Sicilian Sweets and Where to Buy Them in Catania

Ahhh... i dolci siciliani... the Sicilian sure love their sweets!

The pasticcerie are everywhere and even small bars will have a selection of cakes and pastries to soothe your sweet tooth.  Many of the desserts are filled with ricotta, or made with almond paste. 

 

And then there's the selection of chocolate covered nuts, chocolate truffles, and chocolate covered candied fruit.

  

Since it was citrus season, we had the mandarini sorbetto at two different places and found them really refreshing and delicious.

  

Sicily is also famous for its granita, a semi-frozen dessert of sugar, water and flavoring.  The almond and pistacchio granita are my favorite.  To me, a good almond/pistacchio granita is where you can taste real crushed nuts in the granita.  No fake flavors for me!  I can never decide which to have so I usually ask for half and half of each flavor.  If only I had more time there, I'd surely have one of these every day.

  

On my last evening, I bought a selection of Sicilian cookies and pastries to share with colleagues at work.

  

And who can forget the famous Sicilian cannoli?  The ones that S picked up from the pasticceria I Dolci di Nonna Vicenza or Grandma Vicenza's Sweets in Catania were fantastic.  They have several locations but the branch at the airport in Catania is really convenient for travellers looking to bring home a local treat.  There was a line while waiting for them to bring in another fresh delivery of cannoli at 7pm - that's how fresh they are.  They pack it up for you to bring on the plane and some people were buying huge trays to take with them.

One might think, 'Pastries from the airport?  They can't be any good!'.   

  

But we, with the help of my colleagues, did a taste test with the pasta di mandorle, the ubiquitous Sicilian treat made of almond paste, bought from a few different bakeries.  The ones from Nonna Vicenza, bought from the airport, won hands down.  So do your friends and family a favor and bring home some of these treats the next time you're in Catania.

I Dolci di Nonna Vicenza

Catania Airport, past security, across from Gate 9

La Cambusa Del Capitano, Acitrezza, Sicily

This was the restaurant we ended up eating at our first night in Catania.  It was one that S had been to before, dieci anni fa (ten years ago) and it had been decent.

Only perhaps his tastes have changed since, or that the kitchen had deteriorated...

Anyway, in case you think that we always eat well whenever we go out, or that all restaurants here serve good food...

This is an example of when that is certainly not the case.

Our order of la pepate di cozze or mussels with pepper was a dissapointment.  The mussels were fresh but the broth or lack of was not that great.

We also ordered a serving of involtini di pesce spada or swordfish rolls, a Sicilian specialty.  The rolls were tiny, and came swimming in a dish of oil.  It certainly did not taste fresh, or barely even like fish for that matter.

We both ordered pasta.  I had a seafood spaghetti, and the pasta turned out to be non cotto or undercooked.  If there's one thing that makes a pasta dish inedible, it's the raw taste of undercooked pasta.  This was the first time this has ever happened to me, and as much as I tried I could not eat it.

S's pasta nero di seppia or pasta with squid ink was also slightly undercooked.

We certainly didn't stick around for dessert.  The last straw was the bill which was definitely not cheap even by Milan standards.  I had such high hopes for a good Sicilian seafood meal.  We should've been tipped off by the fact that the restaurant was practically empty on a Saturday night.

Noto, Sicily

After our late lunch, we decided to visit the town of Noto, which was also recommended by the restaurant owners.  But first we made a stop at a pasticceria in another small town in the middle of nowhere to pick up some chocolates that we had tasted at the restaurant.  That's how crazy we are when it comes to food but that's another story.

The roads through the country side were small and winding.  By the time we arrived in Noto it was dark.  But we were able to see the Baroque-style buildings all lit up. 

The old Noto was destroyed in a violent earthquake in 1693, and was then completely rebuilt from scratch in an almost entirely Baroque style.  We walked down the main street, Corso Vittoria Emanuele, from where we could see many of the crumbling Baroque palaces, churches and houses. 
 

 

The restoration of the Duomo was recently completed and stands grandly on top of staircase.  All the buildings were really grand and impressive.

 

At the time we were there, we were the only tourists around, probably because it was getting late and it was low season.  I didn't see anyone else with a camera.  The locals were definitely looking at us strange.

S recalled his last visit here with a colleague from Milan who was also there for work.  They decided to pay Noto a visit one evening after work.  Imagine the scene: two young clean cut men who were clearly from the North, strolling the streets of Noto.  They had fit the perfect image of two new carabinieri (a special branch of the armed forces with police functions) in town and the locals were all looking at them with suspicion and distrust.  This time around, we were feeling rather conspicuous, but probably nothing like S' last visit.