Food of Sicily
By: Hannah Fetter
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean sea. It is just off the end of the Italian boot. In sicily is mount Etna. The fertile, volcanic soil allows foods, such as, lemons, olives, almonds, blood oranges and other fruits to easily grow. Most pasta in Sicily is served with a spicy tomato sauce. Popular meats served in Sicily consist of lamb, pork, veal, and rabbit. Some locals claim to have invented the meatball, called the Polpetti.
Many know Sicily best for its Caponata or its veal Marsala. Sicily’s Caponata is dish made of a mixture of vegetables and sweet sour mixture of sauces. The main vegetables you find in the dish are eggplants, peppers, olives, celery, capers and pine nuts. There are many variations of the Caponata in Sicily. Places that the Caponata come from are Palermo, Catania, Trapani, Agrigento, and Messina. The recipes have many of the same ingredients, especially the vegetables and the sweet sour taste. Some differences are in the seasonings. Some of the variants of the caponata contain raisins and almonds. Some are only eggplants. The true recipe of Sicilian caponata is the one with eggplants only. Marsala is a wine produced in Sicily. Mushrooms are sliced and sautéed in butter or oil with garlic and onions. The wine is added to the cooked vegetables. Wine is absorbed by the other ingredients and the amount of liquid for the sauce is reduced. Veal is then added to the marsala sauce to make it less thick. Veal is meat the comes from a young cow. It is tasteful, tender, and has little fat. The small amount of fat sometimes increases the chances of the meat drying out. It is usually served with a sauce, like in the veal marsala.
Schwartz, Sara. “Italian Food by Region.” Delish. Delish, March 14, 2018. https://www.delish.com/cooking/a1206/regional-italian-food/.
Cool article! I've actually had a lot of those dishes and they are very tasty. The way Italians cook things in wine reminds me of how a lot of Irish foods are cooked in Whiskey. Alcohol seems to be a popular cooking tool in a lot of countries.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it strange how much of the Mediterranean is fighting over different foods such as souvlaki or baklava, but much of the traditional Italian food has no competitors? It seems to me like almost every Greek food has some other country fighting for it, but Italy is well respected for its original foods. I wonder if it has anything to do with the Roman Empire.
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