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Sicily at table.
Un viaggio all’insegna dei sapori e delle tradizioni popolari.
Our cuisine is a perfect blend of all the influences of the various cultures that have followed each other in the island.
Rather than a cultural residue, it is the most resistant trait of a whole culture. The dining-table is the place of introspection of all the different civilizations that have passed through the island.
An ancient pleasure indeed, if it is true that Plato, once visiting Syracuse, criticized its citizens for "sitting down at table several times a day".
Sicilian cuisine? There are three sorts: the patrician or baronial
cuisine, that of the ordinary people with all its lively inventiveness,
and street cuisine, i.e. that of the "buffittieri", as they used
to be called, a term originally derived from the French buffet.
An immense wealth and variety of dishes, since every city, town,
and family has always had its own version of each recipe, reflecting
the island's strong sense of individuality. While the Monsù,
the chef to the great aristocratic families, produced in the palaces
celebrated dishes of soles and groupers, hares and capons, the
people down below could enjoy the aromas and the fantastic descriptions
made by the servants. With great imagination and skill these dishes
were reinvented using ingredients that were often quite basic.
De-boned sardines were promoted to the rank of soles: "lenguado",
in the Spanish of the nobles, meant "sole", and thus sardines
a linguata were created. A certain small bird similar to
the blackcap, when skilfully prepared, became the beccafico that
the Monsù proudly served in jelly with pickles. Aubergines
were thus disguised as "quails" and even as "parmiciana", which
is a dialect word meaning simply a shutter. Nothing to do with
Parma and its parmesan cheese. And from the aubergine also came
the queen of popular cuisine, caponata, the aubergine appetizer
served as a sweet and sour sauce and originally created in the
kitchens of the courts of pre-Islamic Persia. |
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