Marzipan The Museum of Sicilian Almonds

In Favara (Agrigento), the first museum dedicated to Sicilian almonds. Something to see (and taste).

Indispensable in traditional cakes and pastries, from cassate to frutta di Martorana (not to mention those sumptuous caponate), almonds are the queens of Sicilian cooking. This fruit, of which there are some 200 varieties unique to Sicily, now has a museum, Marzipan, which opened a few months ago in Favara, a town in the Agrigento area, 90 minutes from Sicilia Outlet Village. Favara is famous for the almond-based dessert of course, but also spring lamb (which you can see in the photos): a recipe based on pasta reale (i.e. almond pasta, an excellence fit for kings) and pistachio pasta, first made at the end of the 19th century, it’s said, by some nuns in a convent in Batia, a quarter in Favara.