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Siracusa, Sicily
I never got to tell you about Siracusa, Sicily, when I was staying there, and it was my home base for a week. I rented an apartment, what it is called a "holiday apartment," meaning no one lives there. It has been set up for travelers. I found it on the internet, then corresponded with the owner-manager a few times. He was so accommodating in answering all my questions, including measuring the shower so I would be sure I'd fit in – sometimes Italian showers have very small openings -- that I knew it was going to be fine. And it was. It was new and immaculately clean. It had a spacious bedroom with a very comfortable double bed, a smallish but totally adequate and very attractive bathroom, and a large living room/kitchen/dining area with a very comfortable sofa-bed, a dining table and four chairs, satellite TV (although only the BBC in English), and a kitchen equipped with cook-top, a combination microwave-convection oven and broiler, pots, pans, dishes … everything you might need for about $700 a week for three people. It was also in the best possible location, right in the heart of Ortigia, which is the most historic, interesting, and atmospheric part of Siracusa.
Ortigia is a small island connected to the mainland by two bridges that are so tiny you may not even notice you are crossing water when you walk over them. It is essentially the historic center of this medium-sized city, rebuilt in the Baroque style after the devastating earthquake of 1693 that destroyed most of southeastern Sicily. Its winding streets are narrow. Some are so tiny you can stretch out your arms and touch the buildings on both sides. There are times when Ortigia is closed to cars, except those owned by people who live there. It has many restaurants, plus some cafes, wine bars, pastry shops, and pizzerias. Although it is the touristic center of the city, Siracusans live there, and there are businesses that cater to locals. We have a young friend, the son of Iris' sister-in-law and brother-in-law, who aspires to live in Ortigia rather than in one of the modern apartment buildings he grew up in and that dominate most of the city.
But Ortigia is expensive. There is restoration work going on everywhere. When I first went to Siracusa 22 years ago, Ortigia was in ruin, literally falling down. Now it is a model of what can be done with Italian taste, money, and artisan labor. Yes, labor. Sicilians themselves admit that they are not hard workers – "Why would anyone want to wake up in the morning and go to work," one of our cab drivers said – but the construction crews in Ortigia seemed to be hammering, banging, and building 12 hours a day, even through the usually sacrosanct lunch hours.
Iris used to live in Siracusa when she was a young wife and mother, so we got to visit it in a way most people don't. Her former husband, Renato, is from Siracusa, and he lives there now. Her 27-year-old son, Joe Miceli, who now lives in Vilnius, Lithuania (don't ask), was born there, and considers Siracusa his "hometown," although he spent most of his youth in Manhattan. Besides her former in-laws, including Renato, who Bob Harned and I know from when he lived in New York and he and Iris were still married, we met some of Iris' old friends. Her dearest, Etel (short for Concetella, which is how I prefer to call her since I can never put the accent in the right place on Etel … "Pronounce it as if it was Yiddish," Iris kept saying) joined us for a few meals and walks. I love Etel. We also bumped into old acquaintances on the street. And we ate at, among other places operated by Iris' acquaintances, La Trattoria La Foglia, a well-known restaurant owned by her friends Nicoletta and her artist husband, Beppe.
Nicoletta's food is delicious – truly top-level home cooking -- although I have to say the restaurant is more expensive than most in Ortigia. The conceit is that you are eating in someone's home. Courtesy of their adult daughter, Luciana, the tables are set with vintage crotched cloths, a wild mix of old china and glasses, and the room is full of many chotchkas – too many chotchkas. But then, there are also Beppe's elegant sculptures and paintings to offset the kitsch.
But I'll get to the restaurants at the end of this letter. In Siracusa, there is much more to do than eat. Plus it was our base for visiting Modica, Ragusa, and Noto, cities in the province of Siracusa that I told you about in previous letters.
At the very southern tip of Ortigia is a castle built by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in the first half of the 1200s. Because it was at one time mistakenly thought to have been built by Giorgio Maniace, an 11th century Byzantine general who conquered Sicily from the Arabs, it is called Castello Maniace. Iris said it was never open in all the years she lived in Siracusa, but it is now restored enough for visitors, and it is really something to see. There is a grand, impossibly high, arched hall where Frederick would receive emissaries from around the then-known world. Its grandness must have impressed the foreigners, which was the idea. It is awesome, in the true sense of the word.
