Sicilian
cooking is as lively as its people and as colourful as the island landscapes.
From coast to coast one is continually greeted by new surprises. Many original
dishes originated in ancient palaces, in monasteries rich in history, in sunny
vilages in the hills damp with vegetation. Here more than anywhere else fishermen's
hard and patient work has contributed to sumptuously laid tables. Many
have been handed down from the time of the invasions of the Greeks, the Romans,
the Arabs, the Normans, the Aragonese, the Bourbons. The most famous dishes are:
"pasta
con le sarde", "arancine di riso", "pasta
alla Norma", "pasta al nero di seppia", "pasta
con i broccoli", "frutta martorana", "cannoli"
and the proverbial "cassata" the symbol of Sicilian banquets.
|  Sicilian
almonds |
pasta
con le sarde | Besides
the ones mentioned above many other dishes full of fantasy are the expressions
of a simple country culture. Sicilian culture is connected with the catching of
a sword-fish and the tuna-massacre which take place every year, accompanied by
the unceasing rhythm of vibrant sing-songs. The grain and grape harvests the life
in the sulphur mines evoke images of hard-working farmers, women either busy stirring
tomato-essence "estratto" or bent kneading bread, baked in a stone-owen.
Cooking on smaller islands derives from very individual popular traditions, inspired
and revived by the sun.
The "Mediterranean" cooking is so called
not only for the geographical setting of the island but also for its ingredients,
the principal one being olive oil, produced in Sicily. This kind of cooking is
now considered extremely healthy. And as for the wines? Pliny compared them to
the strength of vulcaninc ground. They are very pure, Marsala, for example is
well known all over the world. |
