Cucina Paradiso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily

280 Pages·1992·13.848 MB·English

by  Clifford A. Wright

CI-IFT’ORD A.'WF^lGrUT
$25.00
The island of Sicily is a sun-drenched jewel
splashed by the surrounding azure v/aters of the
Tyrrhenian, Ionian, and Mediterranean seas.
Known
since antiquity as the island in the sun, it
has a distinctly "eastern" air in its dusty and lan-
guid towns, its baroque cities, its bougainvillea-
laced coastal ring. Sicily's position as a
Mediterranean crossroads has meant that over
the years cultures of remarkable brilliance have
flourished and endured there. One such culture,
the medieval Arabs, ruled Sicily for nearly 250
years, and in their wake left striking influences on
the architecture, agriculture, and cuisine.
In Cucina Paradiso, Clifford Wright chronicles
his fascinating quest for what he affectionately
calls the "lost paradise" of Sicilian cuisine, the
culinary heritage of the Arabs in Sicily. From his
first visit there in 1983, he discovered that the
sights, smells, and sounds of Sicily reverberate
with an Arab feeling, an aura that is not a mirage
but a story waiting to be told. Reflecting his two
— —
loves research and cooking he set about find-
ing and recording this delicious legacy.
—
Here is a cuisine of exotic ingredients saf-
fron, capers, golden raisins, pine nuts, orange
—
zest, fresh anchovy combined in a heavenly
way, providing the reader with recipes that are
the key to this delicious paradise. Searching for
traces of Arab culinary influence while meander-
ing through Sicily, Wright visited small trattorias
and private homes and sampled such dishes as
Sasizzedi A^grassati (beef rolls stuffed with pecori-
no cheese, parsley, golden raisins, and pine nuts,
and sauteed in Marsala wine) and Gamheretti al
Pomodoro (a savory dish of shrimp, tomatoes,
capers, raisins, celery, and pine nuts). He discov-
ered that Sicilians do not agree as to what, exact-
ly, the Arab influence on the cuisine is, but they
do agree there are some common characteristics:
the absence of antipasti, the piatto unico, or one-pot
meal; the confectionery,- the blending of nuts or
breadcrumbs with raisins or currants and saffron
for stuffings,- stuffed and skewered foods in gen-
eral,- rice dishes (some food writers argue that the
famous risotto Milanese is an Arab-Sicilian inven-
tion transplanted north),- s d-sour dishes,-
ontinued on backflap]
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t^ARTMENT OF UBRARIES
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The Heavenly Food
of
Sicily
Clifford A. Wright
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
SIMON & SCHUSTER
NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO
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For my children Ali, Dyala, and Seri
SIMON & SCHUSTER
&
Simon Schuster Bundin'^
Rockefeller Center
1230 Auenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10020
©
Copyrij^ht 1992 hy Clifford A. IVrfht
All rfhts reserved includim^ the rfht of reproduction in whole or in part in any
& &
form. si.MON SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon
Schuster Inc. Desfned by Edith Eowler. Manufactured in the United States of
America. Title art and map by Laurie Davis.
987634321
10
Crateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission to reprint or
adapt previously published material:
&
IVilliam Morrow Company, Inc.: Adaptations ofthe Basic Bread Dou^h,
Pomegranate Quail, and Roast Onion recipes from The Food of Southern
©
Italy, by C^arlo Middione 1987.
Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.: Adaptation ofthe Involtini di Pesce Spada
recipefrom The Best of Southern Italian Cooking, byJ. C. Grasso ©
1984.
Library ofCongress Catalotein^-in-Publication Data
IVrfht, Clifford A.
Cucina paradiso : the heavenly food ofSicily /
Clifford A. IVrifft.
p cm
.
Includes bibliographi—cal references and index.
I. Cookery, Italian Sic—ilian style. 2. Cookery,
Arab. 3. Sicily (Italy) History.
I. Title.
TX723.2.S55m5 1992
8—
641.5945' dc20 92-20611
CAP
ISBN: 0-671-76926-X
A
CKNO WLEDGMHNTS
First and foremost must thank Nancy Harmon Jenkins, whose enthu-
I
my
siasm for project provided the opportunity to write this book, and
my agent. Doc Coover, who guided me.
Without the enormous assistance of Paula Wolfert and Carlo Mid-
dione in helping me contact people in Sicily and generally providing
