Cuisine

Sicilian

Cucina siciliana

Sicily cooks as an island with its own pantry, not as the hotter southern end of a national Italian menu. Eggplant, tomato, olive oil and salted ricotta do everyday work. Pasta alla Norma is the clearest example: fried eggplant folded through tomato, finished with ricotta salata and basil. Sweet-sour cooking shows up in caponata and in fish with raisins or vinegar. Street food in Palermo is fried, stuffed and eaten standing up. Pistachio and ricotta are treated as serious dessert ingredients, not novelty flavours on a mainland pastry list.

Greek settlement, Arab agriculture and Spanish rule left techniques, not a costume. Citrus, almonds, raisins and spices entered through Arab-period farming and trade. Tomato and other New World crops arrived later and were absorbed thoroughly. Sicily was a grain and wine island long before pasta alla Norma had a name. The dish is a Catania plate that restaurants exported; the island's cooking is wider: swordfish, sardines, chickpea fritters, and breads that soak up oil. Treating Sicily as 'Italy but with more sun' misses the sweet-sour and the fried street work.

Agrodolce — vinegar and a little sugar or dried fruit — is a structural taste, not a glaze. Frying is a daily method for vegetables and street snacks. Seafood is grilled or stewed with tomato and herbs rather than buried in cream. Pasta alla Norma should taste of eggplant that has taken on oil and of cheese that is salty enough to replace extra salt. Capers, olives and wild fennel appear more often than they do in Roman cooking.