Using Sicilian Etiquette and Culinary Knowledge in Sicily by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
One of the most enjoyable parts of my visit to Sicily was going to the i Ruderi Restaurant for Seafood in Acireale.
I used Alba Alotta’s La
Cucina Siciliana di Mare seafood cookbook to learn about regional
specialties. (There are 400 recipes in
this cookbook!) I felt confident about
ordering in restaurants, because I had also read Mary Tyler Simeti’s Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries
of Sicilian Food and Giuliano Bugialli’s Foods of Sicily and Sardinia and the Smaller Islands prior to my
Sicilian trip.
Researching Italian food before visiting is a good idea,
because Italian restaurants tend to offer what is fresh that day even if they
have a printed menu. The day’s offerings
are either presented orally or the restaurant guest says what they would like
and the waiter tells you what they have.
My reading of Italian cookbooks, particularly those of
Marcella Hazan and Claudia Roden, has taught me that the order of an Italian
meal follows this pattern typically:
-Aperitivo – hors d’oeuvre
-Aperitivo – hors d’oeuvre
-Primi – first course that is typically a pasta dish
-Secondi – meat, fish, or chicken
-Contorni – a vegetable dish that is served alongside the
secondi
The waiters spoke English, but they let me order in
Italian. The menu for our first meal
included:
-Aperitivi – Fried shrimp, arancini (deep fried cheese balls
with a ground rice crust), and caponata made from chopped vegetables like
eggplant and tomatoes served on toast with olive oil drizzled on it.
-Primi – Spaghetti with clams in white wine sauce, another
Sicilian specialty. This dish was served
on a large, deep serving platter with enough food for my husband and I to have
two helpings. I liked the Baroque serving
utensil, which was a pair of tongs with a flat, bottom size and a top side that
looked like a lyre.
Being able to swirl spaghetti on a flat plate with your fork
to eat it without the aid of a spoon is a skill like eating with
chopsticks. I am glad I have both
skills.
-Secondi – Next came a grilled fishplate made up of
swordfish fillet, shrimp, fish sausage, and a whole grilled fish that was the
catch of the day. (Swordfish is caught
off the shores of eastern Sicily, particularly at Syracuse. Tuna is the specialty of western
Sicily.) The waiter presented the seafood
and fish to us before filleting the whole fish for us. I squirted the fish with soft-skinned lemons
and thought I was queen for the day.
We drank a white wine called Inzolia with our meal. It was dry and fruity. It made me think of a wine that might grow in
volcanic soil made from centuries of lava and ash.
We ate lemon sorbet for dessert and ate homemade rolls to go
with the dressing on the arugula salad that came with the grilled fish. The bill for this meal was 60 Euros and
included a bottle of water. The meal was
memorable and encouraged us to come back.
I went through La
Cucina Siciliana di Mare looking for a different pasta dish to try at i
Ruderi. I thought spaghetti al sugo di gamberi looked good. This is shrimp with a sauce enriched by cooking
it with shrimp shells to give it punch.
When I asked for it, the waiter said they did not have
it. He suggested spaghetti with frutti
di mare (seafood pasta), and I readily accepted. This dish turned out to be a ritzy seafood
dish of scampi, crab, clams and small shrimp with an enriched sauce as well. The only other place where I have eaten such
succulent seafood is coastal South Carolina where I spent my summers as a
child.
We had the same grilled fish platter with Inzolia wine. The fish was excellent again. I Ruderi serves beautiful food in a beautiful
décor. The restaurant is large and has
room for small parties and groups. It
is a spot that is worth the visit, as my touring guide of Sicily would say.
i Ruderi
Via Madonna della Grazie 104
95024, Acireale, Sicily, Italy
A photo of the grilled seafood and fish dish is below.
A photo of the grilled seafood and fish dish is below.
By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Laurent Paget Photography |
Ruth Paget Selfie |