One of Sicily’s best-kept secrets is its cuisine. Only a few local dishes, such as the sweet-and-sour aubergine side dish known as caponata or ricotta-filled cannoli, have crossed the Strait of Messina to find fame and fortune abroad.
The Greek colonists who arrived in the 8th century BC were astonished at the fertility of Sicily’s volcanic soil, and Siracusa soon became the gastronomic capital of the Classical world. By the 5th century BC the city had given birth to the first cookbook written in the West, Mithaecus’ Lost Art of Cooking, and also to the first school for chefs.
The Arabs set the mould of Sicilian cooking, introducing aubergines, citrus fruits and rice, along with a sweet and spicy cuisine. Cane sugar was introduced, as was the Middle Eastern taste for sumptuous sweets – still a classic Sicilian trademark.
Until the Renaissance, the island exported pasta, sugar, confectionery and citrus to northern Italy. But while the Spanish brought chocolate and tomatoes from the New World and French chefs refined the raw ingredients, Sicilian cuisine reflected class lines. The poor survived on bread, beans and broth, the nobility dined on lavish ‘baronial cuisine’ from plates of gold and silver. The cooking typical of Sicily today is a combination of the traditions of the rich and poor, but always dedicated to exalting the extraordinary flavours of the produce.
Fresh anchovies, Catania market
Neil Buchan-Grant/Apa Publications
Local cuisine
Palermo relishes a blood-and-guts cuisine, with such staples as milza (spleen) and chicken giblets. In western Sicily, Arab influences prevail, both in Trápani’s cuscus and in dishes made with pine nuts and raisins. Agrigento prides itself on its coniglio all’agrodolce – sweet-and-sour rabbit with aubergines, capers, olives and wine. Around Etna, specialities include pasta with wild mushrooms and herby sausages, while in the hilly interior salami and cow’s cheeses are common.
Sicilian wine
Neil Buchan-Grant/Apa Publications
Where to eat and drink
Traditionally a ristorante is smarter and more expensive than a trattoria or osteria, but these days there is little difference between them. Pizzerias are plentiful. The best use wood-fired ovens (forno a legna), but these are sometimes open only in the evening. A tavola calda or rosticceria are both café-style eateries where hot dishes are prepared daily.
Cafés and bars are a way of life for Italians, from the breakfast cappuccino and cornetto to the lunchtime snack and coffee to the evening aperitivo. In summer, Sicilians will start their day by dipping a soft Sicilian brioche in their coffee-flavoured granita (crushed ice). Along with wines and often a remarkable range of cocktails and liqueurs, bars also serve pastries, bread rolls, sandwiches and other snacks. An enoteca (wine bar) will offer a platter of sliced prosciutto crudo, salami or cheese to accompany its wide choice of fine wines.
Olives are a staple
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What to eat
Antipasti (starters)
For starters Sicily offers an array of vegetables, from peppers in oil (peperonata) to stuffed tomatoes (pomodori ripieni). Aubergines are a staple, whether grilled, fried, rolled and stuffed (involtini di melanzane) or baked in a parmesan and tomato sauce (melanzane alla parmigiana).
A classic dish is caponata, featuring fried peppers, aubergines, tomatoes, courgettes, celery and olives. The sea provides inspiration for the classic insalata di mare, a seafood salad tossed in a dressing of oil, lemon and herbs, and pesce spada affumicato (smoked swordfish).
Il primo (first course)
Under the Arabs, Sicily was the first place to produce dried pasta on a commercial scale. The best-loved dish is pasta alla Norma (after the heroine in the opera by native son Bellini). Here tomatoes, basil, fried aubergines and a sprinkling of salted ricotta melt into a magical blend. Equally famous is pasta con le sarde, invented in the 9th century by Arab army cooks who used whatever was at hand: sardines, saffron, pine nuts, dried currants and sprigs of wild fennel.
Pasta is served with a wide variety of seafood sauces, from clams (alle vongole) and sea urchins (ai ricci) to prawns (ai gamberi) and cuttlefish ink (al nero di seppia). Pasta can also be paired with fritella, a spring sauté of new peas, fava beans and tiny artichokes, or simpler combinations garnished with sautéed courgettes. In the Trápani area, where the Arab influence is strongest, a local version of couscous, steamed in a fish broth, supplants pasta. This is best tasted during the vibrant September Couscous Festival at San Vito lo Capo.
Il secondo (main course)
Fish and seafood predominate in Sicily and, apart from in the interior, are generally a better bet than meat. On the coast, fresh grilled fish, mussels and risotto marinara (seafood risotto) are rarely bettered. Sarde a beccafico – filleted sardines stuffed with cheese, garlic, parsley and capers – are on most menus. For simpler tastes try a grilled swordfish steak (pesce spada) or tuna (tonno). The mountain pastures of Madonie and Nebrodi produce exceptional lamb and pork. Beef is best stuffed and braised in tomato sauce or skewered and grilled (involtini alla siciliana). In the interior, impanata is a popular pie with goat or lamb in a parsley and garlic sauce. Incasciata is made with sausage, broccoli, raisins, garlic and pine nuts.
