What’s to Eat in Sicily?

Posted on May 28, 2015 by nina in the kitchen

Two weeks in Sicily and I can’t believe how much we ate! Most of our time was spent in Trapani and Erice, and a few days in Palermo and Savoca (our Godfather pilgrimage)!

Erice is a mysterious beautiful town on a mountain top up from Trapani. We rented an apartment here for 10 days. Dinner our first night was at the highly rated Monte San Guiliano.

A local specialty antipasti here is fried chickpea triangles

Cold octopus salad With marinated fennel strips and carrots

Smoked dried tuna with tomato, shrimp with mayonnaise like sauce, couscous in squid ink formed in a mold

Sardine fillet rolled with bread crumbs on an orange slice. Fried fish patty.

Super tender house made ravioli stuffed with ricotta, with a squid ink and squid sauce and a dollop of ricotta! Incredible!

House made sausages

Calamari filled with ricotta in a ricotta cream sauce

Pizza in Erice

The most fresh fish of the entire trip at Antichi Sapori in Trapani. Here is a red tuna seared and served with a salsa of tomato, almond, basil and garlic.

Fried tiny fish, calamari and shrimp, octopus salad, and 3 dried fish slices with olive oil and balsamic.

Sardine Balls, a meatball with sardines in a tomato sauce. Some have more sardine flavor than others.

Almond wine and sesame almond biscuits

Postale 17 was our nearby cafe in Erice. This is their caponata, a mix of fried eggplant, tomato, onion and garlic with chopped almonds on top. Also served with added swordfish. Eat alone or with bread like bruschetta.

Bruschetta from Postale 17 with Caponata, fresh tomato and oregano, and thin sliced lardo (seasoned fat from a pig)

Marinated Octopus, carrot,and fennel over arugula served on a no

South of Trapani is the island of Mozia where we experienced a phenomenal salt tasting with fresh fruits! They eat salt on lemon!!

In Erice we ate dinner at Hotel Elimo, with very helpful servers

Busiati Trapanesi, the local pasta here with their local Erice Pesto sauce: tomato, eggplant, almonds and garlic.

Sea bream with lemon

Beef Marsala, made with Marsala wine from nearby Marsala.

Arancine, a Sicilian food made with saffron risotto and filled here with jamon and mozzarella cheese. Always covered with a paste of flour and water and then toasted breadcrumbs and deep fried.

This is the authentic arancine filled with beef, carrots and peas.

A gourmet arancine filled with seafood and pistachio.

Pasticceria San Carlo was a favorite in Erice. Here is a coffin full of plain biscotti drying. These are 6 inches long!

This is the famous Genovese from Erice only! A cookie pastry filled with milk custard and dusted with powdered sugar. Amazing when hot out of the oven!

Another Erice pastry is Graffa con Ricotta, a doughnut like pastry cut in half and filled with sweetened ricotta and just a few chocolate chips

Cannoli!! Plain and dusted with pistachio and sweetened orange rind

Ricotta is made with sheeps milk and there are bands of sheep grazing all over Sicily. The cows roam also, here with a farmer, though not always.

We visited a sheep farm during milking near Trapani. Unforgettable! Thank you Nino!

Hooking up to the milking machine

We learned about cheese making at Caseificio Ingardia in Paceco. They also treated us to a delicious sampling of cheeses!

Ricotta in progress

Ricotta in tubs

Cows milk cheese in progress

Fresh from the vat ricotta is warm, light and like custard!

Thank you Maria and Mario!

Giacomo Incarbona, from Elite Island travel agency, was the most helpful person is Sicily! He booked trips for us and arranged the tours of the sheep farm and cheese company. Thank you Giacomo and staff!

Smoked tuna and tomatoes, octopus salad, bruschetta with onion, chicken cutlets, an antipasti

Swordfish with Marsala sauce

Grilled lamb, sausage and chicken

Braised fennel

Pizza in Palermo at Pizzeria Italia! With seafood and no cheese! This is Italy and the two are not allowed together!

We drove from Erice to Selinunte, the enormous Greek ruins. Stopped for lunch at Buffas Castle. This “lobster” is the whole lobster cut in half and covered in buttered bread crumbs. Unusual

Grilled lamb

One of the most delicious foods of the trip her is a saffron risotto with teeny zucchini and zucchini flowers and truffle oil. In Palermo at Spinnacato.

Squid ink and calamari on spaghetti

In Palermo we took a Viator walking and tasting tour. Here are some market pics

Veal cartilage and fat here is breaded and deep fried and available only in the markets! Served on a sandwich roll usually.

Teeny tasty strawberries from the wild

Fresh red tuna

Whole fish by the kilogram

Many sizes and types of calamari

The sword in the swordfish!

Artichoke with its stalks which can be cooked separately into a pasta sauce.

Sfincione, a focaccia like bread with a thin tomato onion sauce, grilled in the food cart seasoned oven

Beef spleen braised in a sauce and sandwiched in a soft bun, another market food cart. Pane cá Meusa

We drove to the other end of Sicily and stayed at Resort Borgo San Rocco. Very nice! This is in Savoca, a mountain village where some Godfather scenes were filmed

Lunch at San Rocco…..

Eggplant flan with thin fried skin of eggplant