Cook 1 pound of thin macaroni in a large quantity of rapidly boiling salted water until just tender, and drain. Butter a baking dish or a deep pie dish, and put in it alternate layers of the macaroni and the fennel mixture. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and bake in a moderate oven (550' F.) for 30 minutes.
Risotto alla siciliarra is a toothsome version of this famous rice dish, built around eggplant, tomato, parsley and basil, topped off with a golden crust of grated cheese.
Risotto alla Siciliana
Peel a large eggplant, slice it thinly, and sauté the slices in olive oil until brown on both sides. Remove the eggplant and keep it warm. Add I tablespoon each of olive oil and butter to the pan. and in it saute I thin slice of salt pork and 1 small onion, both chopped, until the salt pork is crisp and the onion is browned. Add 1 cup each of tomato paste and water, and salt and pepper to taste, then cook slowly for 40 minutes. Remove 1 cup sauce from the pan and to the remaining sauce add 2 cups chicken Stock and 1 ½ cups rice. Bring the stock to a boil and simmer the rice for about 15 minutes, or until tender, adding a little more stock if necessary. Stir in ¼ cup butter.
In a buttered casserole put half the rice, then half the eggplant. Cover the eggplant with ¼ pound thinly sliced Mozzarella and pour over the cheese ½ cup of the tomato sauce. Repeat the layers, sprinkle with 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese mixed with I teaspoon chopped sweet basil, and bake in a hot oven (400° F.) for 15 minutes.
Marsala is served in any café, often from miniature casks, and it appears on restaurant menus in a sauce for tcaloppine or in a zrb aglione, two of its classic roles. Sometimes you will encounter a refreshing novelty, strawberries served with a sauce of Marsala and orange juice. The varied Moscatos are yours for the asking too, and make a worthy aperitif, especially the not-too-sweet one from Syracuse. The Zibibbo will prove cloying to many palates, but not the Malvasia from the Lipari Islands. Corvo, the handsome table wine from Casteldaceia, is one of the more heartening things about Sicilian meals, be it red or white. It is on every respectable wine list, and shouldn't be missed.
Sicilian fruit, of course, is everywhere you turn. Oranges. lemons, and tangerines are irrepressibly productive. Roadside fruit stands will display large oranges and baby ones. round and Oval ones, red and pinkish ones, and a flashing brunette called sanguina dloppia whose flesh verges on the purple-russet of Sicilian sunsets. A pompelo is a grapefruit. smaller than the ones we relish in America perhaps. but somewhat juicier. Table grapes ripen in the summer. and some arc delectable, particularly the chasselas dorato and the zibibbo, a long yellow grape with a muscat aroma, The Sicilian fig is easily appreciated. It is a local passion, whether dried or ripe.
Almond blossoms brighten the south Sicilian slopes in early spring, and later provide the foundation for many baroque sweets. Coated with a sugar cover the nuts are tossed about at ever)' wedding and subsequent christening. Pistachio nuts, some of the world's best, come from orchards near Catania, and lend their suave perfume to ices and galantines everywhere. Finally, there is the ancient, faithful olive tree which lays a grey-green rapestry over the less fertile areas of Sicily and forms the keystone of its cooking. Butter is a rarity. And the more deftly we sidestep the subject of Sicilian meat, particularly beef, the better. It doesn't make much difference to the average Sicilian family however, by a twist of gastronomic justice. They can't afford the stringy stuff anyway. Bread, pasta, greens and sweets keep them going. They devour purple-laced cauliflower and finoccbio by the cartload. They also have a country pizza of their own, a luxurious affair based on fresh ewe's milk cheese, seasoned with sausage, anchovy, tomato, olives and herbs, and calling (or a fine robust digestion.
The sea is moderately kind to Sicilians, bringing them plenty of sardines, octopus, shrimp, and eel, but rarely the bountiful netfuls common to the Adrifatic. The upper reaches of any Sicilian food shop are hung with twine-wrapped cylinders of cheese in multiple sizes. There are two principal types, both of which need a year of agihg up there in the rafters. One is Canestrato, made from ewe's milk. The Other is called Caciocavallo, a name which would seem to hide a horse, but it doesn't. It is not made from mare's milk, but from that of the forlorn Sicilian cow.