Traditional Sicilian Cuisine
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Description
Traditional Sicilian Cuisine
Card insertion: Heritage Sicily
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Technical sheet prepared by: Region of Sicily - Department of cultural heritage and Sicilian identity - CRicd: Regional center for inventory, cataloging and documentation and Sicilian regional film library
No. Prog.
128
Bene
Traditional Sicilian Cuisine
Book
REI - Book of knowledge
Approval date
26-06-2009
Category
Regional food and wine culture
Province
Location
Common
Local denomination
Chronological News
The Sicilian food and wine tradition is the result of the presence on the island of numerous different peoples. New ingredients, cooking methods and typical dishes have been introduced and expertly re-proposed according to local tastes and knowledge. Sicilian cookbooks are full of dishes deriving from different cultural contaminations, rich in imported products that have found a favorable habitat for cultivation in Sicily. THE Greek, great supporters of a healthy lifestyle, made of genuine products, have handed down the use in the kitchen of simple products, grown in the hinterland and of fresh fish (especially tuna and swordfish), grilled cooking and use of garlic and olives. With i Romans preserves were introduced; but certainly the most fervent and full of tasty changes was the Arab period. Starting from the ninth century the Arabi introduced new irrigation techniques and new foods, such as rice, sugar cane, citrus fruits and dried fruit. To them we owe the contrast of flavors ranging from sweet and sour, to the use of raisins, to spicy fillings and to the use of almond as a seasoning for meat, from the scent of cinnamon to ricotta in desserts.
The French culture of Anjou brought to the island the use of overcooked onion in condiments, sauces, the use of shortcrust pastry and vegetable pies.
The increasingly frequent commercial relations in the Mediterranean basin influenced and favored this contamination and domination Spanish the custom came to life of enriching local sweets with “baroque” colors and ornaments, just think of the cassata, the queen of typical sweets.
Sicilian cuisine is therefore the daughter of a rich cultural interaction and a luxuriant nature that offers typical products of the seafaring culture and mountain civilizations of the hinterland.
recurrence
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Data
opportunity
Function
Actors
Participants
Description
The climatic conditions and the morphological characteristics of the island have determined the diffusion of some typical products and dishes. The coast and the countryside show on the island a point of contact in the prevalence of the single dish. On the coast couscous, deriving from Mediterranean cultures, fish soups and pasta with sauces enriched with local fish are consumed. In the hinterland, pasta recipes enriched with game ragù or meat from farm animals. Furthermore, the innermost territories, limited by the scarce presence of communication routes, have not benefited from commercial exchanges over the centuries and have given life to a cuisine based on spontaneous products of those territories, with strong flavors and slower preparation times. Just think of the different varieties of cheeses of the hinterland (provola, Piacentino, tuma and primo sale), which have become a fundamental food of the peasant diet.
Equally present is the contamination between noble and popular cuisine. The first has left the memory of the cuisine of the monsù, the French cooks of the aristocracy, with their timbales, stuffed meats and delicate consommé; the second, in need of revisiting noble dishes with the poorest products. From these derive recipes such as the Sicilian eggplant capanata (which derives from the recipe for "capone", the name of a fish now called lampuga), pasta with sea sardines (widespread especially after the Second World War, in which it was more difficult to indulge in fish in the diet of the people) or the caciocavallo all'argentiera (which adopts the aromas of a recipe usually used for cooking rabbit). Gimmicks and variations to satisfy small whims and consume foods according to recipes reserved for wealthy kitchens.
Furthermore, climatic conditions have always made the Sicilian land fertile, a grain reservoir for the Mediterranean since ancient times. Pasta and bread are unmissable foods on local tables, widely consumed and enriched with every most delicious condiment. Bread varies in taste from country to country and is eaten hot seasoned more simply with salt, oil, pepper and oregano or "cunzatu”Alla trapanese, with the addition of caciocavallo, tomato and anchovies.
The savory cuisine is a precious counterpoint to the Sicilian pastry, which embellishes the local gastronomic panorama. The classic cannoli are associated with sweets of ancient Arab memory such as nougat and cubbaita (nougat made with sesame and / or almonds), with buccellati stuffed with a mixture of dried figs. Creams, such as ricotta, make soft doughs like the sphinxes of San Giuseppe or the typical ones tastier cassatelle of western Sicily. The almond, a plant native to Asia and introduced by the Greeks, which with its flowering in February embellishes the landscapes of the province of Agrigento, is used for sweet semifreddo, for nougat and in martorana fruit. The latter, like many other popular cuisine, carries with it a distant history that smacks of nobility and devotion to the powerful.
In passing from the tables to the streets, food takes on another face, it becomes even more popular in the ancient markets and districts. Street food, not linked to particular holidays, has a great variety in raw and cooked, in the choice of veal or horse meat withstiggiola, musso, a mièusa (for filling round sandwiches), la pancake - offal or butchery scraps, cooked or seasoned with herbs and vegetables to correct the very strong and decisive flavor -; the fish is proposed in the fried or boiled variant, like the already cut octopus served on large plates with or without lemon. The queen of street cuisine is undoubtedly the rotisserie with arancina, and any other delicacy seasoned with meats and cheeses, creams and spices, which in Palermo are associated with crochè and panelle (fried chickpea flour) introduced with the Arab domination, to conclude a gastronomic journey that only partially restores the Sicilian culinary wisdom.
Catalog Sheet
REFERENCES
Lotta, Alba. 2012. Sicilian cuisine in 1000 traditional recipes. Rome: Newton Compton.
Arise, Orietta, edited by. 2006. Sicilian historical markets. Palermo: Sicilian Region, Department of Cultural, Environmental and Public Education, Department of Cultural, Environmental and Permanent Education.
Varvaro, Aurora, edited by. 1998. Aeolian cuisine. Palermo: Twentieth century.
Vicars, Angela. 2006. Discovering taste and traditions through the municipalities of the province of Enna, Assoro: NovaGRaf.
Sitography
Sicilian gastronomy - Sicilian Tourism Region [last consultation 28-04-2016]
Filmography
Discography
Footnotes
Author Card
Esther Oddo
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