How & What to Eat in Sicily

The Tradition of Living Beautifully, Issue #20

Now onto what you really want to hear about: The Food.

You don’t need me to tell you that Italian food from its many regions is a perennial favorite with, well, just about everyone. And the fact of the matter is, the food when you’re in country really is ten times better than it is at home. The reason why is pretty simple. It’s not necessarily because here in Italy the Italians who know how to cook live; there are millions of Italians in America who apply what they learned from their upbringings, from nonna and mamma and from tradition, in restaurants and kitchens throughout the country. So skill is not the reason. The real reason the food in Italy is unmatched is this—ingredients.

Pistachio and other bulk goods at a market in Siracusa, Sicily.

The ingredients in each dish are simple, fresh and local. It’s not a complicated cuisine, as French cuisine is, for instance, but a cuisine of the home kitchen. Even at the fanciest of restaurants dishes start at their core with what is cooked in the home. The best chefs will elevate those dishes in their own way, but I’ve had several chefs and waiters tell me, when describing a dish and telling me how delicious it is, that it reminds them of the way their nonna used to make it. Where we Americans tend to strive to emulate the dish at a quality restaurant, in Sicily the badge of delectable is earned when a dish tastes as good as the way it’s been eaten at home, cooked by someone you love who loved you in return.

Lemons at a produce market in Cefalu.

In Sicily last week, we filmed an episode for Shaye Elliott’s YouTube channel with Michelin Star Chef Martina Caruso. Want to know what she made for us? Rustic Sicilian dishes nearly every Italian makes at home. One a very simple (yet in her hands knock-your-socks-off-delicious) spaghetti with oil, garlic, and hot pepper, something I for one grew up eating. The other a fish-stock based, mixed pasta she explained she created after afternoon fishing trips with her husband and small son. Nothing complicated or difficult to pronounce. Nothing that requires a big white hat and a lot of airs. Just food made with what’s available in the clear waters around her home, nourishing and pure. That, my friends, is the secret to great Italian food. It’s using the best and freshest quality ingredients native to your area.

As an autonomous region separated from mainland Italy on all sides by bodies of water, Sicily possesses a cuisine all its own.