Sicily: A must!

9th August
 
Sicily is well known all over the world thanks to some of the best archaelogical sites with temples, theatres and old cities that date back to the classical period. Segesta is a historical city, founded on the Mount Barbaro, not far away from Castellamare del Golfo, not far away from our house and so we decided to go and explore it.
 
After having parked the car we reached the doric temple on foot ... the past in the present still stands there and is so beautiful.
 

We went back to the parking, from where the bus that took us to the upper hill, leaves. It's a very short way but it's too hot to dare to reach it on foot. When you get there, you are astonished in front of such a beauty...the theatre is still there and  it's still used for performances.

From Segesta we leave for Erice, this little medieval town that can be reached both by car and also by cableway from Trapani is a little jewel, it's spectacular even if it's cold and if you arrive here in the evening, don't forget to take with you a pullover. You enter the walls of the city and it seems to be somewhere else, little streets that entrench themselves and the smell....something delicious that reminds us of the ancient tradition of pastries that were baked in the ancient monasteries of the town... So you can taste jams, marsala, almond pastries and nougat. Don't leave Erice without visiting Pasticceria Maria Grammatico. Please remember to give up your diet before visiting Sicily!!!!
Erice is a medieval town whose centre is still preserved and it is surrounded by walls and entrance doors.
The ancient castle, the Venere Castle, that dates back to the 11th Century was built as a fortress where the ancient Sanctuary for Goddess Venus had to be built.

Before leaving the town, we decided to taste our first

CANNOLO ALLA SICILIANA

We were told that the best cannoli are filled upon request, so wherever you want to taste it, please make sure that they will be filled in front of you...it's true!

INGREDIENTSFor the skin

400g flour 00
75g lard
40g sugar
2 eggs
1 white egg
salt
15g bitter cocoa powder
60g dried Marsala
60g white vinegar
Seeds Oil for frying

For the cream
1kg Sheep ricotta
600g sugar
a pinch of powder cinnamon
150g bitter chocolate drops
Candied cherries (2 for each cannolo)
Powdered pistachio

Let's start preparing the skins of the cannolo

Pour in the mixer the flour, the sugar, the cocoa and a pinch of salt. Add the lard and make sure it will be well mixed. Then add the eggs and never stop mixing it, stream the Marsala and the vinegar until you get a soft but solid dough. Make a ball of it, wrap it with transparent film and put it in the fridge for at least one hour.

Afterwards, roll out the dough. You should cut it in circles with 10cm diameters and roll them in oiled spouts. Join the edges with the beaten white egg. Fry them in abundant hot oil, 2 or upon a time. As soon as they get dark golden, drip them and let them cool on blotting paper.

Ricotta cream

Ricotta could be very wet, so before using it, remove its serum. Mix it with the sugar. Let it rest for an hour and then sieve it. Finally add cinnamon and chocolate.

Now take the skins and fill them with the cream. Smooth the external parts with a knife, pass them into the pistachios flour and add the cherries. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve them.

Sicily: Leaving Palermo...tour is gonna starting

8th August


The day after, in the morning we leave Palermo....the tour of the island is still long and we have to hurry up. But the visit to Monreale is a must: first of all because you can have a global view of the city from the upper hills and then because here, a very ancient church is being preserved.

When you get in, you cannot keep your eyes away from the ceiling and the walls...they are completly covered with mosaics rapresenting the scenes of the Bible.
Out of the church, on the right, you can also have a glance at the cloister nearby. The  silence and the order take you somewhere else.

We leave Monreale in direction of Castellamare but, we want to have our first bath and so we decide to stop in Mondello...the beach of the Palermitans. It's August and everybody in Italy is on holiday and the beach is full of people. We look for a square meter of free sand to lay down and we feel surrounded from the locals....it's Midday and in less than an hour, we are afraid, they will be starting having lunch. Under the sun, temperature is around 45°, it's terribly warm and the only thing that our stomach could bear is fruit or an ice cream....but we are not used to their habits.... and, as foreseen, they cannot renounce to fried arancinis, lasagne and ...



PARMIGIANA

Ingredients
1,5kg Eggplants
1kg Tomatoes for sauce
Garlic
Oil
Basil
Onion
Salt
Parmesan Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
Flour 00

First of all slice the aubergines into 1cm thick slices and pour them in salted water so that they release their bitterness. This could take up to one hour.
In the meantime, prepare tomato sauce:put 2 or 3 lugs of olive oil in a pan, add the chopped onion, the garlic (entire so that, before the end of cooking, you can throw it away) and add some fresh tomatoes, previously cut in 4 pieces and give the mixture a good stir, put a lid on the pan and simmer slowly for 15 minutes. Add some salt, pepper and basil, to meet your taste.
In the meantime, dry up the slices of aubergines. bread them with some flour and fry them in hot seeds oil. Dry them with kitchen paper and start preparing assembling it. Put some tomato sauce on the buttom of a stoneware, then start with a first layer of eggplants, followed by mozzarella cheese, parmesan and tomato sauce.  Repeat the operation till you finish all the ingredients.
Before putting the dish in the oven, pour on the surface some parmesan cheese and mozzarella.
Bake it in the oven for 30 minutes at 180°C until golden and crisp.

In the late afternoon we leave for Castellamare, del Golfo where we are going to spend some days with some friends who hosted an apartment, the owner of which will explain us a lot of secrets in the kitchen.
The Sicilians like talking a lot and if you don't go away, they don't give up!
If you are in Castellamare del Golfo, stop for dinner at Trattoria Peccati di Gola, Via Marcono, 44 and ask for Claudio.

