I was able to spend one day in Catania before starting my wildflower tour on March 29. Staying on Via Aetnea near Villa Bellini (great area!) I was able to have a very good dinner and a great snack, between replacement my broken suitcase and cruising the park and nabe.
First, after snagging the new suitcase (lucky I was staying in a shopping area), I was famished and had a late lunch/snack at Pasticceria Savia, right across the street from my hotel. There was a row of several different beige arancini and I ordered the Catanese. for E2.50 I receive a lump of deep fried creamy porky rice deliciousness. Truly great. almost spoiled my dinner! I highly recommend this place! A couple days later I noticed that Katie Parla does, too!
Having cruised extensively I decided to give classic Slowfood pick Me Cumpari Turiddu a shot for dinner. They were able to find a small table for me, luckily, since they were very busy. https://www.mecumparituriddu.it/en/
These folks very consciously are presenting traditional and characteristic classic dishes of the local cuisine, all very tasty and well made and served with style. Maybe not quite as much heart and the mom and pops we ate at in Modica, Ragusa, etc in 2017 but very, very good. They led off with complementary appetizers a set of local breads which were explained by the waiter, along with some very good olives and marinated dried tomatoes, with more bread
My primo was one of their specialties, spaghetti alla Turiddu, which dresses the pasta with anchovies, tomatoes, herbs and toasted bread crumbs, quite mild
followed by involtini di spatola con verdurine alla stimpirata, delicately fried paddlefish rolls filled with lightly pickled vegetables, perfect.
At some point I decided to order fennel and orange salad, which I love, and to finish with a mandarin geli or gelatina, a resfreshing old fashioned sicilian dessert.
this did not excite me as much as the cinnamon geli I had in Modica a few years back but it was still a treat.
With a couple of glasses of very good wine and finishing with a cup of coffee the meal was 65E and well worth it to reclaim the sense of sicilian cooking I had gotten on our prior trip (2017)
The following morning I was able to visit the fish and vegetable market where there was wonderful seafood on display along with enticing items being sold from a simple grill.
Lots of good eating in this area, Im sure!
I headed off to the airport where i cooled my heels for 5 hours waiting for my tour group to arrive from England. the only good thing at the Catania airport was the coffee, be warned.
My group stayed at a country hotel called Feudo Bauly, an ancient walled estate located in the deep countryside outside Palazzuolo Acreide (near Noto). Beautiful country, Estate was owned by the family of a butcher and we had pork dishes pretty much every night. Their restaurant is open to non-residents only on weekends. Several interesting pasta dishes were served over the course of the week, but one night they offered Pasta alla Norma on request of a group member.
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