Sicily Guide

Even more than they are concerned about the quality of various harvest years, large and small Israeli wineries devote a great deal of time to trying to understand how they can better succeed at exporting their wines. If there is a lesson to be learned by those wineries it is from the wineries on the island of Sicily, for in the past ten years Sicilian wines have become broadly accepted in the United States, the U.K. and even within France. Going a step further, it might be that the best lessons might be learned from Sicily’s family-owned Planeta winery whose high- and low-end wines are selling like proverbial hotcakes, even in our own little country.

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Somewhere along the line, Sicily’s signature dessert must have won an award for the unhealthiest dessert imaginable. Looking conspicuously like a clogged artery, the best cannoli here combine large amounts of cheese, sugar, eggs and … pork fat.

Crunch into a good one, however, with the flavors and textures of the crisp shell surrounding the filling of subtly sweetened fresh ricotta, and all those bad thoughts disappear quickly.

Read more at ChicagoTribune.com

Hurtling through hard-core Mafia territory -’Sicily’s chief sheriff, Falcone, was blown up just there,’ our driver says, reassuringly - we’re on a dual carriageway where Italians relish ignoring traffic lights, overtaking rules and most other road laws known to man. ‘Up there is where the Godfather was hiding all along,’ he continues, pointing. This isn’t a gangster tour, though; we’re not looking for trouble but for tomatoes - mighty fine tomatoes.

The tiny Sicilian village of Scoglitti is claimed to have the best conditions in the world for growing them. As we drive there Italian tomato expert Paolo Battistel explains: ‘It’s down to hot sun, high salinity in the soil and tradition.’ Although he’s from Verona in the less hairy north, Pizza Express has employed him as a ‘tommelier’ to seek out seasonal varieties for its menu. Think wine sommelier but a doyenne of tom toms instead.

Read more at Metro.co.uk

I am not generally a fan of Michelin-starred restaurants.

It’s not that I have a problem with the guide per se, more that satisfying the demands of a guidebook originally designed to tell haute-bourgeoisie French motor-ists where to find Parisian-style fine dining seems to do strange things to chefs, making them complicit in a production-line approach that, however upmarket, has more in common with the box-ticking of Pizza Hut or Starbucks than with good cooking.

Read more at Time Online

No, this is not the Corleone of movie fame, but the town of Corleone on the island of Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea at the toe of Italy.

Like many regions with a long history of wine production, Sicily is experiencing a renaissance under the guidance of dynamic producers such as the Pollara family, which is making exciting and intriguing wines.

Price $14.99

Read more at DallasNews.com

Rich with seafood, citrus, olives, and almond sweets, the cuisine of the sun-drenched island of Sicily reflects the influence of Greeks, Norman French, Tunisians, and Italians, among others. Unlike guidebooks that sweep Sicily into an overview of Italy, this latest addition to the award-winning Eat Smart series focuses solely on the cuisine of Sicily. Eat Smart in Sicily provides an historical overview of the peoples who have lived there and their contributions to Sicilian cuisine, with attention given to the fare distinct to the villages and urban centers of Sicily’s four regions. A helpful guide to Sicilian menus, with English translations of Italian (or Sicilian) words, makes ordering food in Sicily an easy and immediately rewarding experience. Highlighting regional recipe mainstays, Joan Peterson and Marcella Croce provide tips to shopping for traditional ingredients in Sicily and at home. The book also includes a comprehensive glossary of foods, kitchen utensils, and cooking methods to prepare authentic Sicilian specialties at home or abroad.

Joan Peterson is an experienced world traveler and the author of the EAT SMART guides to the food of Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Poland, Sicily, and Turkey. Each book has been designed for travelers and food lovers like her who want to navigate menu and market with confidence.

Marcella Croce was born in Palermo, Sicily, and is a journalist and author. For almost twenty years she has been a teacher and coordinator of Elderhostel Programs in Sicily organized by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Eat Smart in Sicily
How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market
Foods, & Embark on a Tasting Adventure
Joan Peterson and Marcella Croce
Illustrated by Susan Chwae

Published by Ginkgo Press
Distributed by the University of Wisconsin Press
Publication Date: June 15, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9776801-1-5 Paper, $13.95
160 pages

For more information on the Eat Smart series, visit:
http://www.ginkgopress.com/

If the last fifteen years of Italian wine have been a story of ever increasing success and recognition - and this is precisely what developments on the world’s quality markets confirm - a good deal of the credit must logically be given to the unique character and personality of the country’s grapes. Which are not the varieties planted, cultivated, and fermented in virtually every corner of the globe by now: Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, and Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon, to be true, can also be found in Italy and often give surprisingly good results, but they are anything but the main story.

Read more at Roman Forum

While the wines from Northeastern Italy conjure up some good memories, Sicily and Puglia hold some exciting new wine discoveries for David Crowley. He is especially pleased to have become acquainted with the Sicilian red grape nero d’avola, and primitivo, the Italian version of the zinfandel grape I enjoy from California. While red seems to be particularly well-suited to Italy’s warm southerly regions, I did also sample a good Sicilian white.

Discover the wines from Sicily and Puglia David Crowley likes at Gather.com

One of my favorite Sicilian reds… The wine: Planeta 2006 Cerasuolo di Vittoria, IGT Sicilia

The reason: This week’s wine is deliciously easy to like and thoroughly unlike any other wine I have tasted.

Cerasuolo di Vittoria is a distinctive wine made in south eastern Sicily, not far from those wonderful baroque towns Ragusa and Noto from the local Nero d’Avola, arguably Sicily’s best-known red wine grape, and the lower-acid Frappato.

Read more at Citywire.co.uk

Sicilian culture is intense, vibrant and colorful.

During my travels throughout Sicily this week, I realize that Sicilians are healthy because much of their culture revolves around healthful ingredients as well as the dinner table. Meals and snacks are combined with daily exercise such as walking or biking.

For the recipe, visit www.mcall.com

Tourism and golf are put together by the Wine Tour Cup 2008 this coming Sunday May 18. The Golf Club Picciolo in Castiglione di Sicilia will host the event. It is an important initiative to promote tourism in Sicily.

Almonds have been making headlines in the United States, with health benefits like lowering cholesterol and potential colon-cancer prevention coming to light. However, here in Sicily, the almond’s historic gateway to the Western world, the best minds are more interested in having something sweet. Here is an interesting article by Joe Ray.

Read more at Santa Fe New Mexican