Sicilian Cooking?

The maternal side of my family emigrated to the US in the late 19th century. Unfortunately, because we did not live close to my Grandparents when I was growing up, I did not have as much exposure to the home cooking that they brought with them from Sicily as I would have liked.

I am interesting in learning more about the cuisine of Sicily, especially good sources of recipes for the home. Any help you can provide would be most appreciated. Sources of Sicilian wine information would also be most welcome.

We have just about worn our Anna Muffoletto's The Art of Sicilian Cooking circa 1971 over the past twenty five years. It can still be found on Google.

Greg, I've learned a ton about Italian wine from Sergio Esposito's newsletter from Italian Wine Merchants. Each week he talks about a different region or producer, and sometimes focuses on specific vintages. Sure, they also include offers because they want to sell you wine, but I just read through those for wine specific information such as palate profile, grape varieties used, or aging windows. I've never purchased from them.

You can sign up for the newsletter on their front page: http://www.iwmstore.com

(This week he was talking about Super Tuscans and how they came about.)

A very enjoyable education in Sicilian cooking can be had by reading Andrea Camilleri's series of Inspector Montalbano mystery novels. Montalbano has a mixed record in achieving justice, but he never goes hungry and detailed descriptions of Sicilian food are a part of all ten or so novels to appear in English translation. I've made a couple of dishes from the descriptions alone, with fair success. In fact, I wonder how many of us in this forum have "reverse engineered" dishes based on a photo or literary description.

Get thee to Sicily!

And take me with you!!

I knew I had this floating around somewhere in my bookmarks.

http://www.lacucinaeoliana.com/index.html

Nice overview website of Sicilian culture in general.

Vincent Schiavelli was an actor. He had an odd appearance, and if you saw "Ghost" you may remember him as the "Subway Ghost" with a long sad face. He passed away a couple of years ago. His family was Sicilian, and his grandfather I think was a master chef there, for a noble family. He wrote a very wonderful memoir titled "Bruculino, America" about growing up Sicilian in Brooklyn. And every chapter has a recipe, a very complete and interesting recipe. This book is essential if you are interested in Sicilian cooking.

Giuliano Bugialli has written a whole slew of Italian cookbooks, including "Foods of Sicily and Sardinia..." with John Dominis. Look on Amazon.

My neighbors recently spent a couple of weeks traveling around the island and loved it. Of course it is "Cucina Povera," the cooking of poor people in a way but that doesn't diminish how delicious it is. Lots of local fish and pasta, and often a sauce of crunchy bread crumbs. Surprisingly good, and my neighbors have been cooking Sicilian ever since they returned, off and on.

F

Hi Greg,

My Paternal Grandmother was Sicilian. Unfortunately, she passed away before I was born, so I don't remember anything specific she cooked. I think our meals were really influenced by our Naples heritage...but we did have a lot of Antipasto that always had lots of olives and seafood like tuna and anchovies. We also ate grilled swordfish frequently.

There's a great website that Paulo suggested called Italian Made, which explains about the food and wine of Italy by region...here's the section about Sicily:

http://www.italianmade.com/regions/foods19.cfm

Hi Greg,There's a great website that Paulo suggested called Italian Made, which explains about the food and wine of Italy by region...here's the section about Sicily:

http://www.italianmade.com/regions/foods19.cfm

It is just one focal point, and with due respect to Paulo, we did not see any recipes that used mint leaves in lieu of parsley and/or basil. This suggests to us that most of these recipes have been mainlanded.

Thanks all for your suggestions. You have given me some good places to get started. Your help is much appreciated.

G