Authentic Sicily rich wine scene and awesome culinary destination
Sicily traditional cuisine cultural and culinary destination
Sicily
There is little question that a visit to Sicily promises a profound experience.
It is an island (together with smaller islands located in close or reasonably close proximity) that has captured the imagination of poets and writers from far-flung regions and Italian locales across centuries.
The Godfather was shot here as well as, more recently, the critically acclaimed television series, The White Lotus. But it is also a lively, bustling, and colourful destination with much of life lived on the street or at the piazza: outdoor cafes for espresso and cannoli; or a slab of pizza with a glass of Aperol Spritz.
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City markets, in addition to splendid produce, offer street food snacks, including roasted artichoke, fried fish, bruschetta, and cups of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.
Mount Etna
Sicily is a place of cultural, agricultural, architectural and geographical greatness.
From the stunning mountain-sea axis, grand boulevards and elaborate gardens of the handsome capital city Palermo in the northwest, to the startling image of Mount Etna brooding over the charged city streets of Catania in the east, to visions of high-altitude vineyards, abandoned stone cottages, dottings of prickly pear, olive groves, and, everywhere, magnificent duomo (cathedrals).
Sicily is a place where history and folklore are culturally palpable, perhaps no more so than in the representation of the Moor’s head.
These heads are everywhere — as decorations in the windows of dress shops or on restaurant dining tables, as vases on cobbled alleys — and they’re for sale at street stalls selling fridge magnets. Legend has it that a visiting Moorish trader fell in love with a young Sicilian girl.
However, when he broke the news that he was returning home – to his wife and children – she saw green. She cut off his head and planted in it a basil plant, watering it with her tears.
Moor’s head
The plant grew luxuriantly, and her neighbours, intoxicated by its aromas, ordered ceramic vases with the same features as the Moor’s head so as to grow such a magnificent plant themselves.
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The moral of the tale laughs a manager at an upmarket restaurant in the chic seaside city Cefalu – home to a most remarkable duomo – is to never upset a Sicilian woman.
The story clearly runs deep, talking of forbidden love, and of the historic influence of Moorish culture in Sicily.
Evident in Sicilian cuisine is a long history of varied influences, asserts food writer and researcher Anna Tasca Lanza, such as the use of pinenuts and raisins, and the popularity of pasta reale (marzipan).
The Zibibbo grape is one of the few plants that can grow on the volcanic island of Pantelleria, and its name is an Arab word.
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Anna thinks that isolation from modernity is also revealed in cooking traditions today, and that the incredible quality of ingredients has been a critical factor in the development of the rich and varied cuisine.
Sicily cuisine
We see rabbit cooked in a red wine reduction with green olives and balsamic; charred octopus served on a bed of potato mash; and risotto dense with dark squid ink.
From the agricultural wealth has emanated a sophisticated vegetable-orientated cuisine perhaps unmatched in Europe – vegetarians and even vegans can eat well here.
Market stalls are piled high with purple cauliflowers, green courgettes, red bell peppers, plump fennel bulbs and bunches of parsley, mint and basil. Caponata – a sweet-and-sour eggplant dish incorporating celery, tomato and vinegar – is a crowning glory, but simple pasta dishes show off the quality of lemon, oregano and porcini.
And there are cauliflower balls, chickpea fritters, and arancina stuffed with mozzarella. A classic is Maccu, a fava bean soup with its roots in peasant cooking, deliciously flavoured with wild fennel fronds harvested in the spring.
Even as there is a distinctive, coherent Sicilian cuisine, so also are there regional differences. Greens, which might be eaten on one side of the island, may be rejected on the other side.
Anna takes as another example Sarde a Beccafico. This can present as a deep-fried sardine sandwich but can also be a dish in which sardines are rolled around a mixture of pinenuts, raisins and breadcrumbs.
Bread was a luxury and respected
Traditionally, bread has been treated with the greatest of respect and, in the past, the task of slicing a loaf was the prerogative of the head of the household.
Bread was a luxury and, when food was scarce, reserved for the man of the house. So children and their mothers would forage for prickly pears, another emblematic foodstuff that features across literature and art.
As Mary Taylor Simeti writes in Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-five Centuries of Sicilian Food, such traditions help to explain the importance of breadcrumbs in Sicilian cooking.
They might be used as a substitute for cheese to sprinkle on pasta or used to coat both meat and fish, often seasoned with oregano, salt and pepper, explains Anna.
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Anna also runs an eponymous cooking school just outside Palermo located at her family’s Tenuta Regaleali wine estate.
Tasca is one of the wine producers at the forefront of what is becoming a truly dynamic wine industry.
Sicily is one of Italy’s largest wine-producing regions and has traditionally been associated with bulk wine – the shipping of large volumes to be bottled elsewhere.
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That practice has now changed in favour of producing premium wine and bottling it at source.
Sicily indigenous grapes
Perhaps the most exciting development is the growth of commitment to indigenous grapes.
Giuseppe Barraco, export manager for Carlo Pellegrino, one of Sicily’s most prominent players, says that about eighty-five per cent of vineyards are planted with local grapes such as Grillo, Catarratto and Carricante (white); and Nerello Mascalese, Nero d’Avola and Perricone (red).
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It is not easy to pin down what each of these grapes offers in style terms, because one Grillo might be in an easy-going style, or more premium and made with grapes from a single vineyard, or an exclusive bottling made from a single hectare of forty-year-old vines, Giuseppe explains.
While buzz among wine lovers may centre on Etna, there are other production areas of considerable quality, including the southeast corner and areas to the west of Palermo.
Highly mineral whites recall cru Chablis, while Nerello Mascalese can produce wines reminiscent of Nebbiolo, and Perricone can perhaps be compared to Pinot Noir.
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While the marketing effort required to help consumers understand the wine styles delivered by these grapes is significant, Giuseppe says, “We believe in our grapes!”
He is also a champion of Sicily’s traditionally most famous vinous export, Marsala. A sweet wine, it began to fall out of favour – together with other dessert wines such as Hungarian Tokaj and French Sauternes – when consumer tastes changed in favour of dry wine.
Historical circumstances meant that Marsala came to be seen as something low in quality and useful only for cooking in dishes such as Zabaglione and Escalopes al Marsala.
In fact, says Giuseppe, because it is rich in texture and flavour, just a tiny amount makes for a great reduction and, because of the wine’s longevity in an already opened bottle, a drop need never be wasted.
Among other sources, Sicilian wine is available in Hong Kong in retail at branches of Watson’s Wine.
Text Annabel Jackson / Photos Carlos Jackson & Tasca Conte d’ Almerita
