Fabulous Sicilian Seafood, Cannoli, Theatrical Market, Friendly People And A Basset Hound

Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean has absolutely fabulous seafood, cannoli, theatrical food market and friendly people, including a cute basset hound!

Wherever I go, the foods of the area are a large part of my enjoyment.  It is just the way I am wired, and for me seeking out marvelous culinary treats is just as important as historical treasures.

I study them as much as I do any other aspects of the country.  After all , one of the things that keeps me anchored in Paris, besides the beauty and all the cultural artistic events is the marvelous food and wines.

Sicily is a country rich is culinary traditions that have been influenced by multiple conquering nations, but also born out of  necessity of survival during times when the populace were extremely poor.

Today Sicily, along with southern Spain provides most of the citrus fruits, especially blood oranges and lemons for the northern European countries.    The best almonds and pistachios come from here, near the slopes of Mount Etna.

These are used abundantly in making marzipan shaped fruits and wonderful marzipan cookies

Although Sicilian cuisine is certainly Italian, it retains a special and very distinctive personality of its own culinary wise.  After all, it has been infused with Greek, Arabian, Spanish and French influences that evolved during occupation for several centuries from these respective cultures.

I was only there five days, and in just one region.  It was just enough to taste some of the great Sicilian specialities, but long enough to feel intrigued to come back and spend more time exploring the rest of the island.

I arrived in Ortigia late afternoon Monday, and several of the restaurants I had wanted to visit were closed except a few.  Generally when I travel, I have already listed several places from consulting several sources for restaurants.

Trip Advisor may the most popular rating system for the general public, but in order to use it wisely, you have to read through quite of bit or reviews and cross check them with regional culinary blogs, and local food critics.

For instance, I paid more attention to Italian reviewers and comments.  I also generally trust more French commenters, who can be critical.

There are gems that are new, so have not risen to within the top 20 or so yet, but show excellent promise. I could go on about this, but how to wade through restaurant reviews is not the goal of this post.

By the time we arrived at our apartment, it was around six and too late for the food marchés and too tiring to contemplate shopping and cooking dinner.

Some very generous hosts of apartments leave already chilled wines waiting in the refrigerator, along with other goodies for breakfast, like in Hungary, France and Greece, but this refrigerator was bare except  water.

The huge terrace overlooking the ocean was enjoyed that first night without any aperitifs in hand. There was a table to eat out and even a barbeque area with a very pretty Sicilian ceramic sink.

I was interested in trying Sicilian sparklings wines, but could not find a wine shop and I must say I was shocked by the high retail prices, some as much as French champagne, which I lamented not bringing with me.

Even white wine proved to be expensive as well.

Retroscena on 106 Via della Maestranza proved to be a delightful restaurant.  With Signora running the tables and chef husband in the kitchen, we were impressed with their hospitality, generosity and food.

Just after being seated a very welcomed glass of prosecco, though not Sicilian, was offered along with some amuse bouches of Sicilian puffs.

The grilled tender octopus was perfect atop roasted local potatoes.

At the end of the meal, another generous offering of Marsala appeared on our table, again an indication of the immense generosity of this restaurant.

Signora was also very knowledgeable about Sicilian wines and aptly helped us choose an excellent Grillo, from the western side.  She was also very compassionate to me with she saw tears well in my eyes after I mentioned how blessed she was to have such a cute little boy seen sitting nearby.

Next morning we headed to what many consider one of the one of the most colourful and best food marches in Sicily.  I was expecting to see all the fabulous seafood of the Sicilian coasts, but I had no idea that I was going to be entertained by theatrical antics.

The freshness of the seafood was impeccable with some fish still in rigor mortis, like I had seen in the Athens markets, though this one was much smaller.

Though I am already spoiled by Parisian fish markets, I found myself immediately wishing that I could stay much longer, just to be able to cook  everything I saw.

The absolutely huge prawns, called gamberini,  were a glistening pink red  and I gasped in delight at the price on only 12 a kilo! Totally unimaginable in Paris, where prawns this big come from French islands in the Indian ocean and are priced any where up to 48 to over 50 euros a kilo!

Huge whole silver skin bluefin tuna were being deftly carved by a  rotund moustached man,  at a very reasonable price of only 24 euros a kilo, much lower for this pristine quality than in Paris. Ditto for the shiny calamari  and huge swordfish, which are very abundant on the Sicilian coasts.

