This is not a food blog but....

I love to eat and naturally to cook. Of course I tend to favor Italian food and especially Sicilian dishes although my taste is very catholic. These are dishes that are tasty, healthful and simple. However in order to reach this goal, one must find the best and freshest ingredients otherwise the results can be disappointing. Of course  when I'm in Sicily this task is very easy. Most of these dishes were  prepares stateside.  

Canazzu sicilianu, vegetable stew

 

Pasta con broccoli fritti, fried broccoli

Pasta con pomodorini e zucchine

Pasta riminata. it has mainly cauliflower but other ingredients

Pasta con salsa di pomodoro, tomato sauce. This was cooked in Sicily

Pasta, it's what's for dinner, naturally

This is what I just had for dinner here in Sicily. Pasta con pomodorini di Pachino. These are the famous cherry tomatoes grown exclusively in Pachino, on the southernmost point of Sicily. Of course calling these cherry tomatoes is like calling a bottle of 1961 Graves a bottle of wine or the 1927 Yankees a baseball team. These are absolutely exquisite. I bought them at the market that gets them as fresh as possible. The recipe is simple: saute some garlic, some anchovies, a little peperoncino, sea salt from nearby Trapani and cook. Then add the  al dente pasta to the tomatoes  and stir adding a few leaves of basil and a small clove of garlic cut up very small. Some prefer a good grated pecorino  on top. Here we have the best pecorino, the incanestrato  that has more flavor than the  very prosaic romano. Not surprising as everything is tastier and more intense in Sicily. As you can see, it was a large dish, perhaps for two people, but I had no problem putting it away. The wine? A glass of local white that I bought on sale in a supermarket for 1.85 Euro. A real bargain.