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Bread is a ritual in Sicily. Made from grano duro (semolina flour), once baked it is dense and golden, unlike any other bread in Italy. The shapes are particular to Sicily too, including braided loaves, and topped with sesame seeds. Bread is also used in main dishes – mollica , which are spiced and toasted breadcrumbs, often substitute for cheese on top of pasta. Also look for sfincione , similar to a thick crust pizza eaten as a snack, and focaccie , thin baked layers of dough filled with greens, sausage, ricotta or tomato.

Drive extremely slowly, with the windows rolled down so that you can chat.

For more than a century the family of Carlo and Corrado Assenza have been behind the marble counter and at work in the maze-like laboratory of the Caffè Sicilia. The brothers are purists and hunt down the highest quality ingredients Sicily has to offer, working to preserve the Sicilian pastry-making tradition. They create pastries from the recipes of Noto’s ex-monastery of Santa Chiara as well as from their own innovative recipes, such as chocolates with carob, chestnut or sweet basil filling, giuggolena (sesame seed, honey and orange zest bar) and herb-infused honey.

Ricotta cream in a fried pastry tube (see Cassata and Cannoli).

From tiny capers to the huge cucunci , the best come from Salina and Pantelleria.

Originally a fish dish, it was adapted by the cucina povera (kitchen of the poor) as a slow-cooked mix of aubergine (eggplant), tomato, celery, capers, olives, raisins and pine nuts, flavoured with vinegar and sugar, and topped with toasted almonds.

Burial ground of Palermo’s upper classes (1599–1881); the niches still contain skeletons.

Layers of sponge cake and ricotta cream covered with colourful marzipan and candied fruits (see Cassata and Cannoli).

These classic Sicilian desserts are both made with lightly sweetened ricotta. The cassata combines creamy ricotta and sponge cake covered with green and white marzipan and decorated with candied fruits. Cannoli are lightly fried pastry shells filled with ricotta.

Fried pockets filled with ricotta flavoured with chocolate, lemon or cinnamon, eaten at breakfast time.