Outside, facing the sea, the castle has parapets where cannons were placed to defend it. It offers a beautiful view of the sea and the city. What especially fascinated me was that you could tell where there once were curved walls around each cannon post because the spring weeds that were coming up outlined the walls' now-leveled foundations. After more than 700 years, the plants hugged old stone you couldn't see because, of course, the stone just beneath the surface retains the warmth of the spring sun.
Moving on, the Duomo in Siracusa, meaning the main cathedral, was, as many churches and cathedrals are, built on top of Greek and Roman temples. Some of the Baroque decorations have been striped away in this cathedral so you can see the massive early 5th century BC columns of the original Greek temple of Athena.
By the bridges of Ortigia is the Temple of Apollo, ruins from the 7th century BC. In the modern city, the archaeological museum – called Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi -- is one of the most important in the world, housing Greek and Roman artifacts for all over the area. As all of southern Italy was Magna Grecia, Greater Greece we would say in English, and Siracusa was the most important Greek city outside of Athens – some say even surpassing Athens – the museum is bursting with gorgeous things. It is a modern museum, too, with all the descriptive information in both Italian and English.
Siracusa was, as much of Sicily was, a haven for Jews and Muslims in the Middle Ages. Frederick II is known for his ecumenism. He relished his Muslim and Jewish subjects. His attitude angered the several popes who reigned during his reign, and they excommunicated him more than once, even though he held the title Holy Roman Emperor. However, there is a revisionist theory about Frederick. It's that he wasn't so much a paragon of tolerance as he was a clever politician and ruler. He wanted to keep peace. He wanted to retain the knowledge and services of his Jewish and Islamic people, who were important at court for various reasons and services. So both the Muslims and Jews have left their stamp on Siracusa and Sicily in general. There is, in fact, an old Jewish quarter, and within it, under what is now a beautiful modern residential hotel, there is a mikvah, a ritual Jewish bath from the 6th century AD Byzantine period. It is to a mikvah that Jewish women come to be cleansed after their menstrual period. And it is where one might go to be cleansed when one converts to Judaism. Just the other night, I watched a re-run of Sex and The City in which Charlotte, the uber-Episcopalian character, goes to the mikvah because she is converting to Judaism so she can marry her Jewish fiancé.
There are many Sicilian foods that can be traced to the Jews and the Arabs. Just to cite the most important, the Arabs introduced dried pasta to Italy. Don't take heed of the story about Marco Polo discovering it in China. Ain't so, although MP certainly saw pasta in China. And Sicily's tradition of sweets is an Arab legacy. Just to give one example: In Sicily, cloistered nuns often made sweets that they sold to support themselves. This tradition supposedly comes from the Arab harem, the cloistered Muslim women who would spend their days preparing sweets.
Most to the point: There are some wonderful pastry shops in Siracusa. Right on the main piazza of Ortigia, for instance, is a store called Le Antiche Siracuse. It combines a pastry shop with a wine store that also sells gift-packaged grocery items, such as olive oil, fruit jams and marmalades and the many kinds of pesto and sauces that Italians now put in jars to sell to tourists. Not that I am putting this down. Some of them are worth carrying home. And behind the pastry shop is a gift shop and book store with many things you will want but don't need.
The pastry section of the store is actually a concession of Corsino, a famous bakery ("since 1889") that has a couple of other locations. You name the Sicilian pastry or cookie, they have it, including frutta Martorana, the life-like fruits made from almond paste; cotognata, molded quince paste; dolce al pinolo, the pine nut and almond paste cookies that are so popular here in New York metro, and a pistachio version of those. Their cannoli are among the very best I've eaten, and they are stuffed only when you buy one, as it should be. Stuffing the ricotta cream into the crisp shell ahead of time makes the shell soggy. In fact, at Spinnato, the famous pasticceria-caffe in Palermo, they sell chocolate-lined cannoli for that very reason. You can get a plain one freshly filled, but if you want to take some home, they put them in the shells that are protected from the moisture of the ricotta cream by a thin interior layer of chocolate.
I don't actually like sweets in the morning, so while Bob and Iris were devouring fried donuts filled with pastry cream, cornetti (Italian croissants) filled with cream or marmalade or almond paste, or whatever, I went for the bakery's version of scaccia, a specialty of nearby Modica that I wrote about previously. These are not quite as good as the best I ate in Modica, but they give you a good idea about this savory pastry – thin pasta-like dough (although it contains a little yeast) spiraled around a savory filling. I can always enjoy tomato and cheese, but at Le Antiche Siracuse they had a stand-out version filled with parsley. Yes, all parsley. There are tables to enjoy your food and drink, too. Actually, I loved this place so much I wanted to move in.
