THE WONDERS OF LOCAL CUISINE, The Wonders Of Local Cuisine

Hi, my name’s Scott, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to the wonderful flavors of Palermo.

The best-known specialties in Palermo come from the street food tradition, such as panino con la milza, a sandwich with slices of calf’s spleen and lung fried in lard; you’ll find it schiettu, plain, or maritatu, with the addition of slivers of caciocavallo cheese or ricotta. Other delicacies include panelle, savory fritters made with chickpea flour, and crocchè, fried potato croquettes sometimes sold in a sandwich. And then of course there are the arancine, breaded and fried balls of rice, filled with meat sauce, peas and caciocavallo cheese, or with cubed ham and melted mozzarella.

A tasty typical lunch might begin with traditional local starters such as caponata, fried pieces of eggplant cooked in a sweet and sour tomato sauce with celery, capers, onion and crushed green olives. You can also try mussu and carcagnòlu, boiled beef offal seasoned with lemon, or a salad with oranges and sardines. Mussu and carcagnòlu are more common as street food, which you’ll find in food stalls scattered around the city, mainly in the Old Town and the working-class neighborhoods.

As for first courses, the characteristic anelletti al forno is well worth trying; it’s a sort of ring-shaped pasta with a sauce made of chopped meat, tomatoes and peas which is baked. Another common dish is pasta con le sarde, spaghetti with sardines, pine-nuts and wild fennel. If you’d like something vegetarian, I can recommend pasta chî vròcculi arriminàti, with cauliflower, pine-nuts, raisins and breadcrumbs....