続いてはシチリア、南イタリアの食事について。こちらもワイン同様旅の大きな目的の一つ。2回に分けて書いてみます。
It was written in the guidebook that the so-called “Italian cuisine” known in Japan often refers to that of the southern area, but I thought it was certainly true through this visit.
Antipasto Caprese
There were a lot of things, but this was it!
Caprese (Caprese, Insalata Caprese).
I love mozzarella, so I ate it almost every day, but the biggest difference is the mozzarella, the crunch and the taste, you have to be there to appreciate it.
Especially, the caprese I had in Campania (around Naples) and Calabria (around the shank of the Italian peninsula) was the best. Around Naples, the tomatoes are apparently mostly from Sorrento. Are they the ones with this jagged look?
Antipasto Carpaccio
I also tried the “Carpaccio”.
The so-called image of this dish is the tuna carpaccio I had at Tarmiona in Sicily.
It was fresh, but to be honest, it tasted better in Japan.
However, the octopus carpaccio, this was very good.
The octopus here is boiled and used. As for seafood, I think Sicily equivalent level is high.
Antipasto Tartine (Canapés)
It’s served before dinner like a snack with wine. It’s a basic service (though they do charge for it…), in short, an appetizer.
From a simple baguette topped with chopped tomatoes seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper, and basil, to a variety of stewed vegetables.
It was also very delicious wherever I ate it. It may be due to the high tension and different atmosphere during the trip, but the taste was completely different from when I ate the same thing in Japan.
Antipasto (other appetizers)
Other antipasti include “○-style appetizer” and “buffet of appetizers”. The content seems to vary greatly depending on the region and hotel. The one I had was
“Calabrian appetizer.”
This is a kind of ham and sausage platter. In Calabria, they often eat this kind of stuffing.
“Sicilian appetizer.”
It looks somewhat like the Calabrian style…
“Buffet appetizer.”
Is it mainly Sicilian that you can get? Well, it’s just a normal buffet (laughs). I guess it depends on the restaurant, but it was nothing special.
primo piatto (pasta)
In Italian cuisine, the course is a starter followed by pasta. It is synonymous with Italian cuisine. Of course, I had it almost every day. The typical and relatively common pasta that I liked and ate a lot was
Spaghetti with scallions (spaghetti con le vongole)
Linguine of prawns (linguine agli scampi)
Spaghetti with mussels (spaghetti con le cozze)
Fettuccine with mushrooms (fettuccine con funghi), another classic. It was delicious.
These are the standard long pasta dishes.
Of course, there are plenty of short pasta dishes.
Farfalle, shaped like a ribbon, is often seen in Japan. This is a farfalle con le vongole (farfalle of asari).
It was so delicious. The place where we had it was Milazzo in Sicily.
maniche, which we had on the second day, is a pasta that goes well with a rich meat-based sauce.
Maccheroni is so-called macaroni, but it’s thinner than what we imagine in Japan.
Orecchiette is a specialty pasta of Puglia, the heel & calf portion of the Italian peninsula. We had orecchiette with broccoli, a classic Alberobello dish.
But maybe the restaurant wasn’t good, the sauce was too thick and it wasn’t good…
And what is this pasta that I don’t understand? It was delicious, so I posted it.
Oh, and don’t forget the ravioli. The ravioli that I had in Palermo, Sicily had fish paste inside (salmon was the main ingredient?). The ravioli I had in Palermo, Sicily, had fish paste inside (mainly salmon?), and above all, the local ravioli was “big!
The sauce was a cream sauce made with lobster and was excellent. This restaurant was also a big hit.
Speaking of sauces, what I thought was delicious in southern Italy, especially Sicily, was sardine pasta sauce. The taste is rich and quite salty.
Sardine bucatini (bucatini con le Sarde) in Palermo
Very tasty. This pasta is probably bucatini? Still, the best was this one we had in Taormina.
It was the best thick type sauce with plenty of pine nuts. By the way, the thing on top is bread crumbs.
Sicily is one of the areas in Italy where seafood is particularly abundant and delicious, and there are pasta sauces that use sea urchin and karasumi, which are familiar to Japanese people. If you’re in a famous tourist area, you may even be able to understand this Japanese word (laughs)
I really wanted to try these as well, but there were several times when they didn’t serve them because they didn’t have fresh ingredients, so I ended up not being able to have them during my trip. I’ll have to try again next time.
Primo piatto (other than pasta)
Other than pasta, “rice-based”
Seafood risotto.
It doesn’t look great, but it tastes great. The rice itself is also delicious. The quality is very good.
And in Sicily, especially in the west, seafood couscous is also one of the most popular dishes.
I think this kind of couscous dish would be very popular in Japan.
secondo piatto main seafood
The first thing I saw everywhere that I thought was delicious & interesting was “fish soup (zuppa di pesce)”!
What’s interesting is that it’s a completely different concept from the French fish soup. While the French version (soupe de poisson) is made by straining the fish, the Italian version is made by boiling a lot of seafood directly with garlic and olive oil.
Naturally, you can also enjoy the seafood itself.
While some of the more authentic sauces, such as the following
Grilled.
Squid is really good!
Of course, you can grill fish.
And boiled = aquapazza,.
was the typical menu. I think it was exactly the Italian food that Japanese people imagine.
Dolce (dolce)
As for the dolce, we didn’t enjoy it very much this time, or rather we couldn’t afford it. I guess I’ll have to bring it back next time.
We ate gelato, tiramisu, and other standard dishes.
I had the impression that France was somehow better.
The gelato was as good as it gets, though.
Overall Impressions
出発前に当blogでも書いたのですが、
I have always questioned the “saltiness” of Italian food in Japan.
Many Italian restaurants in Japan are really salty. I also feel that many places use a lot of chili peppers and are spicy. What I realized during my tour of the most beautiful villages in France over the past few years is that European (French) food is not salty at all.
(Omitted)
I would love to visit the site and see for myself.
By experiencing the local cuisine first hand, you can also learn about the roots of the country’s cuisine. This is also like when you travel to Burgundy, Midi-Pyrenees, etc. to learn the roots of French cuisine.
結論は一部塩辛いものもありましたが「予想通り」でした。つまりそんなに塩辛くなかったということ。さらに日本よりも「胡椒を多用していない」ということも感じました。
そしてもうひとつ、これも7年前にイタリアへ行った時に感じたとおり、現地は「パスタ」そのものの種類の多いということ。
What was even more impressive was the fact that there was only one menu per pasta. It was quite different from the Japanese style where pasta is mostly spaghettini and the choice is sauce.
Off the top of my head.
spaghetti
linguine
fettucine.
bucatini (bucatini)
maccheroni
rigatoni
maniche
PENNE.
farfalle.
fusilli
cavatappi.
orecchiette
gnocchi
ravioli
Not all of them were available on the menu of one restaurant, but on average there were 4 to 6 kinds of pasta, and even in small restaurants there were about 3 kinds.
This is in stark contrast to Japan, where it’s all about the sauce.
私、日頃よりソースは種類豊富なのに肝心のパスタ自体は「スパゲッティーニ」なスタイルが嫌だったんです。だってスパゲッティーニって細すぎてパスタそのものの味わいがイマイチですから。
I wish there were more Italian restaurants like this in Tokyo, where you can freely choose from a wide variety of pasta like in the local area. It would definitely be more delicious and more fun.
もちろんまだまだ訪問不足、これからもイタリアへ行くたびに引き続き現地お食事調査を続けていきたいと思います。
