Stories

Two very Palermitan dishes, rooted in "cucina povera" and the habit of using everything without waste. Sicily’s famous lamb intestines and spring onions wrapped in pancetta.

The first time I decided to try brioche with gelato, I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to eat it: with a spoon or by taking a bite, together or separately. Turns out, it’s simple — eat it however you like. And the little ball on top of the brioche, which always reminded me of the knob on a pot lid, is called a tuppo — a woman’s bun.

Sicilian blood oranges are compared almost like wine: tasters find notes of wild berries, raspberries and grapes in them. I can’t taste all that myself, but I know one thing for sure — they’re delicious and incredibly varied. And very red.

This tiny rosticceria has been around for about 200 years, and all this time it has been tucked away in the courtyard of Palazzo De Stefano. They’ve kept the old tradition of making every snack small — perfect for me, because I can try a little bit of everything from Palermo’s street-food classics.

Red shrimp is one of the icons of Sicilian cuisine. It’s caught at depths of 500–700 metres, in cold, dark waters, and is already a deep red while still raw — the colour most shrimp only get after cooking.

According to legend, the famous Martorana fruits were born thanks to an empty autumn garden. An important guest was coming, but the monastery’s trees had already lost their fruit, so the nuns made new ones from almonds and honey, painted them and hung them from the branches.

Antica Focacceria San Francesco was the first place to serve Palermo street food in a restaurant setting. About 150 years ago, a court chef was given part of an old palazzo and opened a restaurant serving local Palermo food.

In Palermo, arancina is feminine. Palermitans believe that everything beautiful and wonderful should be feminine, while in Catania they strongly disagree: there, they eat arancino. Even the shape is different — Palermo’s is round like an orange, while Catania’s is cone-shaped, like Mount Etna.