Typical Food of Palermo and Sicily

The Sfincione is a typical product of the Palermitan gastronomy. It has been officially included in the list of traditional Italian agri-food products (P.A.T.).
The Sfincione is a symbol of the culture of street food in Palermo .

Ingredients:

tomato, onion, anchovies, oregano and small pieces of typical Sicilian cheese (called caciocavallo ragusano).

Officially recognized and included in the list of traditional Italian agri-food products (P.A.T).
It is a ball or a cone of breaded and fried rice, generally stuffed with minced meat (ragù), peas and caciocavallo, or diced cooked ham and mozzarella, but different flavors are produced around Palermo and Sicily .

Ingredients:

riso, zafferano; per il ripieno: mozzarella, prosciutto cotto a dadini o ragù.

Ingredients:

Panelle: chickpea flour, parsley.
Croquettes: mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley and/or mint.

This dish, the exclusive tradition of Palermo , consists of a soft bread, top sprinkled with sesame, which is stuffed with pieces of spleen and veal lung .

Ingredients:

spleen, veal lung, seasoned with ricotta or caciocavallo.

Officially recognized and included in the list of traditional Italian agri-food products (P.A.T).
La stigghiola, have the basic ingredient guts (in particular, those of lamb or kid or chicken), seasoned with salt and lemon.

Ingredients:

lamb or kid guts, salt and lemon.

The beef muzzle and the cartilage of the legs , and sometimes also the udders of the cows, cleaned, boiled in salted water, and are eaten by dipping them in salt.

Ingredients:

legs and muzzle of veal, lemon, salt.

The frittola is a typical dish of traditional Palermo street food.
The raw material of the frittola is the result of a particular processing of the veal slaughtering waste: the pieces of meat, bold and small cartilages, are detached from the bones through a mechanical process and subjected to a boiling process.
This almost freeze-drying procedure allows to keep the frittola even for years; then everything is fried with lard.
The frittola is placed, very hot, in a special, large wicker basket, which always remains covered by a rag.

Ingredients:

meat, bold, cartilage, lard, salt, pepper, bay leaf.

Babbaluci is the Palermitan term used to indicate white snails.
It is a traditional dish of the feast of Santa Rosalia , patroness of Palermo city, which is celebrated, with solemnity, and with great participation of the people, every year from 11 to 15 July.

Ingredients:

snails, garlic, oil, parsley, salt and pepper.

One of the most loved and tasty pasta dishes in Sicily and Palermo in particular, has its origins in the Messina cuisine.
The caserecce lido enclose the Mediterranean taste of fish , peeled tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, which with the vegetables most used in Sicilian cuisine, aubergines and that touch of freshness of mint, another ingredient widely used in Sicilian cuisine, make the Lido an irresistible dish of Sicilian and Italian cuisine.

Ingredients:

swordfish, aubergines, peeled tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, mint.

Typical Sicilian dish which places the final cooking of the pasta (anelletti) in the oven with a crusty surface of breadcrumbs.

Ingredients:

anelletti, minced meat (ragú), grated cheese (caciocavallo), cooked ham, chopped cheese (caciocavallo), breadcrumbs.

The Pasta with sardines is a typical dish of Sicilian cuisine, included in the list of traditional Italian agri-food products (P.A.T).
It is a seasonal dish precisely because the sardines are caught from March to September, as well as the wild fennel, it is harvested from spring to autumn.

Ingredients:

sardines, pasta (bucatini), wild fennel, onion, salted anchovies, passolina grapes, pine nuts, saffron, oil, salt and pepper.

The sarde a beccafico, are a typical preparation of Sicilian gastronomy, in particular from Palermo.
They are baked sardines rolled around a mixture of breadcrumbs, chopped garlic, chopped parsley, sultanas, pine nuts, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Ingredients:

sardines, breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, sultanas, pine nuts, salt, pepper and olive oil

Ingredients:

Sea Urchin, garlic, oil and parsley.

The caponata, widespread in all cities of the Mediterranean Sea, it is generally used today as a side dish or appetizer, or single dish.

Ingredients:

aubergines, green olives, onion, celery, capers, tomato sauce, oil, salt, vinegar and sugar.