Another great café where you can settle down for awhile is Antico Caffe Minerva, directly across the street from the very nice Hotel Roma on Via Roma, Ortigia's main street. Minerva doesn't have great pastry – it's okay – but it does have great gelato, and outdoor seating just down the street from the Duomo where you can sip some refreshment. The charming wife of the husband-wife owners is a Sicilian woman who grew up in Australia, so she speaks perfect English. Her name is Tina. His name is Tino. "Don't say a word," she said when she introduced herself. Besides being very welcoming and having great gelati, Tina sells some antique ceramics – the big platters that are used to sun-dry tomato paste, and the small molds that are used to form quince paste and grape juice (must) that is boiled down to a rubbery consistency. I was able to buy these at a better price from a vendor on the street, near the food market, which is just over the bridges of Ortigia, but Tina's prices are not really out of line, and the vendor seems to come and go.
There's no view to speak of from the street-side seating at Minerva, although the people-watching is good. If you want the best backdrop for your coffee or whatever, try one of the cafés across from the Duomo.
About restaurants:
My best meal in Siracusa was at a very unprepossessing wine bar, Gazza Ladra, where the owner and his wife do the cooking at the back of their small space. With the kitchen open to the room, you can watch them cook if you like. I like. As they are old friends of Iris, they also spent some time with me sharing recipes. I have yet to work out the tuna and Marsala sauce for pasta, but I have already made the bean soup traditionally prepared for St. Joseph's Day, March 19, which is early spring in Sicily. We happen to be there just the week before. The idea is to use up all the dried beans, peas, and lentils – plus dried chestnuts -- you have left from the winter, and combine them with the greens that are just coming up from the recently warmed earth. These would include chicory and what we call dandelion but Sicilians lump with chicory, borage, whose purple flowers you see everywhere, making it very easy to find, and, most importantly, wild fennel, which I also wrote about in a previous newsletter (see the Maven's Diary on my website if you'd like to refresh your memory). Spinach will do; however.
St. Joseph's Day happened to be the first day of my Cook at Seliano session in Paestum, so besides starting the day with freshly fried zeppole di San Giuseppe – in New York lingo we'd call them custard filled French crullers with a sour cherry on top – we ended the day with this bean soup. In New York, last week, without the essential wild fennel, I used fennel seed, and it was – if I say so myself – very delicious.
Following are the essential details on some restaurants, cafes and pastry shops in Siracusa. Eventually, these will be listed in my guide to restaurants in Italy on my website (right now there are only lists for Naples and Rome), but they will also be archived here, in the Maven's Diary.
Osteria La Gazza Ladra
Via Cavour,8 (adjacent to Piazza Archimede)
Cell: 340-0602428
Closed Mondays
This is more a wine bar than a restaurant, but you can have a wonderful platter of cold cuts and cheese with your wine, or choose truly homemade food from the brief daily and very seasonal menu. I wouldn't miss this place. I gathered a few recipes here because everything was so good, and so local, but not clichéd. Tell them Schwartz – Iris Carulli's friend – sent you.
La Foglia
Vegetarian and Mediterranean Cuisine
Via Capodieci, 29
Tel. 0931-66233
E-mail: trattoria@lafoglia.it
Website: www.lafoglia.it
This is a well-known restaurant where the food is of the highest homemade quality, but the prices are high, too. Decorated with abandon – to put it politely – it is meant to seem like you are dining in a private home. It's a good place to try the Siracusan fish soup/stew – matalotta. (See reference in the text above.)
Le Antiche Siracuse
Via della Maestranza, 2
Tel. and Fax 0931-875035
E-mail: corsino@corsino.it
Cafes don't get more stylish. On the main square, Piazza Archimede, of the historic heart of the city, Ortigia, the upfront pasticceria-café is backed by a wine and fancy food shop, and a gift shop with ceramics and other things you probably don't need but will want. The bakery is actually an outpost of Corsino, a famous pasticceria with several other locations in Sicily. You can't beat the pastries here, including the superb cannoli, filled at the moment you order it so the crisp shell doesn't get soggy. I also loved the savory pastries in the morning, not to mention the cornetti (Italian croissant) filled with almond paste, or marmalade, or custard.
