Sicilia

Sicily is an island that has seen many cultures traverse its shores over the past few thousand years. These many different peoples have influenced everything from the architecture to the dialects to the food, which reflects its historical melting pot. Not simply Italian food, Sicilian cuisine has Arab, Greek, and Spanish influences, using all the natural ingredients of the land and sea surrounding the island.

The Ballaro Market in Palermo reminded me more of Marrakech than Rome. Piles of colorful fruits and vegetables - pale green squash two feet long, baskets of writhing live snails, pig's feet hanging from the tented stalls, tuna bellies larger than my torso, gleaming pink in the sun. We got some fresh bread and marinated olives and wandered through the marketplace spitting pits and perusing the spices and wares. The sellers' dried apricots and raisins, golden saffron and smoky cinnamon, and melon and citrus reflect the culinary influences of the Arab eastern Mediterranean. We shared an arancino - fried risotto ball with ragu in the center, a typical Sicilian street food, which was nearly the size of my face, for one euro. Then smoked ricotta topped with honey and pistachios:

Roasted warm cheese with a sticky sweet glaze and crunchy nuts on top - you had to lick the paper, it was so good. And of course I had to try a real cannoli, the famed dessert of Sicily, which was stuffed with the lightest cream imaginable, and darted with tiny candied orange peel, such a far cry from the heavier Americanized version of the treat.

And of course there's the seafood. In every seaside town in Sicily, there was an array of fresh fish and shellfish to choose from. First, in the coastal town Sferracavallo we had dinner at the Antico Posillipo restaurant near the harbor. Steamed mussels to start, then risotto con salmone (salmon), fish eggs, and radicchio:

Then I had pesce di spada con gamberoni (grilled swordfish with jumbo shrimp):

In Italy, less is more: the simplest preparation, with olive oil, parsley, and a hint of pepper and sea salt, lets the fresh seafood shine. We finished with limone sorbetto, but it was a frothy liquid rather than the ice-hard sorbet you'll find in the U.S., and a wonderfully refreshing end to the meal.

In Scopello, a small village near the Zingaro nature reserve, we went to the Trattoria di Scopello, down the road, where we were seated at the end of a table with other diners, in typical casual Italian fashion. There we had a fantastic seafood antipasto:

Polpo insalate (octopus salad), fish "meatballs", gamberetti (shrimp), and marinated eggplant that tasted like sausage, it was so meaty delicious

Then a fish platter feast:

Orata - whole of course, eaten right off the bone - with tuna, swordfish steaks, gamberoni, and squid

The next night we ate at a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the water, starting with calamari. For the primi, the pasta alla norma, a typical Sicilian pasta dish from Catania, which uses native eggplant in tomato sauce. This eggplant was cooked to such perfection, it was actually sweet:

For dinner I had the seared tuna, and it was the best tuna I've ever eaten. Now this is a strong statement to make, coming from me. I'm obsessed with tuna - I've had it in many different places for many years; if it's on a restaurant menu I will almost always order the seared tuna, I love it so much. And honestly it's often cold in the middle, with the flesh raw from the ice to the plate, and loses some of its flavor. But not this tuna. This tuna was warm, savory, so buttery that it melted in my mouth - I didn't even need a knife, it was so good. This tuna was the best.

The night ended with a pistachio cannoli to share, but there's no photo since I didn't have time to take one before we ate it. Enough said.

Our last night in Sicily we stayed by the salt fields near Marsala (which is of course where the wine gets its name.) We asked the lady selling salt where to go that night and she recommended the Cothon Ristorante, a family-owned place on a side street outside of the city, about as non-touristy as you can imagine. For ten euros we got a starter, entree each and pitcher of house wine, and everything was good. The cook brought us fried polenta bites when we sat down, crispy golden nuggets of heaven, and then I really wanted to try caponata, a Sicilian eggplant dish with vegetables and golden raisins.

I had the couscous alle pesce (fish) , a great example of the North African influence on Sicilian cuisine:

And the busiate pasta is a typical Sicilian pasta made in the seaside city of Trapani, which we passed:

Curly tendrils of soft pasta in a light sauce with cozze (mussels) - more seafood, of course.

Then there's the Sicilian breakfast that we enjoyed every morning during our stay. Pastries, cakes, even cookies are a breakfast food in Italy, apparently. A dangerous habit to form ...

Finally there's the granita, a Sicilian shaved-ice drink that is so light and refreshing it's addictive. We tried espresso and mandorle (almond), shown here:

The food in Sicily is arguably some of the best in the world - an incredible fusion of Mediterranean flavors all joined on one gorgeous island.

