9 Things We Ate Every Week While Living In Sicily
Whether you’re planning to move to Sicily or visit on holiday, you’re thinking about what you’ll be eating, right? And so you should. It is one of the most (if not the most) important facets of your visit to this island known for its food.
I’ll share what I typically ate every week while living in Sicily, as someone who wanted to eat as the locals do. Enjoy!
1. Pasta
Not exactly a surprise, I know. Italians really do eat quite a bit of pasta. It’s affordable and there are endless possibilities.
My husband and I probably ate pasta with our dinner 3 times a week. The local and in-season ingredients are incredibly delicious and easy to come across, so we stuck with these when making a pasta dish.
Tomatoes, eggplant, capers, anchovy, arugula, onion, olives, sardines, tuna, pancetta, parsley, and basil were constant staples in our kitchen. You can make at least a dozen different pasta dishes with those ingredients!
2. Gelato/Granita
When I vacation in Italy, I go hard on the gelato… and you should too. But living there, I had to tone it back a bit.
For a good chunk of the year, I probably had gelato twice a week. Our favorite gelateria would shut down from November to March, so gelato eating went down in the winter months.
In July and August, when it was very hot, we almost always chose granita over gelato. It’s lighter than gelato because it’s dairy-free and more refreshing when you’re looking for something to cool you down.
Gelato is Italian, but granita is deeply Sicilian. Two foods from Sicily make my eyes well up with tears when I think about them… one of them is granita.
Whenever we would go out for a quick breakfast in the summer, I usually had an almond granita and an espresso to pour over the top. Try it and thank me later.
“Gelato is Italian, but granita is deeply Sicilian. Two foods from Sicily make my eyes well up with tears when I think about them… one of them is granita.”
3. Bruschetta Lunch
When I needed to make myself a really quick lunch, bruschetta was it. We always had tomatoes and bread in the apartment, and if we didn’t, we could go across the street and pick them up in a jiffy.
Bruschetta is simply grilled bread topped with something. I often enjoyed it in the way it’s most commonly known.
Grilled slices of bread rubbed with garlic and brushed with olive oil. Diced tomatoes tossed with basil, olive oil and salt.
So simple and something that truly tastes best in Italy.
4. Involtini & Polpette
In Catania, you can find involtini and polpette in every butcher shop.
Involtini are small roll-ups of meat with different fillings. Most often made with pork, they may be filled with scamorza cheese and speck, or cream cheese and pistachios. There are usually many filling options available.
Polpette are meatballs, but the ones I usually ate in Catania were oval-shaped and covered with a lemon leaf.
Both involtini and polpette are typically bought uncooked and are meant to be grilled over charcoal.
They are great little meats to have with a meal!
5. Simple Salads
When you go to a market in Sicily, you’re immediately inspired to eat well! The vegetables are all so beautiful and affordable. It’s a salad lover’s heaven.
But when it comes to salads, Italians tend to keep it SUPER simple. They love just dressing some greens with olive oil, salt, and done!
For lunches, I loved adding some chickpeas or tuna to some greens, along with herbs, tomatoes, and onion. Mmm! Great lunch!
Really, all the ingredients that we often used for pasta, we also used for salads.
6. Seafood
My husband and I LOVE seafood. So when we moved to Sicily, we thought we would eat it all the time.
But in comparison to most other food, seafood was pretty expensive. Still, we could afford to treat ourselves usually once a week.
To pick out our weekly seafood treat, we would head to the famous Catania fish market, our neighborhood fish vendor or the guy outside our apartment selling his daily catch out of a truck.
For a special meal, we would choose swordfish or tuna. Both are super easy to prepare and mighty delicious.
The more affordable seafood options were small fish, like sardines and anchovies. Perfect for pasta!
7. Med Breakfast
Speaking of seafood…
It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I loved eating sardines for breakfast in Sicily!
A few mornings a week, I would prepare a very Mediterranean-looking plate.
It usually included canned sardines dressed with roasted tomatoes, sliced onion, parsley, capers, olive oil, and some grilled bread… YUM!
“Love for arancini is embedded in Sicilians. I once noticed an older Sicilian man watching me eat an arancino on a park bench. He had a soft smile on his face, delighted to see a foreigner enjoying this food that was close to his heart. ”
8. Tavola Calda
A huge part of daily life in a Sicilian city is just being out and about. You go out with friends, do your daily shopping and errands, and go for a passeggiata (stroll) in the evenings.
So when you’re out in the city and get a bit hungry and want something quick and cheap, it’s time for some tavola calda.
Tavola calda is essentially Sicily’s “fast food.” You can find these savory bites in any bar, usually in their own display case next to the sweet pastries.
In Sicily, the most common is arancini (fried rice balls), which have become pretty well-known in other parts of the world now. But of course, the best will always be in Sicily.
Love for arancini is embedded in Sicilians. I once noticed an older Sicilian man watching me eat an arancino on a park bench. He had a soft smile on his face, delighted to see a foreigner enjoying this food that was close to his heart.
Remember I said that the thought of two Sicilian foods brings me to tears. Granita and arancini.
Other common tavola calda are cipolline (pastry stuffed with onions and cheese), pizzette (small breads topped with tomato sauce and cheese), and Siciliani (fried dough pockets stuffed with cheese and anchovies).
9. Pizza
Where I’m from, pizza is labeled as junk food. But the pizza we ate every week in Catania was a gourmet experience.
During our first week living in Catania, my husband and I stumbled upon a pizzeria that became OUR pizzeria. We were very loyal customers.
Many pizzerias in Catania make pizza with dough that has been fermented for two days, making the final product rich in flavor and more digestible.
This pizza is certainly not junk food, but even healthy. Especially when the toppings are as local and high quality as the ones at our pizzeria.
Pizza is also incredibly affordable in Sicily. A margherita pizza is about €5. How could we not eat it every week?!
Those are some of the things we ate every week in Sicily. The food there is incredible! I miss it every day.
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in Sicily? Or what do you look forward to trying in the future? Leave a comment below!