, right before heading out to all of the seafood vendors to order the days menu items - it was the perfect wake up! Whenever I have one now, it is like instant nostalgia....I'll have to purchase an ice cream maker ;)

FINALLY! Vindicated!

I've been telling people for YEARS that ice cream (straightouttathecarton) makes for the best summer breakfast ever. :) Hey, it's dairy...not that different from milk and yogurt, right?

My Sicilian grandmother would make a big batch of espresso every night after dinner, sweeten it, let it cool, then stash it in the fridge. In the morning, she would pour it over her cereal with a little milk. My personal preference was always count chocula, but I think that much sugar and caffeine first thing in the morning would probably be too much for my system to handle nowadays.

I tried to sell this at Otto for a few years,but nobody got it....It was My favorite breakfast anyhow...:coffee granita,brioche and caramel whipped cream at 10am....

Ah, sounds like a delicious idea for long, languid summer days with my Sicilian husband! Thanks so much for sharing this. :)

what a fabulous idea
huge wow
i've got to do this one, gina

We lived in Sicily for four years and one of the things I miss most is granita and brioche for breakfast during the summer (and several 'gelato breaks' throughout the day, of course)! You can also freeze granita in an ice cream machine until it's slushy if you have one handy, only takes about ten minutes and closely replicates the smoother granite of Catania.

These were fantastic - I'll be making these every year and probably year round...the dough is lovely and it doubles nicely too. Thanks, Gina.

I substituted the rum for kahlua and added pecans instead of pistachios! So yummy!! Wonderful post - can't wait for more!

The recipe was a little bit confusing with the artichoke, I wasn't sure what size artichoke to get, so I went with medium and couldn't fit it in the pan.
For anyone wanting to make this dish, it takes a while, getting together with family and friends to make it is a fun experience and helps things move along faster. All the effort is definitely worth it, this dish tastes delicious, not too many ingredients to make it too difficult, and all the flavors come together very nicely! The cheese and artichoke I must say are what ultimately makes the taste come out.

when in doubt pull Neopolitan out. This is the word which means itailan something or other. When I was a kid a carton of ice cream vanilla-chocolate and strawberry was called neopolitan.
Call it neopolitan ice cream and bingo it could be anything but it sounds italian.