Catania

 

Catania in eastern Sicily is the other major city on our OAT trip that we are not going to stay at now due to the Corona virus.  Catania is the second largest city in Sicily and lies close to Mt. Etna, that volcano featured in Lesson ii of Latin for Americans, the textbook that Mother bought for us one summer decades ago in Spokane.  Its first real lesson is about Sicily:  Roads in Sicily are not good.  New roads are not long.  There aren't large forests in Sicily.

Not a very positive picture of the island.  I never got past lesson iv in that book but I've held on to it, always hoping someday I would fulfill Mother's wish and learn Latin.  But I know a little Italian.  Does that count?

It's been a lot harder to find good information on Catania than it was for Palermo.  A Google search brings up ad after ad after ad, all renting villas.  But I've been looking for information about Palermo since my first Italian class years ago so perhaps now I know more specific terms to use in a search.  In any case, here are a couple of newspaper articles for an introduction.

"The Sights and Smells of Sicily’s Second City", by the Frugal Traveler in the New York Times is an appreciative article from May 2018, particularly of the Fish Market (Pescheria) near the port.  The market has more than fish, fortunately, and all commentators have liked it, especially Rick Stein in his Mediterranean Escapes.  I don't know if we'll get to the market as we are now staying in Zafferana, a village 45 minutes away from Catania and we only have a walking tour of the city in the morning.  

"East Sicily: what to see plus the best bars, beaches, restaurants and hotels" from The Guardian of June 2017 covers more than Catania and is more appreciative of Siracusa.  "Catania is hard to love at first sight: noisy, trafficky, and built of dark volcanic stone. But in time, the charms of this studenty city emerge."  One gets the impression that the British are more interested in beaches than in gritty cities.  And another source says the dark buildings are from the smoke and ash, although the elephant statue is supposed to be made of black tufa.

But fortunately there are blogs:

The Cutlery Chronicles:  10 Places To Eat At And Things To Do In Catania In Sicily, in which Londoner Leyla Kazim and 3 friends review a residence for HomeAway in Catania:  A high-end five bedroom, five bathroom, luxury penthouse palace, right in the heart of Catania, set over two floors, with a roof garden and terrace, two huge kitchens, full of art, and an outstanding view of the mighty Mount Etna.  (The photo on the left is obviously not of the palazzo.)  Now this is my idea of a vacation because they go to the market on Saturday morning and cook on Sunday.  Unfortunately this was just a weekend trip.

Minne di Sant'Agata

The Complete Food Lover's Guide to Catania from Luca's Italy lists the foods one must try in Catania, which include arancini (masculine and cone-shaped in Catania, feminine - arancine - and round like an orange in Palermo), especially those made with eggplant (alla Norma); cartocciate and cipolline which are filled savory pastries; arrusti e mangia (grilled horsemeat); and especially Pasta alla Norma, that famous eggplant and pasta dish named after Bellini's opera.  Even more unique are the Minne di Sant'Agata, the breasts of St. Agata.

I am sure that, in time, I will come up with more excellent sources on Catania, although they might be in Italian.  Or Sicilian.  Here's one dish that is especially appropriate, Spaghetti al nero di Seppie dell'Etna, which is squid ink pasta with squid ink sauce, ricotta salata and tomato sauce.  It looks like Mount Etna with snow on top and molten lava.

More Sicilian Food

I got a just-published book from the library: The Sicily Cookbook by Cettina Vicenzino, a Sicilian author so it should be authentic.  It isn't as traditional as some of the other cookbooks on Sicilian food and does a new take on some old dishes.  For instance, she has a "pasta with ricotta, kumquats and tuna bottarga" and a "Sicilian brioche burger."  Have I cooked from it?  You know I hardly ever cook from cookbooks; I never seem to have the ingredients.  However, I am sure Fernando would love "Double Jerusalem artichoke with black lentils and crispy chicken feet" and "Tripe with black chickpeas".

But I've also been scouring YouTube for more Sicilian food videos -- food videos because I much prefer markets to museums.  There are three short videos (~18 minutes) on Palermo's street food by a New Zealand couple: Sheena and Thomas on their channel, Chasing a Plate, where they document their travels around Asia and Europe.  These videos cover the majority of unique Palermitano street food dishes and a couple of classic restaurant dishes as well.

Palermo Street Food #1 covers the Ballaro food market where they eat frittola (boiled and fried calf innards), boiled octopus, sardines rolled up around a breadcrumb filling (sarde a beccafico) and babbalucci (snails).  Everything seems to be served with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of parsley.  Oh, and of course, olive oil and sea salt.  Then they go to a trattoria for some cuttlefish pasta and swordfish pasta, followed by cassata and torta sette veli (which even shows up on the Greatest British Bake Off) at a pastry shop.

Palermo Street Food #2 again begins at the market where the first dish is that famous spleen sandwich, pani ca meusa.  If you don't like offal you can opt for chickpea and potato croquettes on a roll (pane e panella e crocche).  This is followed by something we should all like: gelato in a brioche.  Palermo also has its own version of pizza: sfincione which is supposed to be best from a food cart but they can only find it at a bakery.  Then it's off to the Vucciría market for more offal: stigghiola, grilled lamb intestines on a skewer.  It's good they are from New Zealand and like lamb.

Palermo Street Food #3 finally showcases the famous Sicilian arancini, stuffed rice balls.  Then they go to another Trattoria for the also famous pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines) spiced with raisins and pine nuts.  The other recommended dish was pasta alla grassa, which I hadn't heard of before but which is supposed to be quite Sicilian.  Like the classic Genoese pasta with green beans and potatoes,  pasta alla grassa includes potatoes as well as pieces of meat and sometimes peas.  It must be little known in the English-speaking world because all the Google search results were in Italian.  After the pasta course they have caponata and fried mackerel.  Oily fish like sardines, mackerel and anchovies are very common and popular and need to be followed by their next stop at a granita shop.

Finally, there is another BBC series: Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes, that has two hour-long episodes covering Sicily: Authentic Tastes of Sardinia and Sicily and Rustic Dishes from Sicily & Puglia.  He loves markets and handling the merchandise.  The vendors must have been appalled...