Iris fritta (fried)

Born at the Opera, raised in the street.

It is said that the Palermitan pastry chef Antonio Lo Verso invented this dessert for a specific event, a Gala Soiree for the Opera piece Iris by Mascagni, in 1901. Since then, the Iris, a fried doughnut, filled with sweet ricotta cheese, sugar and chocolate drops, has become a street food specialty consumed by natives and tourists, just fried, at any hour of the day. A culinary invention born bourgeois and raised democratically because in Palermo taste is a right of all.

(Foto ©Vincenzo Puglisi per Crocche.it)