Above: Spaghetti a scoglio at Cod da Saretta
It must be frustrating to a traveler who only wants meat to visit Sicily where seafood dominates. For us, that was heaven. We were surprised we didn’t frequently order some of the dishes we expected to devour almost daily. Too many other temptations popped up on menus.
The first was pizza. Every city anywhere we have been, we are always on the lookout for Neapolitan-style pizzas. We even eat pizza in Austin once a week.
But despite the fact that Sicily has great pizzas exactly the style we love, we only consumed about three in two months. One reason was that the best restaurants and pizzerias, perhaps an over-simplified generalization, only offer it at night; the ones featuring it at lunch time tend to be tourist-oriented and often not as good. We tend to eat a main meal at lunch, one so substantial that’s it for the day. No room for late-night pizzas.
We did, however, arrive hungry the first evening, and the Mister had conducted extensive research in advance to pinpoint the ideal spot to head, Anima e Core. As it was packed with locals, we felt fortunate they squeezed us inside. We started with a house salad loaded with buffalo mozzarella and gorgeous tomatoes, then proceeded to the pizza. A single pizza for two, but the waiter politely refrained from rolling his eyes at the Americans who never seem to comprehend that pizzas aren’t meant to be shared.
Above: Anime e Core
Another favorite food with Sicilian roots is arancini – balls of risotto stuffed with a filling, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried. I thought I would grab an arancino often to eat at home for a night-time snack or an unorthodox breakfast. We did order it sometimes as a starter, but, again, there were always too many other temptations on the menu. We did stop by one evening and stand in line to grab a pair from the counter-service portion of Antica Giudecca, long-reputed to have the island’s best.
Perhaps I was influenced by a shrine to Santa Lucia, whom I already have waxed about, guarding the door, but we loved the hole-in-the wall Cod da Saretta. The generous platter of mixed seafood was the best we’ve ever had, and the featured photo of seafood a scoglio speaks for itself. With only a couple of tables on the street and even fewer inside, we were fortunate to score seats twice. While we preferred outside, watching the carefully choreographed maneuvers of the cooks in a kitchen about the size of a food truck was fascinating.
Above: Cod da Saretta
I’m just going to jump to dessert at Divino Mare, a wine bar and enoteca that was a peaceful oasis on a side street of the bustling market in Ortigia. The Mister tested countless cannoli during our extended stay, and I think this was the one he pronounced the best. You might be accustomed to seeing the whipped ricotta stuffed in a pastry cone, but almost every restaurant we visited in Ortigia presented them deconstructed. As cannoli is the one dessert he is unwilling to split, my choice was a slice of olive oil cake marbled with orange and chocolate batters.
Back to seafood on Divino’s ever-changing menu determined by what the chef buys fresh from the market. Dishes we sampled included fish cakes with no filler but the flaky fish itself, steamed mussels and an assorted variety of fried fish – red mullet, cod and sardines, always offered with chunks of the huge Sicilian lemons. The thick slice of toast, crostone, on one of the speckled aqua plates below, was spread with ricotta topped with bottarga. Bottarga is a flavorful dried mullet roe that is compressed into blocks and then grated or shaved over dishes.
The bottom right photo is fried sarde a beccafico, another regional dish. The dish gets its name from beccafichi, small birds that fed on figs and were a favorite dish of Sicilian aristocrats. Sardines represented a poor man’s version, with the sardines’ tails resembling the birds’ tails. Filling the sardines with a savory mixture of breadcrumbs stretched the dish even further. Generally, the breadcrumbs are combined with pine nuts and raisins – a wonderful appetizer. We actually concluded that those assembled by the kitchen of Divino Mare were the best we sampled during the trip.
Above: Divino Mare
Couscous is among the dishes found frequently on menus as it became assimilated into the island’s cuisine because of its proximity to northern Africa. The fresh seafood with couscous at Il Pesce Azzurro Osteria was artfully presented. The red tomatoes atop the salad are gorgeous, and the sarde a beccafico was good. But I think I mal-ordered. Normally, I’m a fan of grilled squid. But this fellow was on the tough side, and the bland pea puree below it did little to enhance its flavor.
Above: Il Pesce Azzurro Osteria
We passed by Jobi numerous times as it was on the same street as both the laundromat and grocery store we frequented. We had read nothing about it, but it stayed open for lunch a bit later than most restaurants – perfect for post-laundry time. You will notice lots of photos of grilled vegetables ahead because often that is the only way they are offered. Fortunately, they are always good.
Another dish offered numerous places that we had never encountered elsewhere in Italy is the refreshing Sicilian salad. The main ingredients are sweet and juicy Sicilian oranges, a nice contrast with thinly sliced red onions and sometimes fennel, olives and salty plump capers. An easy summer salad to come close to replicating at home.
Pasta alla Norma, served with rigatoni at Jobi, is found on almost every menu. The dish combines cubes of tender eggplant, tomato sauce and ricotta salata, a drier form of ricotta. Other dishes pictured below that we enjoyed at Jobi are spaghetti with mussels and eggplant; linguini with shrimp and pistachio pesto; and, surprise, another deconstructed presentation of cannoli.
Above: Jobi
With so many restaurants packed into the tiny island of Ortigia, choosing which to go to is difficult. Listings for Sicily on TripAdvisor seem compromised to the point of being absurd. Recent reviews for some places are all five stars, and large gaps appear making one think critical reviews are deleted. Although, I will admit we rarely encountered a dish we didn’t like. We consistently found Sicilian cooking the best we have encountered anywhere in Italy.
We were fortunate to have the time to read menus posted outside as we meandered about. We also would observe the clientele to see if everyone in a restaurant appeared to be tourists. Hope these images help if you decide to head that way. I am following my recently adopted process of listing restaurants alphabetically that I started doing recently, so there will be a second “feeding” for you before the postcards from Siracusa end.
Postcards from Barton Springs 