Antico Caffe Minerva (since 1921)
Via Minerva 15/19, at the corner of Via Roma 56/60
Tel: 0931-22606
We fell in love with this stylish place and its owners, Tina and Tino, she being a Sicilian who grew up in Australia (and therefore speaks perfect English), he being more or less local. The café design is totally contemporary, despite its 80-year-old history, and the gelati are superb. Don't miss the intense pistachio. You always know when this flavor is good if the color is an ugly brownish grey-green, not really green. The drinks and service are wonderful, too, but not so the morning pastries. A small outdoor seating area is a very pleasant place to sit, and quiet although on the corner of a main street and down the block from the Duomo.
Castello Fiorentino
Via del Crocifisso, 6 (cross street is via Roma)
Tel. 0931-21097
Cell: 0338-2963766
I notice people here – mainly locals – eating things other than pizza, but this is really a pizzeria, and perhaps the most popular in Ortigia. The clientele is young and hip, sometimes singles groups, sometimes young families. The staff really hustles and is charming at the same time. The pizza is fantastic. We came here several nights, as it was hard to eat a big dinner after having eaten a huge lunch. My favorite pizza was called Bella Donna, which is a tomato and cheese pie topped with crumbled sausage, chunks of roasted potato, and a little rosemary. I observed that the most popular around the room, however, was Capriccioso, which has a half-dozen things on it, including a hard-boiled egg. There are often groups waiting outside for a table – no reservations – but the wait can go quickly – ask inside, they'll give a good estimate – and the pizza is worth a little wait.
Ristorante L'Ancora
Via G. Perno, 7
Tel. 0931-462369
Website: www.ristoranteancora.com
Near the bus station, across the bridge, this isn't the kind of place that tourists usually find. I was taken here by Iris's friend Etel, who is strictly local. L'Ancora means The Anchor and seafood is what you eat here. There may be some meat on the menu, but I wasn't aware of it. Certainly, there are vegetables, and pastas. We started with seafood antipasti, all served family style on big platters. These included tiny raw red shrimp in a salad with oranges, spring onions, parsley and olive oil (perhaps my favorite item on the table); raw fresh anchovies dressed with hot red pepper flakes, parsley and olive oil; snails in a tomato-basil sauce; small clams cooked with garlic, parsley, and a bit of white wine, and razor clams prepared the same way. The house pasta – Spaghetti all'Ancora – is with fresh anchovies, mint, sun-dried tomatoes, and breadcrumbs. House-made macaroni comes with shrimp and clams in a tomato-based sauce made creamy with ground pistachios, which are very popular all over Sicily, as they are grown on the island. Another pasta dish worth recommending because it is so good and so local is with the Siracusan pesto of chopped fresh tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts and garlic. This appears to be a very simple restaurant. It's not much to look at. But it has a chef who really cares, buys the top-top quality seafood, and is, of course, very skilled. He comes around to the tables to say hello and make sure you like his food.
Ristorante "Minosse"
Via Mirabella, 6 (cross street is Corso Matteotti)
Tel. 0931-66366
E-mail: ilristoranteminosse@tin.it
Closed Mondays
I am listing this restaurant, but not necessarily recommending it. I did not get to it on my last trip, and I haven't eaten here in many years. But I liked it years ago, and it seems to be unchanged, except that then Ortigia was in ruin and the restaurant drew locals. Now it is a tourist destination. It is a bit pricey, but it is also more refined than most restaurants in the area.
Al Mazar`i
Mediterranean Cuisine
Via G. Torres, 7/9
Tel. 0931-483690
Cell: 328-7751149
I did not get to eat here, but I kept wanting to. It looked charming. I spoke to the owners, a family, who are from Trapani, on the west coast of Sicily, and they were charming. The restaurant serves cous cous with seafood, a specialty of their hometown. (There is a north African cous cous and kebab house near the food market, but that cous cous is different.)
Osteria da Mariano
Vicolo Zuccola, 9
Tel. 0931-67444
E-mail: info@osteriadamariano.it
Website: www.osteriadamariano.it
The specialties are supposedly from the Monti Iblei, the low hills that surround Siracusa on its land side. The place is very attractive, especially the sky-lighted back room where we ate lunch while the sun shown, and the servers are friendly and well-informed about the menu, too. (I don't remember if they speak English.) Unfortunately, our meal was a mixed bag. We liked most of the house antipasto, except for the overly sweet caponata. I liked the unctuous penne with an almond and ricotta cream sauce with both basil and mint. And I enjoyed the spaghetti with pesto of sundried tomatoes and capers – a Siracusan specialty. A plate of rabbit was terribly dry but had a delicious sauce, also typical, with olives, capers, and tomatoes. Still, I'd go back and try more.
