Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Staples
Bread, pasta, antipasti, fish, meat…with so many delicious staples in Sicilian cuisine,
you'll be spoilt for choice. You'll also find loads of traditional regional specialities to
sample, many made with products showcased by the
Fondazione Slow Food
(
www.fondazioneslowfood.com
)
organisation.
Bread
Bread has always been a staple food for the Sicilian peasant. Made from durum wheat, Si-
cilian bread is coarse and golden, fashioned into myriad ritualistic and regional shapes,
from braids to rings to flowers. Baked bread is treated with the greatest respect and in the
past only the head of the family had the privilege of slicing the loaf.
Periods of dire poverty and starvation no doubt gave rise to the common use of bread-
crumbs, which served to stretch meagre ingredients and fill up hungry stomachs. Such eco-
nomy lives on in famous dishes such as
involtini,
in which slices of meat or fish are
wrapped around a sometimes-spicy breadcrumb stuffing and then pan-fried or grilled.
Breadcrumbs (rather than grated cheese) are also sprinkled on some pasta dishes, such as
pasta con le sarde
. Some other popular dishes made with a bread-dough base include
sfin-
cione (
local form of pizza made with tomatoes, onions and sometimes anchovies),
im-
panata
(bread-dough snacks stuffed with meat, vegetables or cheese) and
scaccie
(discs of
bread dough spread with a filling and rolled up into a pancake).
Antipasti
Sicilians' love of strong flavours and unusual combinations lends itself well to the anti-
pasto (literally 'before the meal', or appetiser) platter. Helping yourself to a selection of an-
tipasti from the buffet is a great way to explore some of Sicily's wonderful flavours, ran-
ging from marinated sardines and slivers of raw herring to fruity cheeses and a whole range
of marinated, baked and fresh vegetables, including artichokes, peppers, sun-dried toma-
toes, eggplant and the most famous of all -
caponata
(cooked vegetable salad made with
tomatoes, aubergines, celery, capers, olives and onions). In mountainous regions, the anti-
pasto selection tends to shift more towards sausages, cheeses, mushrooms or hearty
aran-
cinette
, fried balls of rice stuffed with meat and tomato sauce. If you're lucky, you'll also
find rare treats such as delicately breaded and fried sage leaves or squash blossoms.
