Introduction

Sicilian culinary delights are famed for mirroring the lush land they are prepared in, of rich and fresh ingredients, already praised by Homer. The land and sea provide it with its basic elements to fulfil the rule: variety and balance between flavours.
It was the Saracens who gave their dishes the best touch bringing new ingredients and sugar cane, creating new varieties and exotic dishes.
Many of the traditional dishes originated from recipes brought by the French chefs in Ferdinand and Maria Carolina reign. Later on these recipes were changed to be affordable for the poor ...yet not because of that less delicious.
One thing is certain, food is the epicentre of a Sicilian’s life.
Sicilians breakfast consists of a cappuccino or white coffee with an Italian croissant, while lunch embraces an antipasto (see below), a first course ( generally pasta) and a second course based on meat or fish. Sweet dessert and coffee are the final step.
Restaurants listed by the Slow Food movement originated in Italy will bear a snail. The movement praises restaurants serving traditional Italian cuisine and favouring agricultural practices.

The Italian flag

Red peppers and tomato, the basics of a Sicilian dish can be found in many ways and dishes. the famed Sicilian tomatoes are praised throughout Italy for their taste. And they are even grown in houses.
White garlic and caciocavallo, a kind of cheese from cow, are always part of a dish. Other ingredients in their dishes are ricotta and pecorino, cheese from sheep’s milk. Almonds are ingredients for sauces, or part of the preparation of flavoured crushed ice, of the “milk of almond”, a drink which is prepared with almond pulp and water…delicious¡¡¡
Green Olive groves give in Sicily an excellent and varied type of olive oil. Basil is a staple in a Sicilian kitchen.
When the Saracens introduced pistachio in Sicily they started cultivating it on the volcanic soil on the island. It has always been of excellent quality and is part of many delectable dishes.

Basics

Bread has survived as a basic for centuries …in good and bad moments it has had a place at a table. For the poor it was also the basic mingled with other ingredients to trick an empty stomach. Bread dough is also used to prepare other dishes such as impanata and involtini in which meat of fish is the wrapping around a heart of bread.
Pasta (Picture 3) is apparently what the Sicilians die for. It has become the most exported product of Italy. Pasta with sardines, fennel, onions, pine nuts and raisins, pasta alla Norma, combining tomatoes, aubergines and ricotta, and lasagne are among the favourite. It has been suggested that the origin of spaghetti alla puttanesca is Sicily (Picture 3).

Antipasto

They are the traditional first courses of an Italian meal which combine cured meat, olives, anchovies, cheese and marinated bell peppers. Everything is generally coated with some olive oil.

Fish

On an island it cannot be absent: sardines, tuna, mackerel and swordfish (Picture 1) are gift to the senses. Prepared in heavenly lip-licking ways and combinations.
To savour imaginative meat dishes go inland: mutton, beef, pork and rabbit are combined delightfully with other regional ingredients.
Sagras are festivals themed on a kind of food. In them you are offered to taste the product: some of them are the sagra of the Almond Blossom, the International Couscous Festival and the Honey Festival.

Sweet table

Colourful and a gift for the senses, Sicilian pastries make genuine pleasure. Freshly made at a pasticceria or by mamma the following are some of the delights for which you cannot leave Sicily without trying them for they are inimitable:

Almond cookies (pasta di mandorle)
Pastry tubes stuffed with sweetened ricotta or candied fruit (cannoli)
Watermelon jelly (gelso di mellone)
Pies filled with minced fruit (buccellati)
Sugar dolls (prepared for the celebration of All Saints’ Day (pupe)
Eye-like Biscuits (prepared to celebrate Santa Lucia’s festival) (uchiuzzi)
Sesame coated biscuits (biscotti regina)
Cassata (ingredients: ricotta, sugar,vanilla, diced chocolate, candied fruit)
Fruti-shape almond paste biscuits (frutti della Martorana)