Cooking in Croatia

In Dubrovnik we rented an apartment in the old town walled-in medieval city, and decided to use the kitchen to make a home-cooked meal with fresh Croatian ingredients. In the outdoor market I found fresh produce, spices, and an assortment of typical things to the area, including honey, dried orange peel and lavender. We got a small bottle of Croatian olive oil and some parsley, and snagged a sprig of fresh basil that came as a garnish with breakfast at the cafe, pocketing it for later. (Also the butter packet. Classy, I know.)

Croatia borders Italy, of course, sharing the Adriatic Sea and all its bounty. So we got shrimp and some pasta from the market, and from the fresh produce stands selected zucchini and a red onion for vegetables, and garlic and lemon for cooking. For appetizers we got some Croatian cheese (similar to provolone), salami, olives, and of course some Croatian white wine.

Appetizers by our window looking out at the old city of Dubrovnik:

Given the ingredients we found at the market, for dinner I made shrimp scampi: dropped the pasta, sauteed the garlic in olive oil, added the shrimp, grated lemon zest, deglazed the pan with a splash of white wine, added the lemon juice and parsley, pulled the pasta from the water while still al dente, dropped in into the pan with the shrimp-lemon-garlic-wine sauce to cook through, added a splash of the starchy cooking water to thicken the sauce, poured it all back into the pot and finished with the stolen pat of butter and basil leaf sprig to garnish.

For the vegetable side dish I sliced the zucchini thin and caramelized the red onion in oil, adding more garlic, parsley, and a pinch of sugar to get the onions meltingly sweet, and browned the zucchini until soft and tender.

We realized we had no salt or pepper in the apartment - staples I rarely cook without - but with our garlic, olive oil, and fresh herbs, the food still had a ton of flavor, all fresh and light. It was a lovely home-cooked dinner:

Croatian Culinary Tour

Croatia is a country of regions: the food in the northern, more mountainous inland region is drastically different from the food on the southern coast, with elements of bordering cuisines integrated throughout their diverse cooking traditions. The food is fresh, most of all, and a wonderful experience.

When we arrived in Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia, the first thing I noticed was that the air smelled of strawberries. The Dolac Market was filled with different kinds of fresh produce, fish, and colorful flowers, but the most pervasive scent was the overpowering sweetness of freshly picked strawberries ripening in the sun. A euro for a crate of strawberries, a far cry from supermarket prices back in the states.

Next we went to the Plitvice Lakes, further west in the countryside, and stayed at a family-owned guesthouse near the waterfalls. Our first night the owner Ana made us a home-cooked Croatian meal:

Pork cooked in a sticky sweet and savory sauce, risotto with carrots and fresh parsley, cucumber and tomato salad, bread, and freshly-squeezed orange juice

After a long day of travel we literally licked our plates clean, the food was so good. It is a perfect example of how Croatian food fuses the different elements from it's neighboring cultures' culinary traditions: the meat-heavy diets of Hungary and Slovenia, the risotto a variation of a classic Italian dish using the root vegetables available, and the salad style Greek. Croatian food has it's own identity, to be sure, but one that draws upon the disparate dishes of the region.

From the lakes we traveled south to the coastal town of Split, famous for it's Diocletian ruins and Mediterranean port style. We ate dinner (at 10 at night of course) at a restaurant by the dock where the locals all sit drinking beer and wine from the bottle - Croatia has some great cheap wine. It was there that I ate the best calamari I've ever tasted - including Italy, yes - this calamari was tender and fresh, not too heavily breaded, not a bit of "rubber" chewiness that can result in overcooking, just the perfectly prepared, perfectly seasoned calamari that you can ever imagine.

From Split we continued to Dubrovnik, the gorgeous World Heritage Site at the southern-most tip of Croatia. In Dubrovnik we ate (following a recommendation) at the restaurant Nava, which is a tiny little place tucked on a narrow pedestrian side street in the old town, away from the more touristy main strip. They were about to close the restaurant when we arrived later in the night, but the kind older Croatian woman took one look at three hungry young women and said, "okay, I'll make you whatever you want."

So we ordered the seafood platter, which was a feast for kings. Fresh fish cooked whole, crustaceans tucked in between, it was delicious - the Croatian coast, of course, is famous for it's fresh seafood caught in the Adriatic, and rivals any upscale restaurant in the U.S., I'll wager.

