The Province of Palermo

 

 

Palermo was founded by the Phoenicians in the 8th century BC. The old name Panormus originates from the Greek language meaning “all port”.
Palermo is surrounded by mountains and by a green belt made of citrus trees, called La Conca D’oro (The Golden Valley) which stretches out to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where the deep harbor contributed to establish this city as a center for business and exchange, making Palermo one of the most important city’s in the Mediterranean Sea.
The city counts about 725,000 inhabitants and it is the capital of the Region.
Some famous sons of Palermo are: the chemist Stanislao Cannizzaro, the movie director Frank Capra (It’s a wonder-ful life), the writer Tommaso di Lampedusa (The Leopard), the painter Renato Gattuso and the statesman Vittorio Emanuele Orlando.
Palermo offers a myriad of gastronomic specialties.
At lunchtime, street vendors offer the arancine, rice balls, or sfincione, baked soft bread dough, covered with onions, cheese and tomatoes, or panelle, chickpea fritters or the vastedde. Among the appetizers to savor: the caponatina, eggplant salad, or cucuzza, squash sweet-sour, or caciu all’argin-tera, fried cheese with garlic, oregano and vinegar, or olive fritti (fried olives), with fresh oregano, or the frittella, a sweet and pungent combination of peas, fava beans, and artichokes.

 

Traditional homemade pasta dishes include: pasta con sarde, perciatelli  pasta with a sauce of fennel, fresh sardines, saffron, raisins, pinoli, or the anelletti col capoliato, baked ring shaped pasta with chop meat, light tomato sauce and cheeses, or pasta chi vrocculi, made with cauliflower, saffron, raisins, anchovies and pinoli, to name a few.
Among the main dishes - if you got any room left: the falsumagru, rolled veal stuffed with sausages, eggs, olives, pinoli, cheese, or the sardi a beccaficu, rolled fresh sardines stuffed with breadcrumbs, raisins, pine nuts (pinoli), herbs, spices, or polpo, in a salad or fried, or the bracioli, rolled beef in Marsala-orange sauce, or pesce muratu ( poached fish.) 

 

 

 

 

The selection of desserts is impressive!
To mention a few:  the cassata siciliana,a cake stuffed with ricotta, or cannoli or the famous gelati, ice cream, or i pezzetti, ice cream stuffed with ricotta cream and fruits, or minni di virgine, beignets with ricotta or the frutti di martorana, marzipan in the shape of fruits, or the gelo di mellone, a gelatin of watermelon, with chocolate chips, scented with cinnamon, or the iris, a light roll stuffed with a special cream and fried. And  to celebrate a particular holyday or a Saint : the sfinge of Saint Joseph, the biscuits of Saint Martin, the cuccia of Saint Lucy, cooked grain with ricotta or chocolate cream, the cucciddati with dry figs for Christmas, the petrafennula and mostaccioli.