It’s September and your favourite freelance writer finds himself in Sicily.
I’m staying in Palermo with Carlita and Beppe, two of my best friends. You can find their stunning home in Carini, a suburb, on the outskirts of the city.
The house is wrapped in beautiful ceramic tiles and solid wooden doors. Antique furniture sits comfortably alongside modern designer pieces and at the front of the property, two gates stand level with a six foot hedge. Once through the gates, your eyes are greeted with the sight of five white arches that appear to rise effortlessly from the patio and dominate the house’s façade.
Walk through the large kitchen door and you are greeted by a symphony of stainless steel and shiny surfaces. To my left, a solid wood table and underneath it I find Asia, the family dog, surreptitiously hiding from her owners.
Here, as in many houses, the kitchen is the heart of the home.
Couples meet round the table to dine and discuss the day’s events. Arguments are started and finished, advice is dispensed and hope is handed back.
This being an Italian kitchen, one finds an unfeasibly large fridge (to my right) packed full of the freshest local produce. Mouth watering meats and cheeses, rest alongside sweet, sunshine filled tomatoes and fruit bursting with summer goodness. Like the true Sicilian he is, Beppe is passionate about the quality of food he puts on his table.
As night falls, my hosts ply me with food. Seafood to be precise, freshly plundered from the sea surrounding the city.
We feast well.
Naturally salty Oysters glisten in their shells and are greedily consumed with acidic yet fragrant lime juice.
This is quickly followed by freshly caught Mussels cooked with olive oil, garlic and long stemmed Italian Parsley. (Unlike its rambunctious, British counterpart, Italian Parsley is a light, delicate herb, able to lift the flavour of the food it graces.)
However, the star of the evening was the ‘Pesce’, or fish dish. The freshly caught Sgambro, (an intensely flavoured oily fish), reminded me of both Mackerel and Ilish (a fish found in the oceans off the Indian subcontinent).
Beppe slow cooks this marvel of the seas, in a reduction of sweet tomatoes and 2 cartons of grape juice, garlic, salt and olive oil. As the sauce becomes ever more concentrated in the pan, something magical happens to the grape juice. It combines with the tomato to produce an almost honey like taste, creating a real depth of flavour. The perfect accompaniment to the Sjambro’s unctuous character.
Carlita introduces me to a very grown up soft drink: Bitter Analcolico.
This bitter drink comes in three flavours; red, white and orange and has an herby taste reminiscent of iron-bru, but without all the sugar; or, martini without the alcohol. You probably won’t like the first mouthful, but by the third, you’ll be hooked.
As expected, I’m being force fed by my hosts. (Italians and Indians are notorious for this.) Unfortunately, my stomach is far too ready to accept their hospitality. I feel like a goose being prepared for fois gras.
I’ve often thought that if I was richer, I’d be fat. I would buy all manner of foods and submerge myself in their flavours, like the hedonistic glutton I know myself to be.
If I were richer still, I would hire a personal fitness trainer to rouse me from my over indulgence and goad me into shape.
And if I were really rich, I would outsource the exercise and let someone else do it for me. Must ask someone really rich, how that last option works.
Happily, my hosts are now convinced that I cannot possibly eat another bite and with a ballooning waistline, I am sent to bed.
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The hustle and bustle of the morning greets my ears and rouses me from a deep slumber. Buses and trucks trundle by and industrious Sicilians make their way to work.
It being late summer, the sun drenches you in light – even at 6 o’clock in the morning, whilst the cloudless sky promises a hot day and a balmy night.
As I stumble out onto the balcony, blinking my eyes, I am struck by Carini’s incredible natural beauty.
To my left, a sparkling sea catches my breath with its rich, sapphire colouring. To my right, a tree lined mountain takes the eye ever upward. And all around me, I see lush palms and plump cacti thriving in the gardens below.
I feel both humbled and incredibly lucky, to wake up to this, a Sicilian paradise.
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