Contorni (vegetables)
Vegetables in antipasti are nearly always delicious, but cooked vegetables and mixed salad are often a disappointment, especially when you see the wonderful locally grown produce in markets. Peperonata and melanzane alla parmigiana (see under Antipasti) reign supreme. Orange and fennel salad is a legacy of the Arabs; artichokes come fried, stuffed, roasted on coals, or braised with oil, parsley and garlic. The interior boasts a survivor from Classical times, maccu, which is a purée made from dried fava or broad beans flavoured with oil and wild fennel seeds.
Sicily has a long tradition of cheap snacks eaten on the hoof, especially in Palermo and Catania. Chickpea fritters and bread (pane e panelle), potato croquettes, with anchovy and caciocavallo cheese (crocchette di patate), grilled goat’s intestine filled with onions, cheese, egg and parsley (stigghiola), fried rice balls filled with chopped meat and peas (arancini), and beef spleen or tripe roll (pani cu’la meusa) provide a movable feast of typically local taste. Look for food trucks in Palermo and Catania.
Food markets are the best sources of street food, especially in Palermo and Catania. Street snacks can also be seriously sweet: frutta alla Martorana (decorated marzipan fruits), Enna’s speciality of le sfingi (rice-flour doughnuts drenched in honey) or the ubiquitous cannoli (see under Dolci).
Sicilian pastries are a speciality
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Dolci (desserts)
The Arab inheritance is reflected in spicy fruit jellies, sorbets and cassata siciliana, a cloyingly sweet sponge cake with almond paste and candied peel. In general, Sicilian patisserie is elaborate in appearance and sophisticated in flavour, combining the taste of citrus fruits with sweet cheeses, dried fruit and almonds. Cannoli are crisp, sweet, tube-shaped pastries stuffed with ricotta and candied fruit. It’s the classic island favourite and can be found in every pasticceria along with pasta reale (marzipan fruits) and pasta di mandorle (almond cakes). Fruit, ricotta, honey, almonds and pistachio nuts often flavour cakes and ice cream. Ice cream is a reason for pride among Sicilians: made with fresh fruits and usually no preservatives, the low-fat Sicilian gelato is said to have been invented by the Arabs who mixed snow from the peaks of the Etna with fresh fruit and sugar, and is more delicate in flavour than Italian gelato. A traditional August dessert is gelo di melone, a watermelon jelly pudding with chocolate seeds.
Drinks
Vino (wine)
Sicilian wines have a great pedigree, dating back to Phoenician and Greek times, but have traditionally underperformed. With their prodigious sugar content, they were dispatched north for blending to bump up the strength of better-known wines. More recently, though, there has been a full-scale return to producing serious drinking wines, and to harnessing native grape varieties to that end. Good-quality reds are made from the local Nero d’Avola grape variety; look out too for the dry red Cerasuolo di Vittoria from Ragusa province, the dry whites from Alcamo in the west and the up-and-coming new wines from the lava-enriched foothills of Etna. Trattorie will often sell house wines in jugs, available by the litro (litre), mezzo litro (half-litre) and quarto di litro (quarter-litre). The wine varies hugely but can be surprisingly decent, and will cost a good deal less than branded wines. Ask for the vino della casa.
Sicily’s best-known wine is Marsala. It’s still mistakenly synonymous with cheap, sickly-sweet liqueurs (for more information, click here), but the best (known as Vergine or Riserva) are excellent dry, smooth, sherry-like wines. Sweet elixirs, in fact, are something of a Sicilian speciality. The island of Pantelleria produces Moscato di Pantelleria Naturale, made from Zibibbo grapes, while the island of Salina has a similar tradition but with Malvasia rather than Moscato vines, and Taormina produces Vino alla Mandorla, a wine made from crushed almonds.
Soft drinks
For a sure-fire remedy for the effects of summer heat try a spremuta, a freshly squeezed juice made with oranges (arance) or lemons (limoni). Another refreshing Sicilian speciality is granita, a drink of crushed ice flavoured with the fresh juice of lemons, strawberries, other seasonal fruits or sometimes even sweetened coffee. Try mulberry (mora), peach (pesca) or watermelon (anguria). Sicilians also like to drink Chinotto, a dark-coloured carbonated soft drink produced from the fruit of the myrtle-leaved orange tree, which is only cultivated in the Taormina area. An especially popular drink in the Catania area is seltz, a mix of sweet fruit syrup and tonic water. Order a glass of the colourful drink from a ciospo, one of the old kiosks you’ll find on street corners around town. Tangerine and lemon (mandarino al limone) is the most famous flavour.