Artisanal Chocolate From Modica

By Gina DePalma, Pastry Chef

With the exception of Torino’s silky-smooth gianduja, Italy’s proud chocolate culture flies largely below the radar of most chocoholics. Normale, perhaps, and not much of a concern, because world domination is not necessarily a virtue when it comes to chocolate, as long as local traditions are allowed to flourish. The town of Modica, located in the Ragusa province of southeast Sicily, is one of Italy’s great chocolate towns, where island’s history of invasion and occupation takes a sweeter turn.

The lower portion - Modica Bassa - is connected to the upper part - Modica Alta - by a tangle of stairways and charming, medieval passageways, and the graceful, Baroque Duomo, dedicated to San Giorgio, quietly overlooks it all. After the architecture the next thing you will notice about charming Modica is the beguiling smell of cacao that fills the air, drawing visitors into the many artisan chocolate shops that dot the streets.

Anyone who has tasted Aztec chocolate will recognize the texture of cioccolato modicano; it is the opposite of smooth, silky, cocoa butter-laden chocolate we are all addicted to. Modica’s chocolate a hand mix of bitter cacao paste with caster sugar, resulting in a gritty, granular mouthfeel and an explosion of deep chocolate flavor From that starting point the chocolate-maker will add any of a number of traditional, individual flavors, including vanilla, cinnamon, red chili, coffee, cardamom, citrus or hazelnuts. It is a chocolate that remains boldly true to its original format, as defiant traditional as the Sicilians themselves.

This particular style of chocolate making came to Sicily by way of the Spaniards, who had first conquered the Aztecs before coming to Sicilian shores. Beginning in the 16 th century, the Spanish planted and cultivated cacao trees as a cash crop, transforming Modica into the second largest chocolate-producing centers in the Spanish empire for over 200 years.

The majority of the world’s chocolate makers achieve a silky smooth texture with heat and a precise process known as conching. Modica’s chocolate is made in the Aztec tradition, defined by the cold, often hand-processing of cacao, which eases the cocoa butter out of the beans, just enough to make a firm paste. Both heat and conching are absent in this method: the cool temperature keeps the texture of the chocolate paste rough, enhanced by the added sugar crystals that remain intact. With no added cocoa butter, vegetable fats or emulsifiers, Modica’s chocolate retains all of the cacao’s intense flavor and aroma, a one-two punch to the senses.

The legacy of Modica’s chocolate continues today, and hopes are high that the European Union will soon grant D.O.P. (protected place of origin) status to this unique confection, ensuring that the artisan traditions that have been carried on for centuries in Modica will continue unchanged.

Online vendors and some Italian specialty shops carry imported chocolate from Modica. If you can get your hands a bar or two, the objective is to simply savor it, nibble slowly, allow the flavor to wash over your palate and through your nasal passages, enjoy it in small quantities. Please, do not attempt to cook or bake with this product, since it is purposely missing the very elements of fine couverture that is normally used in recipes. A few crumbles of Modica chocolate with hot milk poured over will make an extra-sensory cup of cioccolata calda to sip (and crunch) on a chilly day, but I prefer my Modica chocolate as is, when I’m in a contemplative state. Small bites and big flavors transport me back in time, to the distant, sunny shores of southeast Sicily.

Go To Dolci Archives