The cannolo it is one of the best known specialties of Sicilian pastry. As such it has been officially recognized and included in the list of traditional Italian agri-food products (P.A.T).
The cannoli must be filled when eating them; this is because, with the passage of time, the moisture of the ricotta is absorbed by the wafer making it lose its crunchiness.

Ingredients:

soft wheat flour, wine, lard, icing sugar, ricotta (sheep or cow's milk), sugar, candied fruit, chocolate chips.

We can define it as the queen of the Palermo breakfast, with its ricotta filling and chocolate drops and its crunchy outer layer, making it one of the most typical and popular desserts of palermitans and not.

Ingredients:

For the Dough: flour, yeast, salt, sugar, milk and lard.
For the Filling: ricotta, sugar and chocolate chips, and breadcrumbs for the breading.

The sfincia di San Giuseppe it is sweet fried typical of Sicily which, as such, has been officially included in the list of traditional Italian agri-food products (P.A.T).
It is widespread in western Sicily, especially in the Sicilian capital, Palermo, and is consumed mainly on March 19, during the San Giuseppe's feast , considered the first feast of the new spring season throughout the island, as well as than father's day .

Ingredients:

flour, salt, eggs, lard, sheep's ricotta, sugar, dark chocolate chips, pistachio grains, candied cherries, candied orange peel.

It is a typical Sicilian production, as such it has been officially recognized and included in the list of traditional Italian agri-food products (P.A.T).
The cassata siciliana is a traditional Sicilian cake made with sweetened ricotta (traditionally from sheep), sponge cake , real pasta (almond paste) and candied fruit.
At the beginning it was a pastry pastry filling stuffed with sweetened ricotta and then baked (baked cassata).
During the Norman period, Palermo at the convent of the Martorana , the real pasta or Martorana was created, which replaced the shortcrust pastry as a wrapping.
The Spanish introduced Sicily chocolate and sponge cake . During the Baroque , the candied fruit are added.

Ingredients:

sponge cake, sheep's ricotta, sugar, real pasta, candied fruit, dark chocolate chips.

In Palermo, the first version of this ricotta cake , called Cassata al forno , is still widely used, without candied fruit and pasta real .
It is a wrapping of shortcrust pastry that contains inside the ricotta cream of sweetened sheep and drops of dark chocolate .

Ingredients:

shortcrust pastry, sheep's ricotta, sugar, icing sugar, dark chocolate chips.

The setteveli cake is a dessert created by three pastry chefs: the Paduan Luigi Biasetto, Cristian Beduschi and Gianluca Mannori, who place the Italian team that with this dessert won the World Cup of Pastry of Lyon in 1997.
The Master Pastry Chef Cappello of Palermo has proposed it again, managing to tell it to the people of Palermo and becoming one of the most popular desserts of the city after the traditional Palermitans.

Ingredients:

chocolate sponge cake, chocolate mousse, hazelnut Bavarian, chocolate Bavarian, chocolate crunchy, chocolate glaze.

It is a product included in the list of traditional Italian agri-food products (P.A.T).
Martorana fruit is a typical Sicilian dessert .
It is a dessert famous all over the world because its preparation and packaging foresees, in form and appearance at the end of the preparation process, the perfect imitation or reproduction of fruits and sometimes vegetables or fish .

Ingredients:

almond flour and sugar.

A typical popular dish from Palermo, prepared with the tender leaves of courgette and enriched with peeled tomatoes and Sicilian courgettes.

Ingredients:

peeled tomato, broken spaghetti, horse cheese, tenerumi, garlic, Sicilian long courgette, extra virgin olive oil, salt to taste

The bagherese sfincione is a real institution in Bagheria, a town on the outskirts of Palermo.
It looks like a flat but very soft bread dough, which is seasoned with various layers of condiments, in particular 3:
a first layer consisting of an EVO oil sauce in which salted anchovies have been dissolved (although the recipe originally provided for salted sardines) which is brushed on the surface of the dough;
a second layer consisting of slices of fresh cheese such as tuma and fresh sheep ricotta, and finally the last one consisting of crumbled fresh bread crumbs, deprived of the crust which, after being lightly toasted in extra virgin olive oil, is flavored with grated caciocavallo, onion, salted anchovies, salt, pepper and oregano.

Ingredients:

EVO oil, anchovies, tuma, ricotta, breadcrumbs, caciocavallo, onion, salt, pepper, oregano