Cassata is the Sicilian sponge cake encased in green marzipan and ricotta cream, topped with candied fruit and pan di Spagna sponge, the convent-tradition crown jewel of Palermitan pasticceria.

Cassata's name traces to the Arabic 'qas'at' (a deep round dish); its modern form emerged from the Spanish Habsburg court of 16th-century Palermo when Genoese sugar refineries supplied the marzipan. The convent of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria in Palermo refined the recipe; cassata became Easter's defining Sicilian pastry and remains so.

3 editor picks for Cassata Siciliana in Palermo, ranked by editorial score. All Palermo signature dishes · Cassata Siciliana across every city.