The Answers Are Usually Simple
Every Saturday morning we buy the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and I devour the Saturday magazine Io Donna. It takes the place of other weekend magazines from cities past that I once loved to read while snuggling up on the couch with a good cup of tea. The content isn't always that great, but at this point, beggars can't be choosers. Regardless, I always look forward to reading the Q&A at the beginning. Contributors to the current issue are asked to name things like a cult film, song, plate, smell and object. The answers are usually simple.
Every Saturday I think about what I might answer if I were asked to choose a dish. Really? Just one? Well, at the moment, spaghetti with cherry tomato sauce is in the running. I just can't stop. Eating. This. Pasta. It started in July when little pomodorini started popping up in Riccardo's mom's garden and reached its pinnacle when we took three days out at the end of the hectic month of August to explore the east coast of Sicily. It was more than I ever imagined it to be. I completely fell in love.
Like I said, August was insane. Moving into our new house while it was still being repainted, days of cleaning and organizing followed by a series of guests and late summer nights left me feeling flat. I like to think that living in the South has more ups than downs, and one of them is that we are really only about 45 minutes from Sicily if you don't include the ferry ride. So we took off on one hell of a hot morning at the end of August and decided to just drive with out a plan. There was only one thing on our mind. Granita. Later that afternoon, we found our selves in mystical town of Siracusa and decided to part after two lemon granite (MY two) and one Greek colony tour.
A tour guide directed us toward the Lido di (beach of) Noto but you get picky when your local beach is La Tonnara di Palmi so I insisted that we keep driving away from the thin sandy crowded beaches and by night fall we found ourselves in the fairytale-like town of Noto. We admired the local Baroque architecture and bought some large fresh, green, plump capers from local food stands that lined the street, but the real food adventure didn't officially start until we headed to Pachino the next day.
We came upon this truck on the outskirts of town and hopped out of the car to purchase a bag of Cipolla di Giarratana without realizing that putting onions in your car at the temperature of 40 degrees Celsius for 2 days straight really just isn't a good idea. Our journey was rather smelly but we had great fortune to come across this truck.
When we entered Pachino we had our eyes peeled for their famous cherry tomatoes that ripen with the sea air. I am sure I blazed my way past some stands while eating my way through the South of Italy at the Salone del Gusto last year, but we were prompted towards this destination after watching a lunch time travel show early this summer. The town of Pachino itself is quaint and the place was bustling on a Monday morning. We immediately made a bee-line for a breakfast granita (It's so bleepin' hot it's all you can think about eating) and then we hit up the ethnic and health food stories before being directed to Caffè al Ciclope for what was assured to be a granita al pistacchio to die for. OH MAN. When you enter this wonder of all wonders it is hard to decide between the gelato, granita, special coffee concoctions, ice cream cake-like desserts and pastry. I imagined that these sweet ricotta filled bombs below might just be a slice of sugary heaven and I pined for them for at least 10 minutes before going through the selection of ice cream cakes that I could potentially order if I refused to leave Pachino with a promise to return to the caffè for the next twenty days. Anyway, we finally made our way through the sea of people and got our tongues on the recommended granite al pistacchio. Oh my. It's smooth. It's cold. Its pistacchio punch is so so so worth the trip. Just that experience is worth the trip alone.
We exited Pachino from the south in search of a beach and while heading toward Capo Passero we spotted long white patches of tubes meant to house the famous cherry tomatoes of Pachino. They literally covered the countryside. Many of them lay skeleton like empty, dusty and abandoned. The road to Capo Passero was bright and kind of eerie like that. Riccardo wanted to stop at a the first little beach that we found but I urged him to keep going. I could feel in my gut that there was something good over the horizon and there was.
Playa Carratois can be found by stumbling over some sand dunes at the very south eastern tip of Sicily. I have a feeling this place is a little little secret to what seemed to be a clientele of hipsters from Bologna and Milan, but I have to say that I am happy to let the cat out of the bag. The truth is there are many little Lido's along this sandy stretch of beach that borders crystal waters and you can even bring our own picnic and umbrella if you wish, but we were drawn to this exotic little spot with its outdoor restaurant, bar and Caribbean vibe. Lunch was a simple wonder. Riccardo had spaghetti ai ricci di mare (which is sea urchin) and I slurped up a plate of ever so sweet, ever so simple spaghetti al cilegino di Pachino that I had eyed up while entering the scene. I handed them a packet of gluten-free pasta which they were happy to cook up for me and they even asked if they could offer some of my pasta to another celiac who came unprepared. Of course I was happy to share the love. It was closest you could get to a perfect day.
