Author Archives: hungryenglishman

spezzatino aggrassato – sicilian beef stew

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Why cook for four if you can cook for eight? This seems to sum up the philosophy of home cooking in southern Italy in a nutshell. It’s all very stereotypical, I know, this image of the mamma slaving over a hot stove to produce gargantuan quantities of food for a ravenous family and any last-minute unexpected guests. A stereotype, maybe, but every time that unexpected guest was me, I’ve found it to be true. So, Continue Reading →

spaghetti con mosciame – spaghetti with dry-cured tuna

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No, before you ask, I am not a paid-up employee of the Tuna Marketing Board. Yes, I know, I posted a tuna recipe only last week, but that’s just a coincidence. Admittedly, with my love for tuna, let’s just say it was a coincidence waiting to happen. However, fishy coincidences aside, I’m sure you’re all wondering just what mosciame is. Quite a few Sicilians from this side of the island don’t know either, so you’re Continue Reading →

i ruggeri, messina

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As I mentioned the other day, we were having bad weather, at least officially. So even though it was a Friday evening, the bars and restaurants were pretty empty. Our chosen dinner venue, I Ruggeri, was no exception, despite being top of tripadvisor’s list of the city’s 414 restaurants. Of course, I feel I should mention that at least in Italy, tripadvisor’s definition of “restaurant” is pretty flexible. “Restaurant” no. 2, for example, is actually Continue Reading →

the skiver’s pizza – pizza da fannullone

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Urban Dictionary offers the following definition of skive: “Doing anything but that which you are supposed to be doing during a specific time frame, e.g., pretending to do something for which you are being paid, such as your job, but instead doing other things (like having a laugh, phoning your friends, hiding from your boss, surfing the internet, playing computer games, having a sly cigarette).” Ok, so I’ve done some, probably all of those things Continue Reading →

fresh tuna salad – insalata di tonno fresco

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What I really needed yesterday evening was a steaming, hot beef stew. But of course, that would have meant, amongst other things, planning slightly ahead, at least slightly enough ahead to slip to the butcher’s in the morning and stock up on stewing steak. Before you ask why, having missed my morning window of opportunity, I didn’t just buy some meat in the afternoon, I should tell you that butchers here only open in the Continue Reading →

sweets for the dead – ossa di morti

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Yesterday I was back at my favourite pasticceria, Scandaliato (http://passioneat.it/2013/12/dolce-natale-sweet-christmas/). The Italians say that “la qualità non ha prezzo” – you can’t put a price on quality. Let me set you straight on that one. You most definitely can, and it’s high. To try and make myself feel better, let’s just say it’s a price I’m prepared to pay. That, at least, is how I’m going to pitch it to my wife. And anyway, it’s Continue Reading →

sciusceddu

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Just for a change, we have a problem with names. My friend Caterina told me the dialect word sciusceddu comes from sciusciare (‘to blow’), in turn from the French souffler (courtesy of the Normans), deriving from the Latin subflare. She’s not alone in thinking this, but Giuseppe Coria, author of the iconic Profumi di Sicilia, the undisputed authority on Sicilian food, tells us that “there are various names for this dish, but the correct one Continue Reading →