“ Another Sicily can be tasted by you, a land to discover not only through usual itineraries: illustrated guides, or in hurried visits. Try Sicily of tastes, of fruits of her generous nature and still, luckily, quite pure in Nature. It's the testimony of an oenogastronomic tradition jealously handed down in the time."
The continuous stream of lava from the Etna, that has made the earth particularly fertile, together with the historical passages of peoples who dominated these countries, helped to enrich of unusual tastes the range of the typical dishes of the place.
 |
The sceneries that the Etna and its people reserve to whoever wants to go to the search of genuine tastes and inimitable recipes that nothing have to envy to more famous and diffused gastronomic prototypes, are amazing and innumerable; you can find traditions as the harvest of spontaneous titbits or various typical crops which are the indelible evidence of the farmers sacrifices.
One of them, the origan, is abundant on the mountain slopes where the sun gives it an intense fragrance, different from that of the other places, used for the "salsa salmoriglio" and to flavour grilled meat and fish.
|
Hernando Cortes found out the indian fig, “botanical monster”, as they called it, in Mexico, in 1519; we had it as a botanical phenomenon in Sicily, an exotic green note for Baroque villas, and it became the symbol of archaic Sicily and the main seasonal custom for those who don’t want give up some cookery tradition, called “ liccumìe”.
|
 |
The fresh wild fennel flavours dishes as the pasta with the Sardinians while they use it dry to give taste to olives and other preserves, or roasted meat; it is widespread all over the territory and it is present in every house and inn. Moreover, the wild rosemary is used for roasts and for the meat of wild black piglet; the “cauliceddi” of the Etna, bitter vegetables typical of the volcanic earth that is suitable to make sauces and soups and perfect for our kind of sausages. And the mushrooms? The whole aetneus territory is rich of them, from the less appreciated type to the most valuable ones such as the white boletus and ferula one.
Or we can still mention dried chestnuts and hazelnuts, chick peas and toasted almonds, pinoli and pistachios, refined bouquet of tastes from the mountain together with the secrets every generation has educated the taste and the fancy of the new one with. |
 |
 |
"Walnuts and almonds, alone or well mixed up with dry figs or with all sort of good things, are the essence and the pretext to seduce with sweetness and to make exclusive any kind of meeting with our culture."
Lemons, mandarins and clementines, appreciated all over the world, make us proud of ourselves, in the warm springtime on the Etna, at first with the scent of zagara, recurrent miracle in its blooming, then as side dishes so as to make them exclusive. We use to eat oranges salad with fennel and small onions or other several original recipes, and you can eat them at the end of the lunch or at breakfast, or you can make sweets of it and delicious and aromatic jams.
|
Particularly favorable climatic conditions have allowed the development of secular cultivations such as the olive tree and the grapevine. The last one produces the wines of the Etna, that have been exalted even by Plinio. The red ones, the white ones, the rosy ones are DOC ones, as a achieved goal, and they are known in Europe and in other continents, as testimony of the potentialities of our earth.
The strength of the volcano has produced the typical grapevines: the "nerello mascalese", the " nerello cappuccio", the " nerello mantellato", to make the red wines; the
"carricante", the "inzolia", the " catarratto" for the white ones.
|
 |
The rich and genuine pastures are the meal of savory meat animals as the cattle, the typical castrated and the pig; the last one is necessary for 'zuzzu' and “ frittole” and for the savory sausage of Linguaglossa, cut on the log with knife, famous everywhere, that we eat also seasoned together with the appreciated cheeses from Etna such as the primosale, the tuma, the fresh or salty ricotta, the fresh peppery one and the seasoned one, that the farmers used to eat with a pear and a good glass of wine; you can find it on our table today just for the pleasant mixture of sweet and spicy taste that characterizes it.
|
The sweets are connected with the great recurrences and numerous parties and feasts, in the foreground.
The Christmas range is vast: the " mastazzolas" with the crumbled hazelnuts and those cooked in the must; the biancomangiare with lemon and almond flavour.
The ancient Christian origin and the Spanish heritage have characterized the Easter sweets: the "cuddura cù l'ovu", composed of firm egg and biscuit, to the sweet almond lamb, to the famous Sicilian cassata, typical and common in the whole island.
|
Even the commemoration of dead on the 2nd of November, is an occasion for ancient gastronomic customs. People made children find many sweets in the dear memory of the dead persons: "rame ì napuli." "ossa ì mottu", ghostly but simple and very tasty, done with sugar, flours and spicy with cloves.
|
There is a whole series of typical biscuits as the "bersaglieri", the “sciatore”, the " 'nzuddi", the almond pastries, the hazelnut ones, the orange and pistachio ones, very appetizing food. And then rice's zeppoles on St. Joseph, the cinnamon pudding, the fruits of "martorana" and the famous "cannoli cà ricotta" are some of the specialties, toghether with those of the modern confectionery that doesn’t envy the traditional ones.
|
|
A final consideration is also due to the scented bread, soft and crisp at the same time, that reminds us images of country civilization, of busy women with a mix of flour, water and yeast before and stone oven later, of hard-working hands that, through centuries, have faced the work to devote these gestures of love to the next generations.
|