Blissed up and sunkissed we headed to Catania also known as the Milan of Sicily. It was dark when we arrived. The outskirts were rough and at 10 p.m. the streets looked abandoned. I wanted to drive on but Riccardo refused to let this opportunity pass. We found a hotel and hit the streets to discover that life in Catania really begins at night. The city is sexy and hot like the volcanic rock upon which it is built. We strolled along the streets looking for dinner and decided to stop at Polpetteria. Basically this is where beautiful people and meatballs come together and yes, if you can imagine it, there is somewhere in the world where they do collide. These polpette which also come in the form of fish, chicken and vegetable are made of fresh, quality, local ingredients and it is evident in every bite. We ate outside on the street with the rest of the crowd where the only thing separating us from getting hit by the cars that weren't supposed to pass was a piece of canvas. At one point a passing motorino chucked something onto one of the tables and a group of men got up and ran down the street. Exciting. After meatballs and melodrama we strolled around admiring the Baroque architecture of Catania and then wandered into the area near the port that houses the fish market. Our friend Carlo, whose father hails from Catania, suggested that we track down a limonata which is basically fresh lemonade made with salt instead of sugar in order to replace the salt lost in the sweating process. We ordered one from the Chiosco della Pescheria, sat at their white plastic tables and watched the Catanians live by night. The owner of the kiosk, and what looked like his five sons all under the age of 12, worked that kiosk like their mother gave birth to them on the floor. One of the older boys who sat a few feet away from us cut up the lemons at a lightening speed and when the smallest wasn't allowed to help him there was nothing short of war. At 2 o'clock in the morning it was evident that Catania isn't that into child labor laws.
We headed back to the market first thing in the morning to find an explosion for the senses. All one can do really is wander around admiring the vast space, stalls and plastic buckets offering the largest selection of fish that I have ever seen. The ground was wet, and it was all about blood, salt, flashes of silver skin, pink flesh, men who shouted, women who scanned and boys carrying large bunches of parsley.
There was also an abundance of tuna and swordfish which is at its best between April and July. People around these part eat swordfish like Americans eat chicken. The waters close to our home are known for their swordfish and to be honest, I can't look at another bite until they come back into season. They are an amazing specimen I am sure you will agree, and I am very thankful to have such a complaint. After the fish market we scanned the streets full of vegetable stalls, butchers and cheesemongers. We also toured the amazing work of art history know as Palazzo Biscari. We departed for the northern shores after this experience and the only thing that happened after this was the consumption of another ridiculous number of granite, an overnight stay in Giardini Naxos (do yourself a favor and NEVER stay there) and a quick visit to the trendy Taormina.
This past Saturday while sitting on a cloudy beach we opened up Corriere della Sera and Riccardo passed me my Io Donna. I scanned the Q&A's as usual and listened to Riccardo read an interesting article about the Allied invasion of Sicily in World War II. One of the spots they approached from was the South East and the first place they freed was Pachino. Amen for that. We laid there imagining the landing on the sandy shores that we had just discovered and then wandered home to eat our lunch. What were we going to make? The answers are usually simple.
Spaghetti with Cherry Tomato Sauce
Spaghetti al cilegino
Free From: gluten, sugar, yeast, dairy, vegetarian
A recipe adapted from various sources
Serves 2
Last summer I followed a recipe from La Cucina Italiana and suggested roasting cherry tomatoes with some onion to create a quick sauce for spaghetti. Yea, let's pretend that didn't happen. This sauce is where it is at and you can use any type of ripe, small, seasonal, garden fresh tomato to create a sauce that will coat your mouth with flavor. Here, I use datteri. I also love this sauce with a light ravioli filled with ricotta.
200g/7oz spaghetti, regular or gluten-free
600g/1.5lb of ripe cherry tomatoes or other small varieties, stems removed and halved
Half of a small white onion finely chopped
1 large clove of garlic crushed
A handful of fresh basil leaves
Olive oil
Sea salt
Optional: Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Fill a large pot with water and let it come to a boil over high heat. Add salt, let the water come to a vigorous boil, add pasta, stir and cook until al dente. Reserve about a cup of cooking water.
In the meantime, take a medium sized saucepan and add a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add your onion and then your garlic and cook over a medium low heat until the onion becomes soft and translucent and the garlic clove takes on a golden color. Do not let anything burn. If this starts to happen you can turn down the heat and quickly add a few spoonfuls of water to the pan. Once everything is clear and golden you can add your tomatoes and a few spoonfuls of water if you haven't already and then add a few pinches of salt and pepper. Turn up the heat to medium high and cook uncovered until the tomatoes start to break down stirring every few minutes until they reach the desired consistency. This should take no longer than 20 minutes and you can turn down the heat a bit once the tomatoes start to break down. If your tomatoes look dry you can crush them a little bit and add a few more spoonfuls of water. Once the sauce is finished, tear up your basil leaves and stir them into the sauce and remove the crushed clove of garlic. Drain your pasta and mix with the sauce adding a little cooking water so that everything is smooth and moist but not watery. The spaghetti should be coated with a thin layer of sauce and specked with tomatoes. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. Serve with freshly grated cheese.
Suggestion - This pasta can also be made without garlic. You can cook the tomatoes to their desired consistency. Here, I would have liked to cook mine down a little more but we were in a hurry to eat hence the steamy photo. Others might prefer their tomato to be more in tact. Also, I tend to serve this dish with cheese on the side. They didn't even offer cheese when I ate this dish in Sicily. I think the idea is that the cheese might mask rather than compliment the taste of the tomato. Sometimes I like it with and sometimes without. Try it both ways to see what you like best.
