Released a few years ago by Bonfirraro Editore, this book is a true masterpiece that together with the author and the publisher we will try to bring to our public by dissecting its essence and its great usefulness, through a series of online broadcasts.
The excellent preface by Francesca Spanò of which we are publishing the incipit, gives you the measure of the great quality of the work and its usefulness as a reference manual: “Sicilian cuisine, almost as if it were the reflection of a faithful mirror, knows how to tell with its creative dishes the frenetic daily life of the island, where the explosive “joie de vivre” of its inhabitants is contrasted with a mix of thousand-year-old traditions, varied landscapes and sunny Tiffany-colored sea beaches. A kaleidoscope of colours, aromas and flavors always ready to give gastronomy a unique scenographic effect in Italy”.
Susanna Basile: Who is Roberta D’Antona?
Roberta D’Antona: I am a food and wine journalist, writer and chef. What guides me in my work is the great passion for cooking and everything related to its history. A dish hides many stories, influences and traditions behind it and it is always nice to discover it in all its facets. I have written several books, collaborating with national publishing houses, and each time I have always put investigation and research as the basis. Probably what influences me most of all is my experience as a journalist, which leads me to investigate everything with a careful eye. This was also the case for “Stories and Flavors of Sicily”.
SB: How did you manage to write such a comprehensive book?
RD: The book was born during the Covid period and the imprint I wanted to give it was immediately clear to me. My desire was to show an image of new and contemporary Sicilian cuisine and so it was. it was a very long job, but I am happy to have written this book and to have created it with the precious collaboration of Gaetano Basile and the chefs who collaborated with great enthusiasm on the work.
SB: You made an excursus on the “nine provinces on the table”…
RD: As Francesca Spanò, a Sicilian journalist who edited the preface of my book, says: “Sicily contains in its deepest essence the whole globe, customs and habits millions of miles away and its cuisine is not the point of arrival of a glorious and fortunate past, but above all it is a present to be designed between seasonal products and genuine typical products and a future to be invented by rereading the recipes with a pinch of novelty”. Gastronomic contamination is part of Sicily’s thousand-year history: over the centuries, the island has seen the succession of different peoples who, despite trying to dominate us, have never succeeded. We have always managed to take the best of the gastronomic traditions of these countries and make them our own, contaminating ancient recipes. Even today, among Italian cuisines, Sicily is one of those most prone to change.
Although Sicilian gastronomy has traits that all nine Sicilian provinces have in common, it is also characterized by differences due both to the different dominations that have followed one another on the island and to the peculiar characteristics of the different territories. Coastal cities, for example, such as Palermo, Messina, Agrigento, Trapani, Catania, Syracuse are the undisputed capitals of fish-based dishes. The inland provinces such as Enna and Caltanissetta are characterized more by their meat-based dishes: lamb, pork, etc. or by some types of dishes based on rice or pasta made with Sicilian durum wheat, such as seasoned cavateddi with sauce or with broad beans and peas. In short, for each province we can have a different interpretation
SB: An anecdote about a historic dish?
RD: As for an anecdote about a historical dish, as a Palermo native I immediately think of one of the most famous street foods, namely pane e panelle. To satisfy the desire to eat fish (which was very expensive), the common people invented “piscipanella”, a fake fish made with a batter based on water, chickpea flour and parsley, which simulated the scales of the fake fish. Thus the panelle were born, with which the feast of St. Lucia is still celebrated today, on December 13th, and which are still one of the prides of Sicilian gastronomy today.
SB: What are the ingredients of Sicilian dishes?
RD: As for ingredients, Sicilian cuisine is a very rich land. Just think of seafood, citrus fruits, aromatic herbs, some types of farmed animals such as the Nebrodi black pig, or even the huge variety of cheeses. The mild climate, its strategic geographical position which places it at the center of the Mediterranean is ideal for any type of cultivation to grow and prosper. Hence its richness and the immense heritage that chefs have at their disposal in their kitchens
SB: Who are the Sicilian chefs?
RD: As for the chefs, I have selected some who have been working for years to export a concept of Sicilian cuisine that is no longer linked solely to traditions, but modern and attentive to innovation. Through the reinterpretation of traditional cuisine and thanks to their brilliant intuitions, these chefs bring extraordinary dishes to the table every day, the fruits of study, research, personalization, contamination. Many of them are dedicated to self-production and within their premises they have vegetable gardens and farms from which they obtain most of the raw materials. They are all chefs who have traveled and had the opportunity to try new ingredients which they then brought into Sicilian cuisine, creating original and successful contaminations. After all, the fulcrum of the book is precisely to give an image of modern, contemporary Sicilian cuisine, open to the new and thanks to their contribution I believe that this aspect is evident well.