Adriatic seafood platter with orata (?), mussels, jumbo shrimp, and squid

Our last Croatian meal was lunch in Zagreb on the return trip north, at a cheap cafe in the city center. The place had two options: the soup with meat or the soup with only vegetables, and for a few euros you got a massive bowl of steaming delectableness, served with bread to sop up every last bit:

Croatian soup with: sausage, lentils, beans (similar to chickpeas), carrots and various other root vegetables - possibly celeriac, cabbage, and spices drawing from Bulgarian flavors, which has a Turkish influence. A generous pat of creamy polenta in the middle, garnished with fresh cherry tomatoes and cheese, radicchio, and toasted pumpkin seeds for crunch.

I will try valiantly to recreate this soup when I return back to the States, but may never be able to achieve its perfection. Croatia is a place, for it's food, scenery, sights and people, that I will have to return to in my life. It is a glorious combination of it's surroundings, and yet entirely it's own.

Slovenian Supper

Slovenia may sound like an obscure place to visit, and perhaps it is. But the breathtaking mountains and green crystal streams and lakes are a wilderness lover's paradise - and the food isn't bad, either. My first experience with Slovenian food was breakfast: Slovenian coffee with milk (amazing), and a pastry that looked like a croissant, but tasted just like kolache dough! (Kolache is a Slovak pastry my family makes every year for the holidays, honoring the traditions of my grandfather's heritage, and it should come as no surprise that the pastries in neighboring Slovenia would be similar, but needless to say I was excited.)

After a day of hiking we stopped at a restaurant - recommended by a local - in the small town of Bled, by the scenic lake. The menu had everything from pork to poultry, goulash (a Hungarian-style stew), and fish. We went with the mixed grill, which I envisioned would be kebabs with grilled onions and peppers, perhaps, and instead out came a plate of ... meat.

Grilled sausages, pork, chicken, and a spicy ground beef mixture with onions that was incredible. Now I'm not a big meat eater, but this Slovenian meat platter was just too good to pass up. The condiments included spicy mustard and ajvar, an Eastern European sauce made from tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, served with meat and fish all throughout Slovenia and Croatia. Perfect compliments to the succulent, savory meats, and after a day in the mountains it could not have been better.

The other food that naturally we had to try was the cream cake that's famous in the Bled region. Light and airy cream cake, what more can I say? It was divine.

The Green Monster

To show some Boston pride, I've made some Green Monster pasta: pesto packed with all things green:

Pesto made with: peas, spinach, pistachios, parmesan, blended with basil-infused and spicy garlic oil 

Even spicier alternative: pesto of arugula, spinach, jalapeno, and walnuts

Fresh for Spring

When spring finally comes (in Boston it really popped this morning) it's time for quick, simple, light cooking. Here are some ideas I've done this April:

Teryaki salmon skewers with fresh pineapple, red bell pepper, and scallions

 

Cut salmon into chunks and veggies into large dice for grilling and marinate in a sesame-soy-ginger-teryaki mixture, then place on soaked skewers and grill.

 

 

Spring pea salad with walnuts and dates

 

 

Boil fresh peas and blanch snow peas and sugar snap peas so that they still retain a bright green color. Saute a medium shallot in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss the three types of peas with shallots, cayenne pepper, walnuts, slivered dates a drizzle of walnut oil.



Cava

Cava Mezze Grill is a more recent Bethesda restaurant addition that does "upscale fast food" right. A Mediterranean cafeteria, Mezze allows you to customize your meal with fresh, interesting ingredients - it's the antithesis to McDonalds in every way except for speed.

You start with a base: pita, bowl, mini pitas, salad, to start building your sandwich/wrap/etc.
Next you can choose from their tasty dips and spreads: hummus, eggplant & red pepper, tzatziki, roasted red pepper hummus, and "crazy feta."
Then you select your protein: chicken, grilled meatballs, lamb, beef, or falafel (which I chose, and they were crispy, used with fresh chickpeas for that lovely hint of green and amazing texture.)
Then you add your toppings: tomato and onion/cucumber salad, cabbage, feta, kalamata olives, diced cucumbers, basmati rice, fresh mint, lemon, pickled onions, etc.
and dressing: yogurt dill, lemon herb tahini, spicy harissa, and Greek vinaigrette.
Warning: I got some harissa on my salad (with falafel, roasted red pepper dip, feta, and lemon herb, the bright pop of green on top) and it is extremely spicy. I've had harissa in Morocco, and knew what to expect, but if you're not big on spice then taste it with caution. It's intense. Awesome, but admittedly intense.

Cava is a bit pricier than other quick lunch options, certainly more than a dollar menu or sub chain, but you get the quality you pay for. The portions are massive, the veggies are crisp and the dips authentic, and even though it's a quick-order line, the interior of the cafe is very cozy if you do want to stay rather than take it to go. A great choice for lunch with friends. 3 stars.