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Sicilian Cooking

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Sicilian Delicacies

The foods in this section are specialties like panelle, crocche’, vasteddi, arancine, caciu alla argintera, and other dishes and finger foods that are Sicilian delicacies and gourmet foods and served as appetizers in many restaurants and household
Also included is a recipe for pastetta, a batter used for frying vegetables, fish or cheese or to make special sweet fried specialties.
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Rice Balls - Arancine

Arancine is derived from the Italian for “orange,” or arancia. This recipe will create approximately 18 to 20 visually and gastronomically appealing rice balls, or 50 miniature rice balls. Making this delicacy ..

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Chick peas fritters - Panelle

When I lived in Palermo, the panellari (the makers and sellers of panelli) were a local institution. In my hometown, this trade is patronized almost by everyone, by the rich and the poor, ..

Potato Croquettes

In choosing the potatoes to make croquettes, when possible, purchase new potatoes. Long Island’s farms are producers of potatoes that are excellent for making croquettes. They are harvested between June and September; ..

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CANAZZU VEGETABLE CASSEROLE

Canazzu is a spring and summer vegetable dish, very popular for the easiness of the preparation and availability of ingredients. The main ingredients are eggplants, potatoes, peppers, onions, peeled tomatoes, olive oil and parsley ..

Fried Cheese Caciocavallo

My uncle, Ferdinando, lived all his life in my paternal house. My siblings and I loved him more like a father than an uncle, and he treated us as if we were his own children. In Palermo, we usually had ..

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Cuccia St Lucy

Saint Lucy was born in the fourth century in Syracuse, Sicily and died at the time of the prosecution of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. She was reported to the Roman governor as a Christian by ..

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Snails Babaluci

The Patron Saint of Palermo is Saint Rosalie. From July 13th to July 15th, the Saint is celebrated with a festival called Il Festino, la Grande Festa. For the duration of the Festino, in the street of Palermo, ..

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Crostini e Spitini Palermitani

Crostino is a slice of bread roasted or fried, covered with butter, marmalade, sauce or other ingredients. It differs from bruschetta, which is a slice of bread, bruscato, meaning burned over coal, rubbed with garlic, drizzled with olive oil, ..

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Fritters Crispeddi

Crispeddiare made stuffed with anchovies or ricotta. In Catania, in all the friggitorie, the local fast food restaurants make those fritters in a salted version served as an appetizer or for a snack and in a sweet version ..

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Vastedda Introduction

The vastedda, guastedda or guastella can all refer to the popular sandwich made exclusively in Palermo, involving a soft, fresh cheese, plain round bread or a lard bread stuffed with cheese, salami and sambuco (elderberry flowers).

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Vastedda Palermitana

In Palermo, the most famous and oldest place where vasteddi are sold is the Antica Focacceria San Francesco, located across the Church of San Francesco, in Via Alessandro Paternostro.

Milk-Batter

Batter for Frying

A mixture of flour and a liquid, known as a batter, is used in many different ways in all regional and national cooking. A batter is made with flour, a liquid, a rising agent and sometimes herbs and spice to add a particular taste.

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Beer Batter

Beer was originally prepared when cereals were first cultivated around 9500 BC in the Neolithic Era. In Egypt, in the area of modern Iraq, Iran and Syria, beer was produced from barley, wheat and other grains ..

Squash Blossoms, Fior di Zucchini

Fiori di zucca are a delicacy offered and cooked in every part of the world: the Greeks fill the blossoms with feta cheese and cook them in tomato sauce; the Chinese deep fry them and serve with a fish sauce; ..

cheese ball soup - polpette di formaggio

Cheese Ball Soup

In the old days, when bread was baked at home, not every day but enough to last at least a week, any leftover bread was ingenuously recycled in many inventive ways. Bread pudding, a common dessert all over the world, ..