Travel the World with Eastant Series – Italy – 4

As everybody knows, Italy is famous for its “boot-like shape”; however, besides the peninsula, this amazing country has the fortune to also present two big islands: Sicily and Sardinia. Actually, it is difficult to decide which is the most beautiful… The crystalline water, white-sandy beaches and the glamorous nightlife of Sardinia, or the traditional houses, rocky wilderness and the historical sites of Sicily? This is the question. And, as for the more famous Hamlet query to be or not to be? it’s impossible to be answered. You need not worry, for each of these islands you visit, you’ll be never disappointed by the food! Sardinia Even if it’s an island, it is well-known for both it’s meat and the fish courses. The most iconic Sardinian dish is, perhaps, the Seafood Fregola with saffron. Fregola is a typical Sardinian pasta made of semolina and rolled into small balls, served with clams, prawns, crunchy bread and with a broth of saffron (for which the island is a major national producer). The saffron is a very precious spice of intense red color, used in many typical Sardinian dishes as well as in different Italian dishes in general (for instance, the previously mentioned Risotto alla Milanese from the Northern city of Milan is also called “Risotto allo zafferano”, id est risotto with saffron). The saffron – known as the “red gold“ of Sardinia – requires much time to be collected and dried, in order to give that unique and delicate taste. Another very typical dish – maybe the most famous one from Sardinia – is the suckling pig or Porcheddu.  It should be slowly cooked, with myrtle leaves for several hours, in order to make its meat tender. After consuming such a nice dinner, go to have fun in the numerous clubs: Porto Cervo and Porto Rotondo are the most researched destinations for fun and nightlife. We know you are a party rocking type, but we warmly suggest you not to conduct the life of vampire and to spend your the day time enjoying this amazing place. If you are a fan of the “tintarella” (sunbathing), you can get tanned very easily on some of the most seductive shores of the Mediterranean sea. Sicily Together with the other coastal areas of Southern Italy  (Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria), this magnificent island, homeland of the best citrus fruits in the country, represents the crib of the ancient Magna Grecia. History, culture and traditions can be felt at every corner of the Trinacrium (ancient name of the island, deriving from the Latin: “star with three points”), the biggest island in the Mediterranean basin, with a particular triangle-shape. If you are on holiday in this beautiful land, you can alternate chilling days on the beaches to visits to the ancient Greek temples – such as the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. One of the most outstanding examples of Greater Greek art, the Valleys proudly presents remains of seven temples, all in Doric style and its area has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in the year 1997. The same marvel, but for your stomach, is the traditional Sicilian food, especially: arancini, cannoli and cassata. Arancini are balls of saffron-flavored rice stuffed with meat, peas and tomato ragù sauce. This lovely final result has been achieved combining different populations’ cuisine styles, due to Sicily’s ancient history of colonization. Perhaps, the original arancini can be first traced to the Greeks, who introduced the cheese. Then the Arabs, who contributed the rice and saffron. Lastly, the French, who introduced the ragù sauce (from the French word ragout: a slow-cooked tomato stew). Cannoli and cassata are both sweets. The name of “cannoli” derives from the Italian word “canna”, “tube”, due to their particular shape-fried pastry, filled up with the enchanting cream made with sweet ricotta cheese and enriched with candied fruit and/or chocolate drops. Cassata has a shell of marzipan outside, with a fluffy, sponge cake inside, moistened with fruit juices or liqueur and layered with candied fruit and ricotta cheese, the same one used for filling the cannoli. Its origins are uncertain, but surely very old: it is said that it originated in the Sicilian city of Palermo, in the 10th century, which at that time was under Muslim rule. Actually, the Sicilian way of decorating cassata and, in general, of cooking food, so rich of colorful, with tasty and delicious ingredients, may reflect the ceramic Moorish heads, typical of this region: they consist of pots, cups or jars depicting a skinned woman and a man with distinctly North African features. These ceramics exquisitely decorate balconies and gardens of houses all over the island, which causes all photography aficionados instantly fall in love with them, but what is the story of this weird couple protagonist of the ceramics? There are a lot of variants of it; one of the most famous stories takes us back a few centuries, to the end of the Arabian period in Sicilian history and tells the tale of a Saracen merchant who fell in love with a beautiful local girl. They started a passionate and sensual love affair, until it was discovered that the man happened to be already married with children, who were awaiting his return to his homeland (A typical case of Latin Lover, or as we say in Italy farfallone). Blinded by jealously, she murdered the cheater during his sleep, cutting his head off and then using it as a vase to grow a beautiful basil plant. Our travel into Italian food and its traditions ends here. Thank you all whom left with us to the discovery of this beautiful land, from the mountainous and snowy cities in the North, passing through the green countryside in the Centre, to the hot maritime cities in the South and to the lush beaches of the islands. When speaking of stunning landscapes and food, Italy need not envy any other country: a place full of history, a hub of culture, populated by warm and nice citizens and, as we said at the very beginning of this series, homeland of the best cuisine in the entire universe.