Food Tours of Sicily: Catania

Sicily is not the largest place in the world, but it’s big enough for regional rivalries and regional differences in food and more, so we were sure our second food tour, in Catania, wouldn’t be a repeat of the first in Palermo.

Like the Palermo tour, this one wove in an out of the city’s open-air markets, and the differences began there, too. Palermo’s markets wind through the narrow streets of the historic center; Catania, rebuilt after earthquakes in the 1690s, has its markets in open squares, which makes for even more noise and motion. Above, the market passes under a railway viaduct.

That’s where we began, at one end of the Pescheria market. By name, it’s the Fish Market, but in fact while it’s full of an amazing variety of fish and seafood, it’s also a market for everything else you could want to eat.

And also some things you might have doubts about wanting to eat. But following my rule of tasting everything on a food tour even if I’d never think of it anywhere else, we had stigghiola, Catania’s answer to Palermo’s lung-and-spleen sandwich. It’s a mix of lamb, goat and chicken guts, washed, salted, boiled and then grilled.

At the same stand, sanguinaccio, or sangele, a local blood sausage made with pig’s blood. It’s not the only pig’s blood specialty: there’s also sanguinaccio dolce, a sweet pudding flavored with blood, and a blood sausage that also uses nuts and chocolate. We only had the plain old sangele.

Except that one member of the tour was a vegetarian, and our guide, Aureliano, left us for a few moments and returned with this gorgeous grilled artichoke from another stand. Not only gorgeous, but delicious. We’ll be trying that at home this summer!

Then it was on to more conventional foods, including anchovies ‘cooked’ by a bath in lemon juice, and then dressed with spices and olive oil. I’m no anchovy eater, but these did not taste like what we see on pizza and elsewhere. Not at all! Below them, fish prepared the same way.

If you’re a fan of pecorino romano, you won’t be surprised by picurinu Sicilianu, which is a local cousin that may be the oldest cheese in Europe. The technique for making it, always from the milk of pastured sheep and with lamb rennet, is described in the Odyssey. Almost a thousand years later, Pliny the Elder ranked it as the best cheese available. Always hand made, and with different flavor at different stages of its maturation. And yes, the olives were wonderful, too.

Here’s one of the Palermo-to-Catania differences. These are arancini, which a Palermitan would insist should be arancine. If he accepted them at all, since they are not balls but rounded cones. Some claim it’s to mimic the peak of nearby Mount Etna; others say it ain’t so. Either way, potay-to, potat-o, they’re delicious. In Catania we ate them filled with different sauces, cheeses and meats, including an arancino burro, filled with a buttery cheese and ham filling.

These were great, too, but we had to go back for them…they weren’t on the tour. The streets and squares of the market are lined with temptations!

As much as those look like a wonderful tray of cheese Danish, they’re not. It’s actually a savory treat called cipollina. It’s puff pastry, stuffed with onion (cipolle), tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and ham. Almost like an inside-out pizza, except the ‘wrong’ pastry! Or perhaps, a puff-pastry calzone.

And our final flavor of the day, panino con carne di cavallo, sliced grilled horsemeat on a toasted bun. It’s not unknown in Palermo, but Catanians consider it their specialty.

Leaving the market and the tour, sure that we were too full to ever eat again, we turned back toward our B&B, and found one more temptation: a truck full of fresh artichokes. Fortunately or not, we had neither kitchen nor grill!

If you’re planning a visit, and would like to try the food tours, here’s a link to StrEATCatania and StrEATPalermo. The tours were €39 per person, with a discount for taking both.