Italian cuisine is probably the most successful international food in the world. There isn't a country that I have been to where you cannot get pizza or pasta. Yet, all regions of Italy have their own definitive mouthfuls that speak of the history and culture specific to said region. Sicily has perhaps the most complex of histories of any region of the country. Conquered through the centuries by dozens of nations, empires and kings, Sicily has the battle and gastronomical scars to prove it. Here's a sampling of our sampling of Sicilian cuisine.
We'll start with a classic: Pasta con Sarde - Sardine Pasta. Cooked with fennel, pine nuts and raisins. Through the years I've started really enjoying little fish, and Sicily is home to two of the most popular, the sardine and anchovy. One in every fourth meal we ate had one of the two. This classic dish is a common primo, first course, that preceded a protein-based secondo. Other popular primos made classic in Sicily are Pasta alla Norma (tomato, eggplant, basil, and ricotta) and Caponata (tomato, eggplant, celery, capers, olives and onions).
After living in Argentina for almost 2 years and now here in Switzerland, Lori and I don't get to eat fish anywhere near as often as we'd like. One could say we pigged out on fish during our trip, but I'd say we were only taking advantage of the situation. If we ate a secondo, it was fish. Whole fried fish is really the only way to serve it, in my humble opinion. Here we have the dorado, one of many Mediterranean species we tried. We also tried pesce spada or swordfish (another very Sicilian ingredient), mussels, cuttlefish, and other frutti di mare.
One cannot go to Sicily without indulging in the holiest of holy dulce: the cannoli, or cannolo as it's called there. I've had cannoli in the past, I've even had it one of the best patisseries in Manhattan, but have never been a huge fan. Too sweet, too rich. With Sicilian cannolos, it's a different story: the shell crunchy and light and the ricotta filling fluffy and yum.
Also note the pistachio dusting on that bad boy. Our intake of pistachio probably quadrupled our intake over the last 10 years. There is fresh Bronte pistachio in, on, over, and under everything. Take this granita, a tasty iced drink you can get from any cafe on the island. A pistachio-flavored Slurpee may not sound that great, but it really was amazing. Lori's, made from fresh Interdonato lemons, was great too.
Finally, we get to the street food, where easily the most famous is the Arancine: the Arab-inspired rice ball, stuffed with meat and cheese, breadcrumbed and fried.
Other food highlights, whose photo we never snapped, but we are absolutely adored are: blood orange and fennel salad, sea-urchin pasta, and a pasta with olive oil and crushed Noto almonds.
It's easy to gush about the quality of Sicilian cuisine, but after almost 3 weeks of constant eating out, you are bound to hit some low-lights. One disappointment for me was the pizza.
It's not fair to compare pizza from Italy to any other country but I've had pizza in Italy before and have been mesmerized by it so I think the judgement here is fair. We ate a lot of pizza. After blasting through the majority of our food budget early in the trip, we were forced to transition to quite a few pizza and salad dinners than we had planned. And we tried a large number of varying types and toppings, always asking for recommendations from a local as opposed to the guide. Nevertheless, our pizzas always turned out a little off. Good but never great.
And finally, there was one dish that forced us to leave the table in order to go for a walk so I could discretely discard of the beast and rinse out my mouth with water. The Milza! This baby is a famous street food favorite made of cow spleen, lard and stink cheese on a bun. It's sounds like the perfect snack. Tony Bourdain loved it. I did not.
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