GASTRONOMY

The island has a long history of producing a variety of noted cuisines and wines. Every part of Sicily has its specialty (e.g. Cassata is typical of Palermo although available everywhere in Sicily, as is Granita, a Catania specialty). The ingredients are typically rich in taste and the savory dishes of Sicily are viewed to be healthy, using fresh vegetables and fruits and the olive oil. It’s common to find also seafood, freshly caught from the surrounding coastlines.

The most well-known part of Sicilian cuisine is the rich sweet dishes including ice creams and pastries, like Cannoli, a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with a sweet filling usually containing ricotta cheese. Like the cuisine of the rest of southern Italy, pasta plays an important role in Sicilian cuisine, as does rice (for example with arancini, fried balls of rice with tomato souce and meat inside). The tradition of cheeses is also very rich in Sicily; they use cow's and sheep's milk to produce cheeses such as pecorino and caciocavallo.

Another important tradition is the producing of bread: every part of Sicily cooks the bread in a different typical way. Spices used are a lot: saffron, nutmeg, clove, pepper, and cinnamon, which were introduced by the Arabs. Although Sicilian cuisine is commonly associated with sea food, meat dishes (including pork, calf, lamb, goat, rabbit, horse) represent a very important part of the Sicilian gastronomy. Some varieties of wine are produced from vines that are relatively unique to the island, such as the Nero d'Avola made near the baroque town of Noto.