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Food on the Move Tips | Page 50 of 66

Italy

Frutta Martorana: Sicilian Marzipan Fruit

Frutta martorana is Sicilian marzipan fruit and vegetables you can't tell from the real thing from a meter away. They're named after a Palermo convent whose nuns weren't allowed to make them, and on All Souls' Day dead relatives leave them for the children. What the almond paste is made of, why it's softer than the marzipan we know back home, and how to tell hand-painted from spray-painted.

Italy

What to Bring Back from Sicily?

From Sicily I bring back busiate and caserecce pasta, cheeses from small local producers and grainy Modica chocolate with its protected IGP label. Add candied orange peel, anise cookies made just outside Palermo and a small bottle of bittersweet amaro that even makes it through airport security. And cheap ceramics with Sicilian motifs make a gift that always lands well.

Italy

Sfincione: A Tall Leavened Flatbread from Palermo with Onion and Anchovies

Sfincione is a tall, spongy leavened flatbread from Palermo with slow-cooked onion, tomatoes, anchovies and breadcrumbs with cheese, one that not even the Italians can quite place - somewhere between pizza and focaccia. The name "Sicilian pizza" came from America. Where it comes from, why it originally had no tomatoes and how it tasted from a cart by the del Capo market.

Italy

Sarde a Beccafico: Sicilian Sardines Stuffed with Breadcrumbs and Raisins

Sarde a beccafico are Sicilian sardines opened out like a book, stuffed with toasted breadcrumbs, raisins and pine nuts and baked with the tail sticking up, so that they look like the little bird they are named after. Palermo bakes them, Catania fries them with cheese, Messina stews them in tomatoes. I bought mine at the del Capo and Ballarò markets, two pieces for a euro.

Italy

Caponata: Sicilian Sweet-and-Sour Vegetables with Eggplant

Caponata is a Sicilian sweet-and-sour mix of fried eggplant, celery, olives and capers in a tomato sauce with vinegar and sugar, served cold as an appetizer. The name supposedly comes from an expensive fish the barons ate, though linguists trace it to a galley capon instead. Why the eggplant is fried on its own, why caponata is best on the second day, and how it tasted in a Palermo restaurant devoted to the local football club.