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Want to stock a Sicilian-style pantry?

Here’s some of what you’ll need on your

order list: wild fennel, currants, pista-

chios, almonds, citrus, olives, vinegar,

saffron, cinnamon, tuna bottarga, mint,

ricotta, tomatoes, dried pasta and cous-

cous, for starters.

When talking about a chef’s first expe-

rience with Sicilian cuisine, surprise is

a common theme. “I was surprised that

Sicilian food was such a melting pot of

different cuisines from all over various

cultures and regions,” says Michael White

of New York City’s Altamarea Group.

“Couscous, saffron, mint, oregano ... [it

departs] from traditional Italian stereo-

typical food groups.”

‘The biggest surprise was the realiza-

tion that Sicilian cuisine is not Italian

food,” says Dave Beran, chef of Next in

Chicago. When the globetrotting res-

taurant picked Sicily as its focus for the

spring of 2012, its menu covered iconic

Sicilian ground with dishes like eggplant

caponata, panelle (chickpea-flour frit-

ters), grilled artichokes, pasta with bot-

targa and tomato-braised pork. Beran’s

favorite dish was of humble stock: a cit-

rusy, garlicky dish of Sicilian chickpeas

served alongside oil-poached swordfish.

Mashed chickpeas are tossed with garlic

and shallot oil, hit with lemon juice and

zest, and finished with vibrant herbs

and fried chickpeas for textural counter-

point. It’s a dish that, according to Beran,

“makes you realize how much depth and

complexity something can have and still

be vegan” (recipe, p. 90).

Dried beans form the foundation of

globalflavors

The surprise of Sicily Saffron, sardines, citrus

and more from Italy’s inspiring

melting pot by Heather Sperling

Insalata pantesca con granchio,

$18, Executive Chef Sarah Grueneberg,

Spiaggia, Chicago. RECIPE, p. 90.

They came from all over: Greece, Spain,

France, Northern Africa and, finally, Italy.

Sicily, the Mediterranean’s largest island,

is also one of its most culturally overrun,

having played host to nearly a dozen rul-

ing empires over the course of its history.

And centuries of cultural convolution

mean one thing for local tables: They’re

sure to hold exciting, unusual food.

In Sicily, strands of pasta tangle with

seafood, dried fruit and nuts; vinegar and

sugar flavor vegetables and fish; and cin-

namon lends its heady aroma to savory

dishes. The island is home to a natural fu-

sion, one that evolved as the indigenous

cuisine absorbed the ingredients and

techniques of its invaders. Here, salty,

sour, hot, aromatic and sweet may come

together on the table, or a single dish.

Familiar Italian flavors are present, of

course, and unassuming cucina povera

(peasant cooking) is the backbone of

Sicilian cuisine. But it’s the non-Italian

influence, combined with the winning duo

of citrus and sea, which makes this Medi-

terranean island a wealth of inspiration.

Far From the mainland

Sicily is rarely the first area that comes to

mind when pinpointing hotbeds of Italian

gastronomy. Emilia-Romagna produces

many of Italy’s most-exported tastes

(prosciutto, Parmigiano-Reggiano, bal-

samic vinegar, Bolognese), and Tuscany

some of its most recognizable flavors.

Yet Sicily is inarguably cornucopian.

Sun-beaten soil nurtured by volcanic ash

grows citrus, nuts, vegetables and grains,

and the island’s hilly peaks plunge into a

sea rich with a variety of seafood.

50 plate the italian issue march/april 2013 plate 51

video exclusiveExecutive Chef

Sarah Grueneberg demos her

insalata pantesca at plateonline.com.

50-51 4/1/13 11:50 AM

fava bean and fennel soup with smoked

swordfish (recipe, plateonline.com), too,

a favorite of Chef John Asbaty, who ate

his way through Sicily in 2011. If there’s a

single Sicilian flavor that’s impossible to

recreate halfway across the world, it’s the

sweet and intense anise of the wild fennel

that grows rampantly across the island.

At Panozzo’s, his Chicago market and

café, Asbaty adds locally grown fennel

pollen to his version of the simple soup

(“It’s the closest I could get to the bold

flavor of the wild fennel on the island,” he

says). A garnish of hot- or cold-smoked

swordfish elevates the dish from its

rustic origins while staying true to classic

Sicilian flavors.