Sicily: Wandering in Palermo

7^th August

We get up in Palermo and we roll out in the warmth of the city to discover it… we start crossing the streets and here and there we can have a glance at very beautiful spots: the Cathedral, the Quattro Canti (four corners) but we got lost around the streets of the city markets:  at first Vucciria and then Ballarò…. The latest one is bigger, much bigger and as you approach the stall of food: it’s a riot of colors and smells.

We are astonished by the voices of the stallers, the colours of the fruits, the smell of the fish and of the meat…it’s something unique, something spectacular.

 

You get raped by these people that make of one of the most ancient economical activities the best show. And it’s really very astonishing also to notice how cheaper prices are.  So we decided that tonight we would have eaten FISH and you cannot leave Sicily without having tasted

SARDE AL BECCAFICO

Ingredients:
1,200kg pilchard
200g bread crumbs
4 anchovies in oil
100g raisin and pine seed
4 leaves of laurel
1 lemon
1 orange
1 teaspoon of sugar
Salt and Pepper
Oil for frying

Put a pan at low heat, without oil and pour bread crumbs in. Mix them up until they are completely toasted and paying attention so that they do not stick to the buttom. As soon as it will have assumed a golden color, add some oil, the previously shred anchovies, raisin, pine seeds and salt.

In the meantime, start cleaning the pilchards: wash and open them as a book, as you can see in the picture.

Fill them with a teaspoon of the filling and roll them up. Lay them down on a dish, that you have previously oiled, putting one next to the other. Put here and there some leaves of laurel, flavor with salt and pepper, sprinkle over the teaspoon of sugar, a little oil, and pour over the filtered juice of the lemon and of the orange. Bake them in a warm oven for 10 minutes. Serve cold.

Wherever you go you can find something interesting to see but it is also beautiful just wander across the streets and notice how the city is…it could seem dirty, bad smelling, crowded and polluted but…this is PALERMO.

At lunch we ate brioche with ice cream: we had to afford 43° of the city and we could not dare eating anything warm. But trust me, it’s really something delicious and we leave some space for dinner because we want to taste another trattoria…

Sicily: Love at first glance

Sicily 2012

I would like to start from the most recent travel, the one is still in my mind, eyes and …in my heart. By boat, I reached Palermo, from Genoa, a long trip but with a good company, it flies away.

6^th August 2012

We approach Palermo from the coast and we are welcomed by the Mountain Pellegrino and we can already have a beautiful view of the city… the gardens on the beach, the skyline from which domes and cathredals rise, palm trees… Just a glance at what is waiting for you all.

The air is warm, the city is not so cleaned but trotting along the streets you can already taste the citizens, their habits, their smells, … It’s dinner time (quite late, according to the Northern countries, they start eating at about 9pm) and so we can see restaurants opening and getting crowded, little trattorias preparing their tables just in front of their showcases and smells…. Sicily means Mediterranean Cuisine at all…. Tomatoes, capers, olives, anchovies, aubergines, rosemary and fish…

So we reach the square where Teatro Massimo stands and we look across the narrows streets in front of it … so narrow that balconies run the risk to touch each other, dark streets but how is it possible not to be attracted by the smells coming from the inner parts of these paths? So let’s go…

We ate by “Lilia e Totuccio” a sort of friggitoria where plates are cooked directly by the owner, a 60 years woman… You pay 10€ and you can eat whatever you want choosing from a wide buffet: vegetables, fried, boiled fish, paella, parmigiana, home made pasta, olives, omelletes…

This is a must in Sicily:

CAPONATA
 

Ingredients:

6 Eggplants
Onion
Celery
50g Capers
200g Olives
5 San Marzano Tomatoes
Vinegar 3 tablespoons
Sugar 3 tablespoons

Aubergines, like cucumbers, contain a considerable amount of water that must be removed before cooking; when raw they are also a little bit bitter. So, before starting, let the aubergines release the water by leaving them in salted water for nearly one hour.

Dice the aubergines and pour them in the salted water as previously described. After one hour drain, dry and fry them in a pan. Dry the oil pouring the fried vegetables on a cloth.
In the meantime stripe the filaments from the celery sticks, then blanch them in lightly salted water for five minutes. Slice the onion and dice the celery and sauté them in a pan with some olive oil. Add capers and olives (previously stoned) and the San Marzano tomatoes, that you have previously diced. Finally add some vinegar and sugar so that it doesn’t get neither too sweet nor too sour. Finally pour the fried aubergines and mix them together. You can serve it cold, even the day after.

After dinner we would like to taste something sweet … we were spoiled for the choice….you can have ice cream, granita, Cannoli, Cassata…..oh My God…they are something delicious and we tasted something by Gelateria Caffè “Al Capriccio”, in Via Rossini just in front of the Teatro Massimo.
Are you looking for a cheap solution in Palermo? Hotel Cortese, 2* Via Scarparelli, 16.

Let's leave...

Discovering little villages, evocative corners following the typical tastes of the Bel Paese. I will introduce you through the beauties of art, natural pristine spots, towns out of the reach in order to approach to one of those arts the Italians can do at their best...it's not love, it's loving in the kitchen!!!

Then...what are you  waiting for?

 Come in and sit down at my table…I will open the doors of my kitchen and of my passion for travelling to all those wanderers who would like to savor Italian taste….

It’s something that needs patience to grow and to take shape, it’s something that will be produced thanks to the passion of my family for the cooking and my experience of travelling.

I’m 32 years old, and after obtaining a degree in foreign languages, I have been working as employee. It took me quite long to understand that this is not enough: I would like to put my personal experience as a cook and as a traveler at your disposal.  So I started attending a master in Economics of Tourism and now I’m picking up everything to help you to have success in your kitchen and to discover Italy with me….