Cioccolato di Modica

History and characteristics

The specialty was introduced in the County of Modica by the Spaniards during their domination of southern Italy, when their noble house was the most influential feudal power in the region in the 16th century. A similar preparation, chocolate a la piedra, exists in Spain, and related varieties are known in Mexico and Guatemala. According to Leonardo Sciascia, the recipe originates from Alicante; originally only two forms were made, with cinnamon or with vanilla.

Before becoming internationally known, it was a holiday dessert among noble families. The Spaniards likely learned cocoa processing from the Aztecs using the metate, but Modica chocolate includes sugar, which was unavailable to the Aztecs. The product gained national attention in 1999 when chocolatier Franco Ruta published a newspaper article and appeared on the Maurizio Costanzo Show. Ruta was managing director of Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, founded in 1880 and called Caffè Roma until 1992; his son Pierpaolo Ruta has run it since 2016.

Around the same time, the television series Inspector Montalbano, partly filmed in Modica, aired, and the municipality hosted an annual chocolate fair called Chocobarocco. Within a short period, 75 companies in Modica produced or sold chocolate, making it the city's largest employer. In 2003, 20 local producers founded the Consorzio di Tutela del Cioccolato di Modica to seek PGI protection. The consortium applied for EU-level PGI protection in 2017, granted in October 2018.

Antica Dolceria Bonajuto did not join the consortium; the Ruta family criticized the specification as insufficient and, after the PGI was published, produced chocolates under the name cioccolato di un paese vicino a Ragusa as a provocation.

Manufacturing

Modica chocolate is cold processed, with no added cocoa butter, at a maximum of 40 °C; because sugar does not dissolve without conching, the texture is grainy and rough, with small air bubbles, and it crumbles when broken. The bars often have a slightly gray surface from excreted cocoa butter, and in the mouth they unfold an intense cocoa aroma. Ground cocoa, from which cocoa butter has not been extracted, is heated to 40 °C, then sugar and possibly spices such as cinnamon, vanilla, ginger, chili, ground almonds or nuts, or grated citrus peel are added.

The cocoa content ranges from 45% to 90%. Traditionally, the mass was rolled out in a crescent-shaped, heated lava rock mold with rollers of different thicknesses; now machines do this. The warm chocolate mass is poured into pewter molds forming thick bars. The white patina (cocoa butter bloom) alters the traditional organoleptic properties. Apart from the mentioned substances, Modica chocolate contains no milk, butter, vegetable fat, or lecithin.