Reid & Robie

The problem many people have with Italian food is they over complicate it. Italian food is extremely simple.

– Gino D’Acampo

After six weeks in Syracuse, Robie and I moved across the island to continue our Sicilian food tour in Palermo. Once again, our hunt for the city’s best dishes started with cannoli.

Cannoli

After mastering the decision-making process of ordering cannoli at our favorite pasticcerias in Syracuse, Robie and I found it difficult to get good cannoli in Palermo. While several cafés along Via Maqueda offered premade treats, we knew the best cannoli were made to order so the soft filling didn’t turn the crisp shell to mush. Fortunately, some friends let us in on the best-kept secret in Sicily. Inside the Church and Monastery of Saint Catherine of Alexandria we found I Segreti del Chiostro, a name that translates to “Secrets of the Cloister” and the perfect moniker for a hidden bakery in a corner of the Dominican convent selling the best cannoli in Palermo.

At the Cloister, cannoli were offered in the time-honored style. Instead of vessels rimmed with chocolate or pistachio nibs, shells came plain and perfectly crisp. In place of vanilla cream, pistachio or chocolate fillings, the bakery served nothing but sweetened ricotta. As we watched the women make our oversized cannolo, Robie and I opted to for traditional toppings getting one side dipped in chopped pistachios and the other in chocolate chips accented with a sliver of candied orange peel. Delicious!

Caffè Corretto

If the important decisions for ordering a cannolo were less involved in Palermo, choosing our coffee wasn’t. Not once Robie discovered something called caffé corretto at Bar Tabacchi Federico II across the street from the Palmero Cathedral.

Combining espresso with a splash of something stronger, we were confronted with how to “correct” our coffee. After learning that grappa is the common way to remedy the earthy, bitter notes of espresso in Northern Italy, we chose the traditional Sicilian modification with sweet licorice and star anise flavors in sambuca. It was the perfect pick-me-up during a long day of sightseeing.

Ravazzate

After getting up early to climb to the roof of Palermo’s cathedral for views of the city, Robie and I clambered back down in need of sustenance. In addition to our caffé corretti, we ordered a snack from Bar Tabacchi Federico II.

A street food native to Palermo, our ravazzate looked like a simple brioche roll. Once we held it, the bun’s heft told us there was more going on than soft, sweet bread. Inside the simple-looking treat was a ragu of slow-simmered meat made from onions, carrots, celery and tomato paste. When mixed with peas, the filling was identical to a traditional arancino except instead of getting stuffed inside a rice ball, the meat sauce got baked directly into the bun.

Dense and filling, the single ravazzate powered two of us through a full day of sightseeing including visits to the cathedral crypt, treasury and royal tombs as well as adjoining Diocesan Museum.

Mangia e bevi

Many of Palermo’s best foods are found in the street markets. At Mercato del Capo Robie and I ogled displays of fresh fish, salivated at the enticing aroma of meat searing on outdoor grills and listened to the gurgle of vegetable fritters and chickpea pancakes simmering in hot oil. After walking the alleyways to take it all in, we were ready to try everything that caught our fancy.

For our first dish we ordered mangia e bevi, a Sicilian delicacy meaning “eat and drink” due to the salty, rich flavors that pair well with a cold beverage. But where mangia e bevi shines is in its simplicity.

Streaky bacon wrapped tightly around fat spring onions were cooked over a hot grill until the edges crisped. Then the strands were served with a dash of salt and generous squeeze of lemon so that every bite tasted of warm, sweet onions countering the salty, fatty pork with a punch of lemon. Robie loved the dish so much that when I saw spring onions wrapped in bacon at the butcher shop a few days later, I grabbed four and headed straight home to make them for dinner.

Stigghiola, schietto & maritato

After our first trip to the Mercato del Capo, Robie researched the strange concoctions we didn’t recognize and came up with a plan to try as many as we could over the coming weeks. During our second visit to del Capo, our succulent surprise was something called stigghiola whose origins date back to Sicily’s ancient Greek colonists. In this dish, lamb intestines were grilled over open coals blending the rich, smoky, slightly tangy flavor of charred meat with succulent fat.

Next up we tried schietto and maritato, two dishes created by Palermo’s once thriving Jewish community before being expelled by Spain in 1493. Meaning “bachelor,” schietto is the plain version of the offal sandwich made from veal spleen. After confiting, the meat was layered onto a bun and sprinkled with salt and lemon juice to cut through the rich, gamey flavor. For the maritato, or “married” spleen sandwich, shredded caciocavallo was added, a sharp, locally made cheese similar to provolone. Whichever variation we chose, these tasty treats offered a springy texture and distinct, earthy flavors.