The sparkling dorades(sea bream) were magnificent as well. I was curious about the curled silver flat fish that I presumed was a member of the eel family, called Anguilla.

Yes, of course they were mountains of sardines and anchovies, along with clams destined to be tossed with pastas to create the famous  linguine con vongole.

Sadly missing were sea urchins, which I had so looked forward to having the Sicilian speciality of pasta with these delicious sea creatures.  The did have baskets of live snails, which is no longer seen in Parisian markets.

The cries of the fish vendors were indeed loud and more musical to hear in Italian than French.

I had read about a place called  Caseificio Borderi where they had the most sumptuous sandwiches in the whole island, along with the greatest of Sicilian sausage and cheese products.

Just after we entered the food marché, we fortunately stumbled upon this incredible bastion of Sicilian products and that is where the theatrics started in full force.

I have never in my life seen such a passionate display of sandwich making!   Animated by an elegant grey haired man who treated his table more like a theater stage, he loved delighting the crowds gathered around to crescendos of oohs and aahs at each move of building a monumental sandwich to the size that defied reasoning.

He worked the crowds like a strip teaser, twirling around  with as precise moves as a ballet dancer, piling on mounds of smoked mozzarella, baked ricotta, slices of local prosciutto and pecorino cheeses, grated lemon zest and chopped fresh herbs which he rolled into a log.

Bread halves were slathered with garlic smashed olive oil, sliced olives, freshly chopped basil,  parsley, fresh tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and oregano.  He topped a half with the huge thick rolled orgy of ham, sausage and ricotta to the already bulging  sandwich halves that when finished could easily feed a family of 4 to 6.

As he reveled in the  gasps of his adoring fans, pressed like sardines to captures his each and every move on camera, he would cut thick slices of the  baked ricotta and mozzarella that he pressed in our welcoming hands.

I do not consider sandwiches worthy of lusting for,  but after tasting just one bite of the smoked mozzarella and ricotta, I was transported instantaneously to  a cloud of gustatory delight and quickly got in line for one of his made to order masterpieces, all delivered with blown kisses for the ladies and knuckle thanks for the guys.

Though I had originally wanted to grill swordfish on the terrace, the wind proved too cool and swift to envision doing that.

The bright red tuna was a must to take home, along with some of those gorgeous prawns for dinner.

Even though I had only 4 of those large shrimps, the juicy carapaces , along with garlic and basil was enough to make a delicious sauce of olives, capers and chopped lemons, served with sweet Sicilian red peppers. They made wonderful leftovers for lunch next day on the our sunny terrace.

Time had come to start our cannoli quest for the best ones in Ortigia.   We started at Pasticceria Artale at 32 Via Landolina that leads towards the Piazza Duomo.

The made to order cannoli came in various flavours.  Choosing the natural one, the slightly sweetened ricotta cream was just divine stuffed inside the fried cannolo crust,though  a tad too thick in my opinion.

They are also famous for the almond granitas, and the one we tried was good but too sweet for my palate. In general Sicilians seem to like more heavenly sweetened pastries than the French.

Down past the Piazza Duomo the I Cannoli Del Re proved rather dismal, with the overly sweet filling tasting more like corn starched pastry cream than ricotta in a tiny shell. A suspected tourist trap in my opinion.

The next day we stopped for  cappuccino at Cafe Marciante and their cannoli was very good with a crisp and tender shell,  though the cream filling, while good did not match Pasticceria Artale.

To make further comparisons, we returned to Paticceria Artale another day to bring home two more of their cannoli, eating one inside and the other two tucked for dessert in my  tote bag.

Meandering back through the labyrinth of tiny pathways, who would ever thought that our cannoli would connect us to a very curious basset hound named Georges.

With droopy bloodshot eyes and ears tips that dragged the streets, Georges suddenly out of blue darted towards our sack carrying the cannoli, and starting intensively sniffing away to the rebuffs of his mom, in perfect english.

After explaining how much we love doggies, we struck up a delightful conversation with two adorable South African expats, Linetta and her daughter Julietta.

After living in Florence for over 30 years, she sought the sun and oceans breezes of Ortigia, buying a lovely village townhouse with a pretty rooftop terrace.

Petit Linetta prefered not be photographed because she was nursing a black eye from having Georges lunge at another dog he does not like, causing her to fall flat on the cobblestones.

So thanks to Georges  and his hound dog nose, we enjoyed talking about being expats and getting more tips about the island.

