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Big doings in Andersonville this weekend, what with the Wikstrom’s moving sale and the soft opening of Pasticcerria Natalina, a very promising Sicilian sweet shop. Proprietress Natalie Zarzour learned her trade from her maternal grandparents, who hailed from Palermo, and with the help of relatives in the old country she steeped herself in the island’s elaborate pastry culture, which developed over centuries of conquest by and commerce with the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, and Spanish.
Zarzour and her husband, Nick, are still working out some oven issues, so they haven’t been able to put out some of the more complicated creations they’re planning, but I’m looking forward to the hand-molded and -painted marzipan made with imported bitter almond paste, as well as the from-scratch cannoli with Sicilian sheep’s milk ricotta and cassata, a legendarily labor-intensive liqueur-soaked cake filled with ricotta crema, enrobed in marzipan, and studded with candied fruit.