my
sound tips and advice during the course of research and cooking,
1
would have been the much poorer and am deeply grateful to them both.
I
am new who
especially grateful to several friends in Sicily helped
1
me find recipes and provided extraordinary assistance. First my greatest
thanks and gratitude go to Pino Correnti, the doyen of Sicilian culinary
authorities, for his invaluable assistance in providing commentary and
recipes; to Enzo Siena, of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, who went
far out of his way to help me with my research; to Tommaso d’Alba,
whom
with discussed the Arab inhucnce on Sicilian cuisine, about
I
which he has written extensively; to Fiammetta di Napoli Oliver, her
husband, Arthur, and her son Carlo for their hospitality and assistance;
to Michele Papa, president of the Associazione Siculo-Araba in Catania,
who provided me with resources and contacts in Sicily.
very much want to acknowledge the help ot three people who have
I
written in English on Sicilian cuisine: Mary Taylor Simeti, Nick Mal-
gicri, and Mimmetta Lo Monte.
7
H ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
also owe a debt to several restaurateurs who assisted me in my
1
research and provided contacts and recipes. Thanks to Tony May, owner
of Sandomenico in New York; Giuseppe Stancampiano, owner of La
Scuderia in Palermo; Felice Piacentino, owner of Trattoria del Porto in
Trapani; the proprietor of La Galleria Ristorante in Caltagirone; and
Pasqualino Giudice, owner and chef ofjonico ’a Rutta e’ Ciauli in Syr-
acuse. must especially thank Pasqualino, who not only provided recipes
1
and prepared dishes from cucina araho-sicula but also spent hours talking
with me about food and listening to my painfully slow Italian.
Thanks too to Franco Marenghi, Accademia Italiana della Cucina;
Count Giovanni Nuvoletti Perdomini, president ofthe Accademia; Mon-
signor Rino Passigato, Apostolic Nunciature, Washington, D.C.; Cyn-
thia Salvato, pastry teacher, Johnson and Wales College, Providence,
Rhode Island; Michele Topor, L’Arte di Cucinare, Boston; Eleo-
nora Consoli, food journalist. La Sicilia, Catania; Domenico Vittorio
Bruno, Centro di Cultura Siciliana “G. Pitre,” Palermo; Lucio Messina,
director, Azienda Autonoma Provinciale per rincremento Turistico, Pal-
ermo; Domenico Manzon, a journalist based in Naples; Dr. Salvatore
Impaglione, director, Azienda Autonoma Provinciale per Plncremento
Turistico, Catania; Clarice Florence, Trapani-born Sicilian cook. Long
New
Island, York; Sorella Margherita, librarian, Pio Istituto Educativo
San Benedetto; Jan Longone and Dalia Goldstein, cookbook researchers;
Charles Perry, restaurant critic, Los Ati^^eles Times; Professor Bert Gor-
don, Mills College, California.
Thanks also go to several scholars whose conversations, correspon-
dence, and research have helped me, especially Professor Andrew Wat-
son, whose research and discussions with me about the Arab Agricultural
Revolution are the basis of much of my thinking about the link between
Arab agriculture in Sicily and Sicilian cuisine. would also like to thank
I
Professor Santi Correnti, University of Catania, Sicily; Professor Ber-
nard Lewis, Princeton University; Professors James Reilly and Jon Co-
hen, University of Toronto; Professor Zachary Lockman, Harvard
New
University; Dr. Gaetano Cipolla, president, Arba Sicula, Brooklyn,
New
York; Dr. RudolfGrewe, York; and ProfessorJohn Rosser, Boston
College.
would especially like to acknowledge several scholars and writers
I
whose work found indispensable: Professor Giovan Battista Pellegrini,
I
the world’s foremost scholar of Arabisms in Neo-Latin languages; Pro-
fessor Henri Bresc, Universitc Paris-Nanterre, and the Sicilian food writ-
ers Giuseppe Coria, Anna Pomar, N. Sapio Bartelletti, Baldo Russo, and
Antonio Cardella.
Finally would like to thank my former wife, Najwa al-Qattan,
I
who not only helped in some Arabic translation but years ago casually
suggested that write this book. For the help often needed with trans-
1 I
lation in at least six languages would especially like to thank Kristina
I
Hmeljak, Anna Gandini, Anahi Pari, Leena and Najwa al-Qattan, Nora
Rossi, Laura Pizer, and Mimmetta Lo Monte.
Special thanks go to my fishmonger, Salvatore Fantasia, who every
Monday devoted hours of talking with me about fish. And to a won-