More food finds from Palermo’s mercati

With three different food markets in Palermo, Robie and I had our work cut out for us if we wanted to try the many delicious dishes in each. At Mercato Ballaro, we enjoyed seafood options like sardines wrapped around a chickpea filling.

At La Vucciria we drank cold beer with locals outside Taverna Azzurra, a place that’s been serving customers since 1896. Then we ate a light lunch around the corner at Vecchia Trattoria da Toto sampling their tomato, olive and anchovy appetizer.

But our favorite street food came from Mercato del Capo. In addition to chefs cooking up interesting cuts of meat, the narrow streets lined with produce, meat and seafood stands offered easy access to fresh ingredients for delicious eggplant caponata, spicy, grilled Italian sausage and two kinds of sardine meatballs, one bathed in tomato sauce and the other cooked in garlic and olive oil.

Pasta alla Norma

The pasta dish most often identified with Sicily is pasta alla Norma. Made with tomato sauce, eggplant and dried, salted cheese known as ricotta salata, the dish at La Bottega del Nonno Andrea was warm, meaty and comforting, the perfect antidote to a cool, rainy evening in Palermo. When paired with the restaurant’s baked eggplant appetizer, the two made for a delicious, vegetarian meal.

Mortadella

While mortadella doesn’t hail from Sicily, after eating it almost every day, Robie and I will forever associate it with our time in Palermo.

Made by grinding lean pork into a fine paste and emulsifying it with high-quality pork fat, the meat gets blended with whole black peppercorns and pistachios before being packed into large casings and slow cooked for 24 hours. With a velvety, buttery texture, distinct pale pink color dotted with flecks of green, black and white, this sausage has a rich, savory flavor that’s great in sandwiches topped with tomatoes, arugula and fresh ricotta.

In Palermo we discovered one of our favorite ways to eat mortadella was piled atop pizza. At Mastunicola near Quattro Canti, their Sciantosa pizza was made with high-quality buffalo mozzarella from Campania, pistachio pesto from the Sicilian town of Bronte, Apulian burrata and mortadella from an historic, family-owned company in Lombardy specializing in handmade deli products since 1911. At Tondo by the Palermo Marina, the Pistacchi pie came with a layer of pistachio pesto, a generous helping of mortadella, a sprinkling of pistachios and a single, white ball of burrata that oozed like a soft-boiled egg.

Then Robie discovered a new way to enjoy mortadella. Thought not strictly Italian nor truly authentic, the cross-cultural concoction was born in our small Palermo apartment after we were too tired to go out and had only the barest essentials in the fridge. It’s a little something Robie calls an Italian quesadilla, a dish he says should go on the menu of our first restaurant.

Since opening any kind of eatery would mean settling down, long hours and lots of hard work, we’re scratching the idea. Instead, we submit Robie’s recipe so everyone can try his tasty invention at home.

Robie’s Italian Quesadilla

Serves: 2

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10-12 minutes

Difficulty rating (on a scale of 5): 0.5

Ingredients

2 large flour tortillas

¾ – 1 cup white melting cheese like low-moisture mozzarella, shredded

1-2 thin slices of high-quality mortadella, torn into quarter-sized pieces

2 tsp. chopped pistachios

¼ – ½ cup fresh ricotta

Directions

1. In a large, cold, nonstick skillet place the dry tortilla.

2. Sprinkle some of the shredded cheese over half the tortilla.

3. Carefully arrange 4 or 5 pieces of mortadella over the cheese. Avoid the temptation to add a whole slice. If after the first quesadilla you think you need more meat, feel free to experiment.

4. Sprinkle on a teaspoon of chopped pistachios then spread a thin layer of ricotta over them. Don’t worry if the cheese isn’t evenly spread as it will melt slightly and fill any holes.

5. Fold the empty half of the tortilla over and turn the heat on medium-high.

6. After the first side is nicely browned about 5-7 minutes, flip the tortilla and cook on the second side another 3-4 minutes.

7. When the second side is nicely brown, slide the quesadilla onto a cutting board to cool slightly. Then slice and serve!

Robie’s quesadilla is proof that Italian food doesn’t have to be complicated (or authentic) to be delicious.