Mangiamo - We eat…

Entry: Joey

One of the pleasures I get from our travels is discovering the local recipes and cooking with beautiful, fresh, unusual ingredients.  The island is a bit more challenging than the Sciacca markets as ingredients are more scarce. But that's when creative cooking kicks in. More fun for me.  I start with finding a traditional Sicilian recipe based on, for example, spaghetti and anchovies. I probably look at a dozen recipes to find one with ingredients that I have access to. Often the author of a recipe describes variations by region or by cook.  The island has no capers in either tiny market, but some recipes for the same dish use olives instead of capers.  (There are caper trees all over the island but like olives, they must be cured).  So for the first time I made spaghetti with a pangratta (breadcrumbs fried in olive oil).  I used a whole jar of anchovies, garlic, green olives, and the juice of a lemon from the tree growing here on the side of the hill. 

I made Pasta alla Norma (a Catania original) substituting Parmesan for the called for ricotta salata.  It's shallow fried eggplant atop rigatoni pasta that has been covered with a basil, garlic, tomato sauce.  It was delicious but I'll try it again in Sciacca with the correct cheese. 

One night was a frittata with shallots, garlic, red pepper and potatoes. Since the oven doesn't work, I placed another oiled fry pan on top of the one I was working in and did a quick flip. Came out nicely and we enjoyed it with the store made olive salad. 

I was able to get 2 freshly caught fish from one of the pescatore at the pier.  Cavagnole or Amberjack in English. I learned how to clean and fillet a fish as a kid from my dad after many fishing trips in Rhode Island off his 18 ft Grady White.  But these were small fish and after cutting the bodies from the heads behind the gills, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to get fillets. So more research and I taught myself how to pan fry a whole fish. Actually, extra research when the oven methods were not going to be successful since this was when I first found out the oven was not working.  The result was a complete success according to Bernie with the fish moist and easily separating from the bones.  I accompanied it with raw fries that my mom always made. She says that's how my grandmother made them. Very thinly sliced potatoes fried with onion and garlic in oil. 

Bernie sets a romantic table on the bench where as the days progress, we can see the coming and the going of the full moon.  He is also often my sous chef but mostly my biggest fan.