Resident Sicilians were very friendly with warm smiles and helpful even through language barriers. After joining a some ladies to recite Hail Mary’s in a church, the priest came over to thank us and we “struck up” as best we could a conversation with the kind ladies, neither of us being able to speak each other’s language.

I had read about a new restaurant called Locanda Maniace, where the young chef had worked with Joel Robuchon in Paris and was getting great reviews.  Located at 52 Via Castello Maniace near the bottom tip of the island, the food and service were wonderful.

I was hoping to have one of their specialities, spaghetti con ricci(sea urchins)  with burrata and lime , but they explained why I never saw any sea urchins in the market because from May 1 to July they were prohibited from being caught due to their reproductive period.

I settled on sharing a creamy dark black pasta with squid ink for the first course that turned out well seasoned that somewhat took care of my disappointment of not having the sea urchins.

More octopus sounded great, since I don’t always see it at my poissonnerie and it is such a speciality here. It was perfectly grilled, tender and nestled in a succulent mound of smoked mashed potatoes subtly flavoured with rocket.

Aimée had it fried in very tender strip flavoured with Sicilian orange zest.   The best dessert was a fluffy lemon ricotta topped with chocolate crumble and pistachios.

Aimée wanting to stop off at one of myriads of gelaterias for ice cream despite the enjoyable desserts, we headed off winding in and out of narrow gas lit  streets still filled with tourists milling around.

Sicilians seem to like their ice creams and granites sweeter than the French artisanal ones, and many like a scoop of gelato buried  in a brioche type sweet bread.

Our last trip to the food marché  was to buy sausage, cheese and  the heavenly smoked burrata/mozzarella at Borderi  to take home ,and some wonderful Sicilian sparkling wine for our last night on the terrace.

Added as take home were different flavoured almond cookies, dried oregano, sun dried tomatoes and some more salt preserved capers.

I knew I wanted to cook some more of those divine huge prawns for our last dinner on the island and how I wished that I could also take a few kilos home with me!

Cooking in a vacation rental apartment is always a challenge, because few are well equipped.  This one was except for not having a real chopping knife, just a long serrated one, make dicing garlic, herbs and onions difficult.

Undaunted by these small hardships, I compose my menus on what I can accomplish with a small amounts of ingredients, so as not to waste any leftovers, that I can’t put in my valises.

After briefly giving the prawns a quick saute in olive oil, I removed them to peel and devein  and returned to heads to simmer in white wine, basil, and capers for my sauce, mashing the heads to get out the shrimp fat that intensifies the flavour of my stock.

Just about anybody raised in Louisiana know that shellfish have the best flavour in the heads, which is why natives always suck  crawfish heads after devouring the tails.

The bright yellow zucchini flowers were stuffed with the addictive smoked burrata mozzarella and just briefly wilted in olive oil.  The prawns were very delicious with an addition of sliced black olives and finely diced lemons.

An absolutely fabulous dinner for a mere fraction of the cost of eating out.  Though I had hoped to serve it on the terrace, the winds were too chilly again to take advantage of the beautiful view.

After turning in our keys the next day, we went to have lunch at aLevante overlooking the castle of the seafront.  Sun had become really hot by Friday and I wanted to have lunch before catching the bus back to the Catania airport.

I went over to the sea wall and saw all those sea urchins nestled on the rocks that i could not have, but I had wanted to try the swordfish, which is very popular here.

Filets of the fish were rolled around a herbed ricotta and served with a reduction of Sicilian citrus. The fish was very moist and delicious though I found the sauce minimal and too caramelised for my taste.

 

 

Before boarding the plane home, I grabbed three more cannoli to take home from the airport boutique of Nonna Vincenza after testing a delicious pistachio one.

The sun was setting on Mount Etna when we took off and likewise as we approached landing back in Paris, it was a welcome sight to see the glittering golden lights of the Eiffel Tower welcoming us home, though it was cold and raining.

As usual, I extend the culinary inspirations of wherever I go once home. For example, I made  sardines stuffed with herbs and brocciu, a Corsican cousin to ricotta, somewhat similar to the ones preferred in Catania.

The smoked burrata made my eggplant and tomato millefeuilles even more intriguing, served with tomato infused creme fraiche.

The beauty and bounty of culinary treasures of Sicily will definitely lure me back, as much as the sunny weather, the surrounding blue green sea and the friendly folks as warming and generous as the Sicilian sun.