Perhaps the most well known part of Sicilian cuisine is the rich sweet dishes including ice creams and pastries. Cannoli, a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with a sweet filling usually containing ricotta cheese, is in particular strongly associated with Sicily worldwide. Biancomanfiare, biscotti ennesi (cookies native to Enna), braccilatte a Sicilian version of doughnuts, buccellato, ciarduna, pignoli, bruccellati, sesame seed cookies, a sweet confection with sesame seeds and almonds (torrone in Italy) is cubbaita, from the Arabic sweet qubbayt, frutta martorana, cassata, pignolata, granita and cuccìa are amongst some of the most notable sweet dishesLike the cuisine of the rest of southern Italy, pasta plays an important part in Sicilian cuisine, as does rice; for example with arancini. As well as using some other cheeses, Sicily has spawned some of its own, using both cows and sheeps milk, such as pecorino and caciocavallo. Spices used include saffron, nutmeg, clove, pepper, and cinnamon which were introducted by the Arabs. Although commonly associated with sea food cuisines, meat dishes including goose, lamb, goat, rabbit, and turkey are also found in Sicily, it was the Normans and Hohenstaufen who first introduced a fondness for meat dishes to the island.
