You would be wrong to think that Italian food and Sicilian food is the same. Whilst there are crossovers, the flavoursome food in Sicily is different and will undoubtedly exceed your typical expectations of pizza and pasta. Sicilian food features distinct Arabic flavours as well as Greek and Spanish influences and you will be sure to fall in love with it.
Seafood and Sicily go hand in hand and you will find restaurants serving the best sea food dishes that you may ever taste. Swordfish is abundantly popular and is normally grilled for the best flavour. Snapper and other small fish feature widely on menus also and can be prepared in a sugar and vinegar sauce. Cuttlefish (Sepia) tends to be served with pasta in its own black sauce. Bear in mind that this is just a selection so if you love sea food this could be the place for you!
Meat dishes are rich and full of flavour and typically incorporate lamb, veal and even goat. If you want to try something particularly native, give a Milza sandwich a go. Can you guess what Milza is? No? Well, it’s veal spleen so you might choose to give it a miss after all.
Other classic Sicilian dishes include the ever popular Granita; a partially frozen, fruit flavoured sugary dessert which is mainly associated with Catania. Trapani displays Moroccan influences with many dishes containing Cous Cous. Palermo boasts a popular dish called Pasta con le Sarde which is a meal of sardines, fennel, sultanas, anchovies and pine nuts. Other delicious treats on offer is Gelato, and of course the wide and varied selection of fine wines. The climate and soil are perfect for vineyards to flourish and wine drinkers the world over are impressed by the quality of the yield.
Highly acclaimed restaurants are plentiful in Sicily but sometimes there can be too much choice or it is difficult to find some of the restaurants because they are too well hidden. Cin Cin Restaurant in Palermo is a classic example of a well hidden restaurant but it offers tasty refined cuisine and is regarded as one of the top five restaurants. If you love the food, you might be persuaded to pay 150 Euros to take part in the one day cooking course that they offer where you source local fresh ingredients from Palermo’s markets. In Catania, head to Metro which serves traditional cuisine with a twist for approximately 50 Euros a head.
With long leisurely lunches and dinners that last the whole night, it is clear to see that Sicily celebrates food. If you too are a real food fan, you might like to travel to Sicily and discover the culinary pleasures on offer, relish in the fantastic selection of wines and explore the interesting cities while you are at it.
