Food: what you have to taste
When you come to Sicily, the diet is the last thing you have to care about. Ingredients savor and dish variety makes your stay in this land a unique and unrepeatable culinary experience.
Here are the dishes you have to taste:
- Cannolo: one of the best desserts in Sicily and famous all over the over the world. It is a fried wafer filled with ricotta. According to the different areas, it may be enriched by candied orange skin, chocolate drops, or pistachio grain. It was initially made for Carnival, but then, thanks to its taste, it has become an ever-present dessert in Sicilian tables.
- Cassata: it is another symbol of Sicily: a sponge cake filled by fresh sheep ricotta and almond paste (pasta reale), encircled by a sugar icing and candied fruit decorations. You may enjoy a slice or a one-person dose, called cassatina.
- Arancino: A long debate divides Sicily about arancino name. May it be male or female it doesn’t matter, its unique flavor is the same all over Sicily. Its mains ingredients are filled rice (with butter or ragout), covered by a crusty fried breading.
- Granita: it is the best way to start breakfast in summer, in all its freshness and lightness. It a half-frozen liquid made of water, sugar and an essence. Main flavours are lemon, pistachio, strawberry, almond, chocolate, peach and mulberry. But be careful, never order a granita without the famous “tuppo” brioche.
- Pasta alla norma: it’s a typical first course, prepared with short pasta, tomato sauce, fried eggplants, salted ricotta and some basil leaves.
- Panelle e crocchè: a typical street food dish in Palermo and its area, which was praised by Forbed. Panelle are made with chickpea flour, water, parsley and salt, then battered and fried: crocchè are simple potato croquette and enriched with parsley and pepper.
- Caponata: some vegetables (mainly eggplants, tomatoes, capers, olives and celery) fried with a sweet and sour taste. Although it is a “poor” dish, it has a richness of colours and flavours.
- Pasta con le sarde: another typical first cours from Palermo. A strong taste thanks to sardines, with fennel, raisin, pine nuts, onion and saffron. In this dish, land and sea flavours are perfectly combined together.