“To me, the dish that summarizes Sicily

the best is a really perfect version of cap-

onata,” says Sarah Grueneberg, executive

chef of Spiaggia in Chicago. Grueneberg’s

signature version of the iconic sweet-

sour Sicilian eggplant dish ($9, recipe,

plateonline.com) is loaded with pine nuts,

almonds, currants, olives and capers—

preferably DOP olives from Castelvetrano

and salt-packed capers from Pantelleria,

an island off Sicily’s southeast coast. A

mash-up of Arab, Greek, Spanish and

Italian influences, it’s a popular dish

that wouldn’t exist without the region’s

rich multicultural past. Before serving

it with grilled seafood or toasted bread,

Grueneberg advises letting the dish rest

overnight—this is one that gets better

the next day.

take food further.52 plate the italian issue

globalflavors

Stock the pantry with these Sicilian staples. Blanqa Sicilian almondS: These sweet, faintly bitter Sicil-ian almonds are available raw, blanched, roasted and as flour. Bronte piStachioS: Sicily is the only Italian region where pistachios are grown; Bronte is the epicenter of the island’s production. maStri di San BaSilio

olive oil: This family-run olive farm has been passed down through four generations of the Padova family. Its oils are bright, grassy and peppery, ideal for finish-ing pasta and seafood. nocellara del Belice ol-

iveS: These bright green, meaty olives are best known by the name of the town near which they’re grown: Castelvetrano. pantelleria caperS: These plump, flavorful capers from the island of the same name (off Sicily’s southwestern coast) are packed in sea salt.

A T

AsT

e o

f P

lA

ce

Pasta con le sarde, Executive

Chef/Owner Giorgio Locatelli,

Locanda Locatelli, London.

RECIPE, p. 89.

52 4/1/13 11:50 AM

globalflavors

Far From Pomodoro

Picture a perfect bowl of classic, minimal-

ist Italian pasta with rosy tomato sauce

and a glint of olive oil. Now swap out that

tomato sauce for crumbled dried tuna roe

(bottarga), or anchovies with chili and

mint, or a deep orange sauce of liquefied

sea urchin. Now you have classic, mini-

malist pasta, Sicilian-style.

“I would never look at this beautiful

sea urchin tongue and think: ‘I’m going to

smash that up,’” says Beran. “But as soon

as you start breaking it apart, it becomes

a perfect sauce.” At Next, he combined

the pulverized fresh sea urchin with

garlic- and shallot-packed white wine re-

duction. Piping hot, house-made bucatini

was tossed with vinaigrette-like sauce,

sprinkled with parsley and garnished

with urchin (recipe, plateonline.com).

At Marea in New York

City, White adds Santa Bar-

bara urchin and crabmeat

to a pan of scallions, garlic,

tomatoes and chili that’s

been deglazed with white

wine ($31, recipe, plateon-

line.com). The end result

is creamy sauce that tastes

gently of the sea.

In Seattle, Ethan Stowell

offers a version of pasta

with anchovies, garlic,

chili and mint at nearly

every one of his five restaurants (recipe,

plateonline.com). At Tavolàta, the combi-

nation dresses spaghetti, made in-house

with an extruder. “It’s very Sicilian.

Fruity olive oil, anchovies and garlic

melted in, and just enough sauce to coat

the noodles.”

Asbaty’s casareccia with cauliflower

builds on Stowell’s favored combination,

adding a handful of go-to Sicilian ingre-

dients: capers, currants, almonds and

tomato conserva, a nod to the island’s

famed sun-dried tomato paste (recipe,

plateonline.com). The browned cauli-

flower and short, chewy pasta are loaded

with a flavorful and unusual ragù, as

excellent hot as it is room temperature.

On the northwestern edge of the island,

pasta takes a backseat to another starch:

couscous. From Tunis, it’s a straight

line northeast to Trapani, a Sicilian city

that inherited couscous customs from

its African neighbor. There, couscous

alla Trapanese is served with seafood

stew, its brodo heady with cinnamon and

saffron. White’s Sicilian couscous takes

inspiration from the dish, with cinnamon-

and saffron-scented couscous plumped

in fish stock and tossed with pistachios,

almonds and golden raisins.

