Cucina Siciliana: The Island at the Crossroads

Sicily — the Mediterranean's largest island, ruled successively by Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish Aragonese, and Bourbons — has the most diverse culinary history of any Italian region. The Arab period (827–1072 CE) was the most transformative: Arab rule introduced to Sicily couscous, saffron, citrus, sugar cane, eggplant, almonds, raisins, pine nuts, and the sweet-sour (agrodolce) flavour philosophy that defines Sicilian cooking to this day. Sicily is the meeting point of Mediterranean, Arab, and European culinary traditions.

Sicilian cooking is built on the layering of conquests, and the most lasting layer is the Arab one, which ran from 827 to 1072 CE. Couscous, saffron, citrus, sugar cane, aubergine, almonds, raisins and pine nuts all arrived with Arab rule, together with the sweet-sour balance known as agrodolce. That balance runs through the island's cooking to this day, in the caponata of aubergine, celery and olives dressed with vinegar and sugar, and in the raisins and pine nuts that sweeten sardine and vegetable preparations. The Greeks, Romans, Normans, Spanish Aragonese and Bourbons each left their mark on the island's table. The Arab inheritance, however, supplied the island with much of its working pantry and its sense of proportion between sweet, sour and savoury. Sicily is therefore best understood as the meeting point of Mediterranean, Arab and European traditions, and its dishes show these origins side by side rather than blended into one. The defining techniques follow from this inheritance. Fish is steamed over a stew and served with couscous that is rolled and fluffed by hand. Sugar and vinegar are cooked together to dress fried or roasted vegetables. Nuts and dried fruit are folded into stuffings and sauces, and almonds are ground for pastes and confectionery. Citrus is used for its juice and its zest alike, in savoury cooking as readily as in sweet. A cook approaching the island's repertoire should treat the contrast of sweet and sour as the point where the dish lives or dies. Sugar that is not checked by vinegar, or acidity that is not softened by dried fruit, leaves the dish without the balance on which Sicilian cooking depends.