Cooking School, Adventure Vacation and Cookery Holiday in Sicily, Italy

Sicily . . .
a jewel in the rough
. . . polished with culture

sicily

Peggy's Journal

. . . We headed south to Sicily where our ‘moveable feast’ could be celebrated in various culinary hot spots around the island. Heightened awareness is always the key when travelling and Palermo is no exception. Yet we walked alleyways and markets with ease and pleasure, delighting in the expressive dialect and warmth of the Palermitani.

Our newest discovery was the Antica Foccaceria San Francesco. Truly antique, this eating establishment, dating from 1834, serves milze – spleen sandwiches – a delicacy . . . cooked on top of heavy black enameled stoves from the early 1900’s. Heated from the bottom, these round open wok-like pans cook thinly sliced beef spleen to stuff in robust rolls. It happens to be a favored street food as well, served from a cart. Luckily those of us who were not brave enough for spleen sandwiches, could dine on other local specialties, like pasta col le sarde . . . Pasta cooked with a sauce of fresh sardines, garlic, breadcrumbs and fennel fronds. Not to mention, endless sfincione, foccacia-like bread, baked with various toppings of tomato sauce and savory items.

Sicily offers splendor at all times of the year. But this spring, her palette of wildflowers was magnificent. She is a bread basket, a sweep of rolling hills dotted with sheep, waving winter grain ready for spring harvest. Regaleali, home to cook book author Anna Tasca Lanza, shared her knowledge of local wild greens and forgotten fruits, as we stuffed ourselves on every living and moving thing on the estate. We ate lamb with fresh herbs, we watched them make fresh ricotta, spooning up the sweet warm curds like little bo peep. We ate a fresh salad of cedro (citron – a larger lemon in the citrus family) and fennel, thinly sliced together with fruity Regaleali olive oil. We tasted various wines from the estate and were spoiled every morning by Anna’s homemade jams, breakfast muffins, and farm fresh eggs. We were treated royally by the nobles, including history lessons, by the Marchese Vinces Lau himself, Anna’s charming husband. What more can one say? This is a perfect picture of the good life. Living in the midst of 1000 acres of vines, with a garden in the middle that resembles Eden, with someone like Anna hosting you. Leaving is painful, but bearable, to go further south to visit other friends who also welcome us.

The baroque towns of Modica and Ragusa offer another story-book experience of a sophisticated past lived in present day. Life is lived with a certain intention. Un isola dentro un isola, this area of Sicily was always "an island within an island." They had their own code of ethics and quality of life. They are cut off – remote even – as their are no major highways that reach. It has maintained something authentic and unspoiled. No mafia.

One couple who joined us had relatives there they had never seen. They were so excited that they invited the entire group to their home for dinner. We tasted at least seven types of focaccia ragusana, the local specialty focaccia folded and stuffed with various fillings. They just kept coming! The hospitality was so overwhelming, that I felt like we fell through the surface of just breaking-the-ice and we were floating in a river of welcome.

The festival of San Giorgio in Modica in May was Fellini-esque. The entire town was lit up with neon. Streets were full of vendors and music that was blasted throughout the whole town. Lights were projected onto the neigboring hill, the silloutte of a star. People were dancing in the streets. We snaked hand-in-hand through the crowds with our friend Innocenzo who took us up and down stairs, through churches, tasting and sipping and savoring our favorite locally made Buonajuto chocolate, smiling and hugging all the way. The atmosphere had a magical circus-like quality of an old film. We left Sicily drunk on hospitality and new friendships.