Sicilian Treats: Savory and Sweet

Prior to our trip to Italy, I did a bit of research on typical Sicilian foods and found out about some fried rice balls called arancini. These rice balls are generally filled with meat sauce, mozzarella, and peas, and then they're dipped in bread crumbs and fried. YUM!

Although we planned to cook most of our meals on a camp stove, arancini seemed like the perfect lunch on-the-go. Even before arriving in Sicily, Isaiah had a chance to try one out for lunch on our way to catch the ferry. (And subsequently, we ate them every day for like five days straight.)

Now, at this particular place, you pay for your items first at the cassa and then hand your receipt to the clerk behind the counter who reheats your food and hands it over. So, the problem is the name arancini comes from the Italian word for orange, arancia, because they look like oranges. Also, an orange drink is called an aranciata. And another thing, sometimes you'll see the plural word for this treat as "arancine" (feminine plural) or "arancini" (masculine plural) -- this place used the feminine plural, which really screwed me up because that makes the singular "arancina." When I ordered for us, the man at the cassa must have thought I said aranciata because the man behind the counter looked at my receipt and then look at me kind of funny.

"Allora, vuoi una aranciata?" (So, you want an orange drink?)

"No, no. Ho sbagliato..." (No, no. I made a mistake...) I say, eying the arancine.

Switching to English, "Eh, you want-uh a rice-uh ball-uh?"

"Yes! I want a rice ball, please!"

Arancino filled with mozzarella

By the way, another yummy fried treat we loved was the rizzuola (rizzuole is the plural form) we had in Corleone. Try it!

As for sweets, oh there weren't enough hours in a day to try all the yummy typical desserts of Sicily. We tried a cannolo, babá (a cake dipped in rum sauce), bigné (sweet ricotta cream puff), and diplomatico (another sweet ricotta pastry/cake).

Ricotta Cake

Pistachio Cake

The pistachio cake we had one lunch wasn't my favorite -- it tasted like too much pistachio. Luckily, many Sicilian desserts share a similar ingredient: ricotta. The ricotta cake shown above was the standout of the bunch we had a chance to try.