Fifty miles south of Catania, the ancient city of Syracuse is located on the small island of Ortygia. Because the area was covered by swamps, the Greeks called the city Sirako which means marsh. Syracuse had a brilliant historic period, under the jurisdiction of the Athenians, when it was the capital of Megale’ Hellas, meaning Great Greece. In 663 AD, it had a brief period of splendor when it became the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

Syracuse has approximately 135,000 inhabitants. The province is rich with water, a benefit to agriculture, in particular to the cultivation of the Pachino tomatoes, the small, sweet tomatoes that are very popular all over Italy and the world.

The renowned cuisine of Syracuse is distinguished for the simplicity of presentation and the limited number of ingredients used in the recipes. This provides the opportunity to single out and appreciate the different flavors of the ingredients used.

The ‘mpanata Siracusana is baked bread dough stuffed with bitter broccoli rabe, sweet sausages, onions and sharp Caciocavallo cheese: a unique combination of bitter-sweet-salty.
The Spartan eggplant salad, caponatina, is different from the very same dish made in other parts of Sicily. Here it is made with fried eggplant, sautéed celery, not too many capers, a few olives, sweetened vinegar and grated chocolate. Eat it cold as an unusual appetizer!
Fried bread is a snack served while waiting for dinner to start.

Fusilli alla Siracusana is pasta with a sauce made of eggplants, peppers, olives, capers, and anchovies instead of salt. Pasta col nero dei todari, the strange-looking but delectable homemade linguine, taghiarini, with cuttlefish, is served with a black sauce made from the cuttlefish’s sack containing a black liquid. Ravioli di Ricotta is served with a light tomato sauce and stuffed with the local ricotta and Caciocavallo Ebleo cheese made in the province of Syracuse.

Rabbits, which are abundant in the region, are sautéed with onions and potatoes and then baked with wine or vinegar and sugar and called coniglio alla stemperata. Sautéed rabbits are also slowly cooked in tomato and the sauce served over homemade taghiarini, ribbon-shaped pasta.