Eating and drinking
There are several delicacies to try in Siracusa that are made with local produce. Fresh tuna is for example, the basic ingredient of several Siracusa recipes, such as, for example “purpetti”, tuna-fish rissoles with eggs and Pecorino cheese, flavored with chiodi di garofano. Other dishes containing this tasty fish are salsiccia di tonno (tuna sausage) and tuna stew with onions and peppers. Fried porpoise fish in vinegar, grouper fish steaks cooked alla “matalotta” and polipo bollito (boiled octopus) are also typical of this area. First courses include many pasta recipes with fresh tuna and other types of fish, or maccheroni pasta with nuts, pine-nuts, olives and breadcrumbs, browned in the frying pan. Sauces for accompanying past are all based on the tasty Pachino cherry tomatoes.
Honey and almonds are the main ingredients for sweets in Siracusa, especially the “giuggiulena”, which is a delicious nougat flavored with sesame seeds. “Cassata siracusana” is also much appreciated. It is different from the Cassata made in the rest of Sicily as it has no icing topping and is made up of sponge, chocolate and ricotta cheese layers. There are many types of biscuits made by the confectioners for religious festivals: “biscotti dei morti” for All Saints’ Day, “quaresimali” (Lent biscuits) which are made with toasted almonds and pistachio nuts, and “cuccìa”, a dessert that is made for the Santa Lucia festival from wheat-germ, milk, ricotta cheese, zuccata and candied fruit. Almond milk or a Granita made with almonds are alternative sweets, both made with the almonds that are grown in Avola.
It is possible to try an excellent Nero d’Avola wine in all the restaurants in Siracusa. This wine is made from the top-quality grapes that come from Pachino, a town near Noto. An excellent dessert wine, especially for accompanying almond-flavored desserts, is Moscato di Siracusa, the oldest wine in Italy as it was the direct successor to “Pollio”, which dated back to the 7th century B.C.
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