Sicilian Cooking

This class was a delight in many ways. The chef, Giovanna Bellia La Marca, was engaging and knowledgeable. We started off with the history of Sicily, the history of her cooking, and stories of her children and grandchildren. She, like many of the other chefs, has a cookbook called Sicilian Feasts. We cooked fried black olives, caponata, crostini with fresh tuna, a spinach pie, penne with cauliflower, sausage in wine, lemon chicken, and a fantastic dessert called cassata siciliana.
It was the the most relaxed class so far. There were not an overwhelming number of dishes to prep. We all got to walk around and watch the other dishes being prepped. The instruction was like your mom or grandmother teaching you. The big surprise was the scraps of dough left over from the spinach pie. She gathered them, rolled them out, cut them up, then fried them in a little oil. We then dipped them in leftover ricotta (sweetened for the cake with confectioners sugar) or leftover gravy (from the bottom of the roasting pan for the lemon chicken).

Of course I took many pictures. They are here.



The chef needs our help to find a utensil that she uses. Do you remember sprinkling water on clothes before ironing? She uses it to sprinkle wine. The only place she can find one is the Vermont Country Store ... unfortunately you have to pay for a bottle to go with it and it ends up costing $12. Let me know if you know where to find them.