APPENDIX

A Few Suggestions About Eating in Sicily Today

In the past thirty years Sicilian cooking has emerged from the home and from the cookshops of the street and has acquired an active public life. The number of restaurants has increased by geometric progression, and tourists can now find excellent opportunities for tasting authentic Sicilian cooking when they visit the island. The following pages contain some suggestions about places where I or trusted friends have had pleasant experiences. I have up-dated the appendix to the previous edition, but I still do not aspire to complete coverage, nor have I lost my geographic bias. I hope my readers will find many favourites of their own to add to my own very subjective selection.

Palermo offers a wide choice of restaurants in every category, and new ones are opening regularly. I have much less opportunity to eat out now that I live full-time on the farm, but from what I have tasted myself or have been told by palates I respect, we are coming out of the tunnel of what one local chef described to me as the ‘creamatizing of Sicilian cuisine’, and rediscovering with pride the island’s own traditions. All numbers given below are local.

I rarely go to luxury restaurants, but there is one new place, just outside of Palermo on the road to Agrigento, that I am very eager to try: Mulinazzo (on Route S.S.121 at Bolognetta, tel: 8724870 for reservations, closed Sunday evenings and Mondays) is said to have creatively interpreted and beautifully prepared Sicilian dishes, far better (and more expensive) than what one would expect from the setting.

In Palermo itself there is an abundance of good and simple trattorias where one can find traditional dishes nicely cooked and served in pleasant surroundings. One old favourite, the Trattoria Stella (commonly called “Hotel Patria”, Via Alloro 104 tel: 6161136, closed Sundays), is hidden away in the dilapidated courtyard of an ancient palace in the heart of the old city. In summer the tables are out in the courtyard, shaded by a palm tree and jasmine and oleanders in bloom. Panelle, cazzilli, and pickled aubergine are the house antipasto, and it was here that I first tasted an insalata di arance e aringhe.

At the nearby Casa del Brodo (Corso Vittorio Emanuele 145, tel: 321655, closed Tuesdays), slightly more upscale in décor and price, the menu offers an intelligently chosen panorama of true Palermo cooking. Reliable and unpretentious versions of standard Sicilian classics can be found both at Primavera (Piazza Bologni 4, tel: 329408, closed Fridays) and, in the nearby Piazza San Saverio, at Il Vicolo (Cortile Scimeca 2, tel: 6512464, closed Sundays).

For a smaller if not necessarily lighter meal, the Antica Foccacceria San Francesco (Piazza San Francesco d’Assisi, tel: 320264, closed Mondays) is to be highly recommended, both for its turn-of-the-century décor and as a dependable place in which to experiment with pani cu la meuza, sfincione and other kinds of street food that one might hesitate to try in the street itself.

Those looking for a pleasant place to eat outside on a warm summer evening should head to Piazza Marina, where three good restaurants are wedged side by side between spectacular giant ficus trees and the fourteenth-century Palazzo Steri. The eldest of these, Il Crudo e il Cotto (tel: 6169261, closed Tuesdays), has good vegetarian dishes as well as fish and meat dishes.

Sant’Andrea (Piazza Sant’Andrea 4 just off Piazza San Domenico, tel: 334499, closed Tuesdays) opened a few years ago and rapidly became a favourite among Palermo’s artists and intellectuals because of its imaginative way with seafood. Excellent seafood can also be found on the outskirts of the city; in the harbour of Mondello da Sariddu (Piazza Mondello 48, tel: 451922, closed Wednesdays) is a good place to try spaghetti with ricci (sea urchin roe), and Trattoria Sympathy (Piano Gallo 18, tel: 454470, closed Friday) is also very good. Be advised that everywhere in Sicily fish is excellent but expensive.

Most of the restaurants mentioned are in the centre of the old city. Bear in mind that many small restaurants in Sicily do not take credit cards, so take cash in your pocket to be sure.

Picnic enthusiasts departing from Palermo can contemplate two possibilities. Super-refinement in the way of cheeses and cold-cuts is centrally available at Mangia (Via Principe di Belmonte 17), and right across the street the Spinnato bakery offers a wide variety of breads and rolls. A more adventurous picnic, including many different kinds of olives, could be put together in the Vucceria or the Ballarò street markets. No one interested in food should pass up the chance to visit one of these, but like all the food stores, they are closed on Sundays and on Wednesday afternoons.

Lovers of decorative bread should head for the town of Salemi for Saint Joseph’s Day (celebrated on and around March 19th). The Municipal Tourist Office (tel: 0924-991320) organizes an awesome bread-wreathed community altar and will indicate the families that are preparing similar altars at home; tourists are always welcome. During the festivities Il Castello (Contrada San Ciro, on the Salemi—Marsala road, tel: 0924-65155) offers a sampling of the principal dishes that are served at the altars (about 15-20 dishes and not - thank heavens—the mandatory 60). All year round the Panificio Lazzara in Palermo (Via Mendola 57, tel: 6164145) will make you at 24 hours’ notice a spectacular peacock or a basket of flowers; intricate sunbursts are available at the Panificio Bianca in Syracuse (Via Roma 22, tel: 0931-65805). Transport is difficult, but once home these will last for several years under a few coats of insecticide followed by shellac.

