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Sicily Food:On any given night, Sicilian families can be found passing around a heaping plate of caponata, a traditional antipasto made of eggplant, tomatoes, celery, olives, and capers. Fisherman used to devour this dish with seafood at the end of a long fishing day, but caponata has evolved into one of the most popular Sicilian dishes. The recipe varies and sometimes includes artichokes and even chocolate. No contemporary Italian kitchen would be complete without a bottle of Marsala wine. But centuries ago, this cooking staple was created in the western Sicilian town of Marsala to challenge the Portuguese and Spanish monopoly on fortified wines such as Madeira and sherry. Today, marsala is used all over the world to enhance the flavor of a dish, create a sauce, or to be enjoyed as a dessert wine.
Produced in the province of Ragusa and several towns near Syracuse, Caciocavallo Ragusano (Cosacavaddu Rausanu in Sicilian dialect) is a traditional Sicilian cheese made by curdling cow’s milk inside a wooden container called a “tina,” cooking the curds, and then kneading or pulling them by hand. The name was inspired by the practice of tying cheese (cacio in Italian) two-by-two and hanging them so that they straddle (a cavallo in Italian) a wooden beam to age. The seasoned variety is used in many traditional Sicilian recipes, especially pasta and bean dishes. It’s impossible to resist the spell of a Sicilian pastry shop window with its explosion of tantalizing colors and aromas. Among the vast array of Sicilian pastry products, the place of honor definitely goes to the cassata. Made of a tantalizing mixture of sponge cake, chocolate, sweetened ricotta, candied fruit, and nuts, the cassata is usually decorated with thick icing or marzipan and covered with brightly colored candied fruits. The ever-popular cannoli, fried pastry rolls with a delicious filling made from sweet ricotta, chocolate and candied fruits, were once a treat only at Carnival time, but now are enjoyed year-round. And no festival in Sicily would be complete without torrone, the mouthwatering honey-and-nuts nougat that is made in a wide range of varieties across the island. Sicily Food: Sicilian recipes |
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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