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Walking & Cooking in Eastern Sicily

Highlights: Dine in the home of Italian Connection's owners Anita & Emanuele, visit untouristed towns, cook genuine Sicilian pasta and breads, sample olive oil the moment it is pressed, walk our favorite pathways not found on maps, meet our Sicilian friends, indulge in a dinner with Sicily's top chef.

Welcome to our neighborhood, southeastern Sicily! Hosted by Italian Connection's owners, Anita and Emanuele, this walking and cooking tour focuses on the area where they have recently restored their home, the loveliest unspoiled part of Sicily. Learn to cook with genuine locally grown ingredients that are the heart and soul of Sicilian food. Experience Sicily from the inside, as we take you into the hidden corners of delightful untouristed towns, bring you on heavenly countryside walks we discovered through local farmers, and taste genuine Sicilian dishes prepared in the intimacy of home kitchens. Shop in the open air market with the locals, participate in cheese making and bread baking, and experience the warm hospitality of our Sicilian friends in our favorite pastry shops and trattorie. Our insider contacts and home base in Sicily make this idyllic walking and cooking tour absolutely unique in Sicily.

     Emanuele’s Kitchen

      Asparagus Risotto

 

 

 

Ingredients:

For the Vegetable Broth

2 qts. water

1 medium onion

1 large stalk of celery, cut into big chunks

1 carrot, cut into chunks

2 sprigs of fresh parsley

1 small tomato

1 small peeled potato

1 tsp salt

For the Risotto

½ lb wild or cultivated asparagus (weight after discarding tough ends)

1 medium onion

1 TB extra-virgin olive oil

1 oz. butter

2 ½ cups arborio or vialone nano rice (not instant!)

Freshly grated parmesan cheese

 

Preparation:

To make the vegetable broth, put all the ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, and let simmer for one hour.  Strain through a sieve and keep the broth in a flame-proof pot.

Cut off the tough ends of the asparagus and discard.  Wash the asparagus and cut off the tips at a 2-inch length, and separate the tips from the “stems”. Cut the “stems” into 2-inch pieces.

Heat the oil and butter in a low-sided pot over a medium flame, and sauté  the onion for a couple of minutes.  Add the asparagus “stems” and sauté another couple of minutes.  When onion is transparent, add the raw rice.  Mix and sauté the rice until it is well-coated with the oil-butter mixture and is opaque white in color.

Make sure your broth is simmering hot (if the broth is cold, the temperature of the rice will drop and it will not cook properly. ) Add a couple of ladles of broth to the rice mixture and stir, cooking over a medium flame.  Watch the pot carefully, stirring frequently, until the liquid is almost absorbed.  Continue to add more hot broth, repeating the stirring in the same fashion, for about 15-18 minutes. (Check the cooking time on your package of rice).  When the rice is almost done, add the asparagus tips, and cook for 5 minutes.  Shut off the flame, cover the pot and let sit for 2-3 minutes. 

If you like, you can now mix in some parmesan cheese, which will give the risotto a creamier texture.  Pass additional parmesan and top with freshly ground black pepper.  Serves 4.

Day One: Meet in the lively city of Catania, and head for the morning market, a raucous colorful affair with a fabulous array of fresh produce, where we choose the best for today's lunch. We meet a noted Sicilian cookbook author, who welcomes us into her home, where she teaches us to we cook Catania style dishes, with the vivid flavors of lemons and pistachios. After lunch we head to a little fishing village and walk along ancient lava-stone pathways through the town of Acireale, where lavish baroque buildings blend with the echoes of Greek mythology. Stop for a dessert tasting at our relative's home before returning to Catania. Early evening stroll through the beautiful piazza del Duomo to a tiny seafood restaurant, where the menu is based on the day's catch. We stay in stylish hotel in a restored palazzo in the center of town.