Artichoke enthusiasts travelling east from Palermo should not miss lunch in Cerda at the Trattoria Nasca (Piazza Merlina, tel: 8991349, closed Saturdays). Cerda is artichoke country: in winter and spring Mr Nasca serves them in every possible manner, while in the summer he turns his talents to aubergines.

There are other interesting culinary experiences hidden in the mountains and the hinterlands of Sicily. Just outside of the town of Gangi, the Tornabene family has transformed Gangivecchio, the 13th century exmonastery that is their family home, into a restaurant and pensione. The setting is enchanting and the food is a singular example of simple mountain cooking combined with aristocratic and even Bolognese elements from the family tradition. Reservations are necessary, and the pensione is often booked up for weeks in advance. (tel:/fax: 0921-689191).

More straightforward mountain cooking is available on Mt. Etna, at the Albergo Ragabo (tel: 095-647841), a rather Spartan inn situated on the Etna Nord road that runs from Linguaglossa up to the volcano’s summit. In nearby Randazzo the Trattoria Veneziano (Via Romano 9, tel: 095-921418, closed Sunday evenings and Mondays) does good things with mushrooms.

Near the town of Vallelunga lies Regaleali, the estate of Tasca d’Almerita family, where some of the island’s finest wines are produced, and where sturdy peasant cooking combines with the baronial cuisine. Anna Tasca Lanza, well-known in the United States for her cookbooks and demonstrations, hosts meals and cooking lessons that provide a unique introduction to Sicilian food. (For information and reservations, fax: 0921-542783.)

The Ristorante Majore (Via Martiri Ungheresi 12, just off the Piazza del Duomo; tel: 0932-923019; closed Mondays) in Chiaramonte Gulfi, near Ragusa, was founded in the last century and is known as the Paradise of the Pig. It serves its own acorn-fed pork in various fashions, including an excellent stuffed pork chop.

Syracuse has numerous good restaurants: Don Camillo (Via delle Maestranze 100, tel: 0931-67133, closed Mondays) offers excellent upscale Sicilian cooking, often reinterpreted but with rigor. La Foglia (Via Capodieci 39, tel: 0931-461569, closed Tuesdays) is amusingly eccentric both in its menu of lesser-known Sicilian dishes and in its decor, brought in part and parcel from somebody’s grandmother’s house, with no two glasses alike and vases of wildflowers on embroidered doilies.

Sicily is ideal for in-between-meal indulgence. There are fewer and fewer convent kitchens still in business: the Monastero del Santissimo Rosario in Palma di Montechiaro is famous for its marzipan paschal lambs filled with chopped pistachios (available at Eastertime only; tel: 0922-688108) while Agrigento’s Badia dello Spirito Santo still makes exquisite pistachio clusters know as bocconcini di dama. None of the convents are open for business on Sundays.

Commercial establishments are taking up the vacuum left by the convents very nicely. In Erice, Maria Grammatico, owner of the Pasticceria Grammatico (Via Vittorio Emanuele 14, closed Tuesdays in the winter), learned as a child from the nuns that ran the local orphanage how to make frutta di martorana, dolci di riposto, and delicious almond cakes. At the Bivio Sant’Anna, the crossroad where the modern city of Enna is spreading, the Bar Nocilla (Piazza Antonello da Messina, closed Tuesdays) sells lunette, half-moons of pasta frolla filled with chocolate and almonds, and spicey Christmas turnovers. Further east still, the Pasticceria Etna in Taormina (Corso Umberto 112, closed Mondays) displays masterly marzipan and nougat.

In Noto, Corrado Costanzo sells cassate and sugar engagement hearts (which would make a very special Valentine) at his Pasticceria Costanzo (Via Silvio Spaventa 7/9), while down the street at the Caffè Sicilia (Corso V. Emanuele 125, closed Mondays), the Assenza brothers are doing interesting work with marmalades and nut spreads as well as pastries.

It is hard to choose among the Palermo pastry shops, but I think my favourite is the Pasticceria Scimone (Via Imera 8, closed Tuesdays), which is a short walk from the flea market; it makes a wicked buccellato. The Pasticceria La Preferita (Via Villareale 47, closed Tuesdays), more centrally located, has very good marzipan and candied fruit.

To wrap it up, ice cream! The Palermitani are particularly fond of Cofea (Via Villareale 18) and of the Bar Mazzara (Via Generale Magliocco 15). The latter is the café at whose tables Lampedusa is said to have written The Leopard, but fancy redecoration has destroyed the air of shabby gentility in which he found inspiration. There are now two Gelateria Ilardi selling pezzi duri on the Marina in warm weather: the one nearest Porta Felice is to be preferred. In eastern Sicily, two gelaterias stand out in my experience: Costarelli-Maugeri in Acireale and Finocchiaro in the main piazza of Avola.

My apologies to all the places I have yet to discover and, to my readers, eat well!