All cold

From the Romans’ epoch the Etna provided ice to make wine cold. Later on when the Arabs arrival they started to chill cream(ice-cream and cassata) and prepared flavoured crushed ice and cold creamy desserts (semifreddo).
The Arabs already were the creators of the sarbat (sweet fruit syrups chilled with iced water). From it they later created the granite(by mixing crushed ice with fruit juice, coffee almond milk and other ingredients) and the cremolata (cooled cream made of fruit syrup ).
Ice-cream the way we know it today started in the 1700s. Maybe related to the development of the industry of snow preservation: taken by men, moved to leased or bought grottos and then sold. The most widely spread way to eat freddo and granite is in a brioche.

Bacchus legacy

Even though the grown fields of vineyards extend over 290,000 acres (larger than Bordeaux and Chile’s vineyards together), the wine of this Kingdom of the Sun has not reached many tables around the world. Sicilian wines are characterized by light whites and heavy fruity reds.
Regaleali in Caltanissetta province is the most famed producer on Sicily. Among its champions are Nozze d’Oro and Rosso del Conte. Most restaurants list Corvo di Salaparuta (red) and Corvo Bianco(white). The most known white at tables is Rapitalà’s . It comes from Alcamo that bears a Designation of Origin.
The area around the Etna produces the cataratto grapes and a wine called Rosè Ciclopi, excellent to accompany rabbit dishes.
High quality reds are Cerasuolo and Donnafugata’s, Messina’s Faro and Capo Bianco.
Terreforti (red; origin: Catania), Anapo (white), Eloro and Pachino (red; origin: Syracuse), Belicie (red and white; origin: west) and Capo Boeo (white) are well known and well-liked wines.
Table wines are about € 8, while wines of a better quality range from €12 to 20.
Dessert wines such as the Marsala or the Malvasia or Pantelleria’s moscato are spectacular. For the malvasia if you want to taste and feel certain it will be a pleasure, buy a Carlo Hauser label.
DOC wines are made under requirements. DOCG wines follow the same specifications and are controlled by official inspectors. IGT wines are produced from grapes of good regions which are not used by DOC and DOCG.
If you want to have a deep insight into the producers and their product the guide to Italian wines by Slow Food movement is recommendable.

Lessons on culinary heritage

If you are into cooking you can link the following websites to find out how to prepare yourself the Sicilian delights:
www.cuisineinternational.com by Anna Tasca Lanza: courses, touches of history and ricotta-making are blend in the same course.
www.arblasterandclarke.com offering also a wine tour guided by an expert.
www.tastingplaces.com also embraces spectacular accommodation in a setting of bygone times, day trips and winery tour.

On the street

As said at the beginning the Sicilians love eating and they have many choices to pick from while going to work or home, working or shopping …no matter when… they eat.

The following is a list to choose from:

pane e panelled (chickpea fritters)
sfincione (spongy, oily pizza, covered with onions and caciocavallo cheese)
scaccie (bread dough covered with a filling and then rolled in a pancake)
stigghiola (goat intestines stuffed with onions cheese and parsley)
frittole (meat marrow and fat soup)
impanata (meat cheese of vegetables filling wrapped in bread dough)
arancini (fried rice balls) (Picture 2)
pani cu’la mensa schietta (ricotta in a bread roll cooked in boiling lard)
pani cu’la mensa maritata (sautéed beef spleen in a bread roll)

Coffee list translated for tourists

Choose from:

Espresso (minute cup of very strong coffee)
Doppio espresso ( a double espresso)
Caffè americano( resembling filter coffee, more watery)
Caffè latte ( coffee with a good quantity of milk)
Caffè macchiato (an espresso with a drop milk)
Latte macchiato (hot milk with a drop of coffee)
Cappuccino (stronger than caffè latte topped with froth)
Caffè freddo (along glass of iced coffee)
Corretto (espresso with a drop of grappa or other strong alcoholic drink)