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.