Fish tales

“When you’re in hot weather, you don’t

want to worry about a red-wine-beef-

stock reduction,” says

Stowell. “You want olive oil

and fish, and you can call

it a day.” At Staple & Fancy,

he dresses grilled fish with

salmoriglio, a simple sauce

of lemon, garlic, dried

oregano and olive oil.

Grueneberg treats

Dungeness crab with an

even lighter touch in her

insalata pantesca ($18,

recipe, p. 90), a dish

indigenous to Pantel-

take food further.54 plate the italian issue

I was surprised that Sicilian food was such a melting pot of dif-ferent cuisines from all over various cultures and regions. Couscous, saf-fron, mint, oregano ... [it departs] from traditional Italian stereotypical food groups. – Michael White

Sicilian couscous, Chef/

Co-Owner Michael White,

Altamarea Group, New

York City. RECIPE, p. 90.

54 4/1/13 11:50 AM

leria. Dressed with lemon, olive oil and

sea salt, it tops a salad of potatoes and

tomatoes. Adding crab and avocado and

puréeing capers into a pesto—with basil,

tarragon and almonds—is her New World

take on the classic.

The sweet-sour elements of Sicilian

cooking find their way into seafood

dishes, too. At restaurants in Catania, a

thick slab of pan-seared tuna may arrive

blanketed by agrodolce onions simmered

in vinegar and sugar, and fried sardines

often rest in a bath of vinegar and oil.

Sardines appear in many forms across

the island, including in one of its most

recognizable dishes. If caponata is Sicily’s

most famous vegetable dish, pasta con le

sarde is its emblematic pasta. In his re-

cent book, Made in Sicily, London-based

chef Giorgio Locatelli writes: “This is a

dish that sums up Sicily for me: the Ara-

bic combination of golden raisins, nuts

and saffron (I think it needs lots) shows

the history of the island, yet the ingredi-

ents themselves have been indigenous

since Classical times.” With sardines,

raisins, spices and nuts, it’s an unusual

dish—and a staggeringly addictive one

(recipe, p. 89).

There is meat in Sicily, of course,

but as a historically poor, sea-circled

region, meat was traditionally saved

for Sundays or holidays. For the Sicilian

menu at Next, Beran relied on Fabrizia

Lanza, the daughter of Sicilian culinary

expert and cookbook author Anna Tas-

ca Lanza, to be a barometer of authen-

ticity. She told the kitchen staff about a

typical Sicilian peasant’s approach to

meat: Simmer a hunk in tomato sauce,

serve the sauce for six days, and eat the

meat on the seventh.

The story served as a jumping-off point

for the restaurant’s final savory course,

braised pork served with rich, long-sim-

mered tomato sauce on the side. “We sent

Fabrizia a photo and told her that she was

the inspiration for the dish, “ says Beran.

“She wrote back and said: ‘I would never

do that. No Sicilian would ever do that.’”

The moral: As eclectic as Sicily may be,

it’s purely Italian in its culinary pride.

Heather Sperling’s idea of la dolce vita is good food

shared with great people...preferably in Italy.

take food further.56 plate the italian issue

globalflavors

A SiciliAn Primer ] Check out these books to learn more about Sicilian cuisine.

Made in Sicily, Giorgio Locatelli (Ecco, 2012) ] The newest book from the London-based chef takes the

“simple but beautiful” cuisine of Sicily as its muse.

Coming Home to Sicily, Fabrizia Lanza (Sterling Epicure, 2012) ] Get a snapshot of Sicily’s culinary tradi-

tions in this new book from Lanza, who has run her mother’s famed cooking school since she passed away.

Pomp & Sustenance, 25 Centuries of Sicilian Food, Mary Simeti Taylor (Ecco, 1998) ] Find historic

recipes and an account of the development of the region’s culinary culture in this comprehensive resource.

Sicilian chickpeas, Executive

Chef Dave Beran, Next,

Chicago. RECIPE, p. 90.

56 4/1/13 11:50 AM