A quintessential staple of summer in Sicily. Fried eggplants stewed on fresh tomatoes, garlic basil and a dash of vinegar. Totally awesome.

 A peasant dish and a star in the firmament of cucina povera or poor cuisine this simple dish of linguine with kahlrobi with a light sauce from tomato paste, garlic and peperoncino is not only delicious but very healthy. A prime example of Italian cuisine that is really the best exponent of the Mediterranean diet, considered the most salubrious of all. 

 A dish that screams summer. Spaghetti with pomodorini, fried zucchine and muddica atturrata or toasted bread crumbs. A symphony of flavors. 

 A quintessential Sicilian dish: pasta alla carrettiera or pasta eaten by carters on their lunch break. In this case I used spaghetti. It's a real simple and economical dish but more important it's very easy to make. It's like a classic aglio ed olio with added with ingredients found in the field such as parsley, wild fennel etc. . The dish is finished with incanestrato or classic Sicilian pecorino. This dish has evolved with many other additions but I prefer making it as original as possible.

This dish takes me back to last summer when I had planted so much basil that I was giving it away, The tomatoes were in season and the eggplants were locally grown. What isbetter than spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce, cubed eggplant and plenty of basil? This is a summer staple in Sicily. I was sort of preparing myself for our trip that we took at he end of the summer to avoid crowds. Of course the eggplants in Sicily are to die for but this dish was very satisfying.

  A simple dish that when done well is delicious. Linguine with fried zucchine. Just two cloves of garlic and an anchovy filet - naturally from Sciacca, Sicily - flavors the oil into which the al dente linguine are added and stirred. For this dish I sprinkled incanestrato cheese, or Sicilian pecorino that is sharper and more flavorful than the ubiquitous and rather pedestrian pecorino romano. The result was pure culinary poetry.