Day Two: Drive to the old-fashioned town of Militello, seemingly stopped in time, and visit the fascinating museum in the Cathedral's crypt, which Italian Connection's contributions have helped to restore. Wander through a landscape lush with orange groves and dotted with Byzantine caves, as our enthusiastic friend, Umberto, outlines the history of the town's feudal past. Head to a rustic farmhouse, once part of a huge landholding of the Sicilian aristocracy, where we are graciously greeted by the Contessa, who hosts us to a fabulous traditional lunch, with focaccia baked in a wood-fired oven. Continue to Ragusa, a delight of picturesque winding streets and sumptuous Baroque churches, and follow the hidden stairways of Emanuele's childhood, which eventually lead to our hotel. We stay 5 nights in a family-run inn in the historic center of Ragusa Ibla. Free night for dinner.

Day Three: Today we take a 6-mile walk along an ancient pathway, passing bright green pastures framed in hand-chiseled stone walls, and through a deep, mysterious canyon, the prehistoric home of the cave-dwelling Sikels. Stop at a friend's trattoria , where a feast of Ragusan specialties awaits us, from mustard greens to sweet ricotta fritters dusted with cinnamon. In the afternoon, we stroll through the lovely Baroque town of Modica, and taste the spicy Aztec-style chocolate, brought to the town by the Spanish rulers in the 16 th century. This evening we dine in our preferred ristorante with a unique menu of seasonal specialties.

Day Four: We dedicate today to learning about Ragusa's traditional cheeses, breads, and pasta, which are still made as they have been for hundreds of years. Taste the creamiest ricotta from the morning's milk, and learn how to make bread and pasta from the hard wheat flour grown on tiny organic farms. After lunching on our efforts, we take a seaside stroll before returning to Ragusa. This evening we sample several of Sicily's prestigious wines, including the classic Nero d'Avola variety, which is a perfect complement to our dinner.

Day Five: Head to the southeastern tip of Sicily, to the protected coastal oasis of Vendicari, Italy's most important stopping place for migratory birds, where the wetlands are graced by flamingoes and herons. Follow a 5-mile path used as a road by the ancient Greeks, with wild thyme and the magical mandrake plant blossoming above a turquoise sea. This extraordinary pristine coast is Italian Connection's favorite venue in their personal free time, and we are proud to take you there. Lunch in a fishing village, where the cook greets us as one of her family, and explains her authentic style of Sicilian cooking redolent with the aromatic flavors once brought by the Moors. Drive past almond and lemon groves to the town of Noto, built of soft golden stone that glows in the afternoon light, and visit the glorious cathedral, recently unveiled after an 11-year restoration. Gather in the kitchen of a pastry shop and learn how Noto's almond sweets are made, including the crunchy torrone . Return to Ragusa and free night for dinner.

Day Six: For a Sicilian, a walk in the countryside inevitably focuses on food, and we'll take you on a walk in the bucolic countryside surrounding our home, across the terraced fields of ancient olive and magnificent carob trees, where you learn to identify and gather edible wild greens, herbs, and flowers, such as borage, fennel and chard, and how to use them in easy recipes that are at the heart of traditional Sicilian cooking. We'll bring our finds to Emanuele in our home kitchen, and he'll cook us a risotto or pasta dish based on our finds. Lunch together overlooking our Mediterranean herb garden, with over 300 aromatic plants scenting the air. In the afternoon, we take an excursion to an olive oil press, and taste the fragrant extra-virgin olive oil as it is being produced (autumn only - in other seasons we will visit the home of a prize-winning olive oil producer, who lives down the street.) Tonight we direct our attention to Sicily's top chef, dining at his distinguished ristorante , where his creative use of traditional ingredients has earned 2 Michelin stars.

Day Seven: Pack up and say goodbye to Ragusa, and drive along hidden back roads to the highest hills of the Monti Iblei, and walk along a shepherd's path to the neviere , centuries-old stone huts for storing snow. These ingeniously designed structures were built by peasant farmers to supplement their meager income, as the snow and ice were sold to the noble families, who used it in the summer months for everything from sweet desserts to treating fevers. Our 4-mile path eventually leads to a small undiscovered town, were retirees play cards in the piazza, and to a little trattoria tucked into an alleyway. Here we meet the cook, a man whose culinary focus is on strictly traditional dishes, which vary with the season and are rarely found elsewhere on a restaurant menu. After our farewell cannoli, continue to the Catania airport, where we drop you off by 4.00 pm. Arrivederci!