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Sicily Quotes

Browse 56 quotes about Sicily.

Sicily Quotes

“You'll find trattorie brimming with the spirit of Sicily no matter which direction you head from the Four Corners. At Zia Pina, you will find no menu at all, just Pina and her helpers cooking up great piles of stuffed sardines, baby octopus, and fried red mullet. At Trattoria Basile, you take your ticket and build your meal piece by piece: a few stuffed eggplant, a plate of spaghetti and clams, maybe a bit of grilled sausage.”

“The precept of Italian cooking is that the ingredient must always be respected and appreciated in its own right. Respect for ingredients is common to most Mediterranean cooking. It is also ancient, as can be seen by reading the Sicilian cookery writer Archestratus, who lived in the fourth century BC, when Sicily was part of the Greek empire. He writes: ‘Sauces of cheese or pickled herbs are added to inferior fish, but in general this cooking is not based on sauces, the preference being for the addition of oil and light herbs to the fish juices. Meats are prepared with equal simplicity. Ingredients are cooked with few flavourings.’ Such flavouring as there is comes from the beginning of the cooking, often in the form of a battuto or a soffritto, which together form the point of departure of most dishes. Many dishes from these northern regions are ‘slow food’, cooked at length to suit the long cold evenings by the fire.”

“Al sorgere del sole le ombre umide della notte si ritiravano dal le falde deserte, lasciandovi pennellate azzurre; le messi ristorate frusciavano e gli uccelli vi svolazzavano in cerca di cibo. Il cielo acquisiva profondità e diventava blu intenso. Poi sbiancava, incandescente. Il sole a picco dominava e folgorava ogni cosa, inesorabile. Gli uccelli, stanchi e accecati dalla luce sfavillante, si rifugiavano dietro le pietre; erbe e piante ai bordi dei sentieri tratteneva no i profumi e abbassavano le foglie arse. Le ombre assetate della sera - lunghe, nette, rosse - risvegliavano insetti, uccelli e odori campestri. Il sole tramontava dietro le colline in una fantasmagorìa di rosso, giallo, amaranto, violetto. Poi la calma.”