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Recipes |
Wine | Travel |
Italian Food
 Sicily Food:
Marzapane candy fruit -
Photo (c)
Luciana Coletti -*Elle*
On any given night, Sicilian families can be found passing
around a heaping plate of caponata, a traditional
antipasto made of eggplant, tomatoes, celery, olives, and capers. Fisherman
used to devour this dish with seafood at the end of a long fishing day, but
caponata has evolved into one of the most popular Sicilian dishes. The recipe
varies and sometimes includes artichokes and even chocolate.
No contemporary Italian kitchen would be complete without a bottle of
Marsala wine. But centuries ago, this cooking staple was created
in the western Sicilian town of Marsala to challenge the Portuguese and Spanish
monopoly on fortified wines such as Madeira and sherry. Today, marsala
is used all over the world to enhance the flavor of a dish, create a sauce, or
to be enjoyed as a dessert wine.
Melagrana - Photo (c)
Bianca Gualandi
 Produced in the province of Ragusa and several towns near
Syracuse, Caciocavallo Ragusano (Cosacavaddu
Rausanu in Sicilian dialect) is a traditional Sicilian cheese made by
curdling cow’s milk inside a wooden container called a “tina,” cooking the
curds, and then kneading or pulling them by hand. The name was inspired by the
practice of tying cheese (cacio in Italian) two-by-two and hanging them
so that they straddle (a cavallo in Italian) a wooden beam to age. The
seasoned variety is used in many traditional Sicilian recipes, especially pasta
and bean dishes.
It’s impossible to resist the spell of a Sicilian pastry shop
window with its explosion of tantalizing colors and aromas. Among the vast array
of Sicilian pastry products, the place of honor definitely goes to the
cassata. Made of a tantalizing mixture of sponge cake,
chocolate, sweetened ricotta, candied fruit, and nuts, the cassata is
usually decorated with thick icing or marzipan and covered with brightly colored
candied fruits. The ever-popular cannoli, fried pastry
rolls with a delicious filling made from sweet ricotta, chocolate and candied
fruits, were once a treat only at Carnival time, but now are enjoyed year-round.
And no festival in Sicily would be complete without torrone,
the mouthwatering honey-and-nuts nougat that is made in a wide range of
varieties across the island.
Messina food
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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