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…