Above: Panelle with anchovies at Le Angeliche
(Part One can be viewed here.)
Odds are Le Angeliche is a restaurant you would never just happen upon, and, if you did perchance walk by its door, you’d still not take notice. Even trying to find it with google maps frustrated us a bit.
It’s located on a vicolo, an uninviting alleyway obscured by the crowded, sprawling El Capo Market. Produce sellers toss heaps of empty crates and boxes into the alley, and Le Angeliche’s door is just beyond that pile with hard-to-spot signage. Pass through the doors, and the hubbub of the market vanishes. The cozy bistro opens up onto a patio encased in lush greenery and a wall covered in blossoms.
This patio proved my favorite lunch spot in Palermo, as you can tell from the abundance of photos below. The menu reflects whatever’s fresh in the market, and we trusted the creative kitchen completely. Take what looks like a plain ball of rice below. The “naked rise” was studded with raw shrimp and topped with thin flakes of bottarga, a dried fish roe. Or panelle, chickpea flour fritters offered by street vendors, but thinner here and elevated by the addition of lemony anchovies.
We rarely strayed from seafood, such as an amberjack tartare appetizer with artichoke hearts and candied lemon peel, or fried sardines and anchovies with caramelized onions on the side. Pastas sampled included shells with a fish ragu; fish-filled tortelloni; fried ravioletti with curried zuchini; and dumpling-like culurgiones with potatoes, mint and pecorino cheese inside. The fried swordfish spiedini kabob arrived plated with refreshing pumpkin carpaccio.
If alcove is on the dessert menu, go for it. The small flan-like dome was a parfait of capers, candied orange, heart of almond crunch cream and a ristretto coffee sauce with dried zibibbo, muscat grapes. As with most of these small restaurants, make reservations before venturing their way.
Above: Le Angeliche
Amberjack tartare arrived with a green apple sauce at the elegant Osteria Ballaro. As one would expect, Kobe beef tartare melted in the mouth, and a plate with a sampling of seafood starters was artfully presented. Pasta we sampled included ribbons of buckwheat pasta with artichokes and mussels; spaghetto with seafood; and a mound-like lasagnetta filled with lamb ragu in a parmesan sauce.
Above: Osteria Ballaro
The total opposite of formal is the always bustling Osteria Mangia e Bevi, filled with locals in search of simple familiar foods served in a rustic, relaxed setting. They all know what they’re ordering, and servers prefer no indecisiveness when they zip up to the table to get yours. As a daughter of a peanut broker, I had to love a place that provided a bucket of roasted peanuts in the shell alongside your wine bucket.
For starters we an eggplant tortino and fried sardines. I finally tried the Sicilian fried pasta known as la pariedda della Nonna, or Granny’s pan. This is the traditional way families recycle leftover pasta. Mangia e Bevi fries its pasta with a rich eggplant sauce topped with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. A humble yet popular dish, skillets of it flew out of the kitchen to tables all around us. The other pasta dish was bucatini with anchovies. There were no surprises or fancy touches here, just straightforward good and inexpensive food.
Above: Osteria Mangia e Bevi Palermo
My thoughts on restaurants obviously are not worthwhile for meat-eaters. Sicily is a wonderland for seafood-lovers, so we rarely resisted ordering it. Ristorantino Palazzo Sambuca brings a pick-a-pesce platter to your table, and our fish looked none too happy to have been chosen. With no heavy sauce to mask it, the delicate flavor of the fish was allowed to prevail.
The flavors of polpette de sarde, sardine balls, were well-balanced, and the octopus carpaccio was enhanced with lemon and olive oil. The pasta Norma and pasta sarde were prepared traditionally. A semifreddo proved a nice light dessert. If my memory serves me correctly, I was allowed to say when to stop the pour over the rhum baba. A mistake as I, of course, believed the more rum the better and over-doused it a bit. An example of the personal touch and hospitality of the multi-generational family running the front and back of the house.
Above: Ristorantino Palazzo Sambuca
Trattoria La Cambusa bills itself as another spot for traditional Sicilian dishes. I must confess I found my fettucine with red shrimp so bland that even the slivers of bottarga failed to bail it out. But the dish that drew us here was couscous di pesce alla trapanese, which was both bountiful and delicious.
Glancing at the menu today online, I must confess I was shocked at the price of the seafood couscous – in a good way. For a special occasion in Austin the other day, one of us ordered cioppino. The seafood dish in Austin cost three times more than the couscous dish at La Cambusa. No wonder we ate so well in Sicily.
Above: Trattoria La Cambusa
We spent close to two months in Sicily and never grew tired of the food. We both view the cuisine as the absolute best we have ever experienced. Perhaps the taste is further enhanced by the prices compared to home. Anyway, we already plan to head back this fall if Mount Etna quits belching as rudely as she has been doing lately.
Postcards from Barton Springs 