traveldk.com

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.

The amazing variety of pasta dishes makes use of all the bounty Sicily has to offer. A typical Palermitan dish is pasta con le sarde (with sardines, fennel, pine nuts, raisins and anchovies). The pasta itself, made with local durum wheat, is firm and full of flavour.

Rice dishes are as plentiful as pasta, and are particularly good with Sicilian lemons, nero di sepia (cuttlefish ink), greens or prawns. A real treat is the elaborate Rippiddu Annivicatu : rice is blackened with squid ink and shaped in a mound to resemble Mount Etna, a topping of ricotta cheese evokes the snowcap, and tomatoes the flames and lava flows.

There is always an excellent choice of fish and seafood in Sicily. Look out for soglia (flounder), triglie (red mullet), pesce spada (swordfish), tonno (tuna), mazzancolla (large sweet prawns), aragosta (spiny lobster), sarde (sardines), polpo (octopus), calamaro (squid) and gambero rosso (red prawns).

Excellent lamb and pork are produced in Sicily. Sausages are always spiced and made with finocchio (fennel seeds), stuffed in narrow casings and formed into continuous coils.

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.

A Sicilian fast-food treat, available in bars and from street vendors. Balls of rice are stuffed with a meaty tomato ragout, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried. Their round, golden shapes resemble oranges (aranci ), hence their name.

Another snack food available from street vendors are these small squares of fried batter made from chickpea flour and a sprinkling of parsley, then topped with salt and lemon juice.

What makes Sicilian ice cream (gelato ) so special is its base: a crema developed from Arab and Spanish culinary influences made with milk, or almond milk, and starch. It produces a rich, smooth and light dessert (see Northeast Sicily).

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.