Sicilian

The Strait of Messina is a rich source for swordfish, which the Sicilians prepare in many ways. Here it is at its simplest: grilled and served with salmoriglio sauce. (In Sicilian, it is sammurigghiu sauce.) The words means "brine", a translation that does not convey the taste or texture of this cooked blend of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and herbs. Serve with bread and pour a white wine, preferably Sicilian. For dessert, offer cannoli from the bakery.

This quick-to-make Sicilian side dish can accompany chicken, fish or meats.

Sicilians are the acknowledged masters of ices, and they, in turn, acknowledge the Arabic origin of their refreshing frozen creations. It started when the Arab conquerors chilled sweet fruit syrups, called sarbat, with snow from Mount Etna. The evolution from chilled syrup to frozen syrup - granita - was only a matter of time. The most common granita flavors are lemon and coffee. A scoop of lemon granita is often floated in iced tea. Coffee granita is usually topped with whipped cream and frequently accompanied by brioche.

(Sicilian "Pizza" with Onions and Anchovies) Sfinciune derives its name from a word in local dialect meaning soft, light, or tender, a reference to its rich, airy crust. This version of sfinciune has a bread-crumb topping, which gives it a pleasant crunch.

This easy zuppa di pesce is a staple of the anchovy packers of Mazara del Vallo on the northwestern coast of Sicily. It always comes with bread to soak up the juices.

(PASTA ALLA NORMA) Because the small Italian eggplants generally used in this dish can be hard to find in this country, we have substituted Asian eggplants.

Eremo della Giubiliana is a magical hotel near Ragusa in southeastern Sicily. Housed in a converted fifteenth-century convent and with just nine guest rooms, it manages to combine serene simplicity with modern day pampering. The high-beamed, airy restaurant underscores the feeling and complements the chef's fresh new takes on traditional foods. Each dish of the five-course meal is simple, authentic, and utterly delicious. This orange salad is a wonderful example: Made with the local blood oranges and olive oil, its flavors are both pure and distinctive. Blood oranges make for an impressive and classic presentation, but navel oranges work just as well.

Americans enjoyed most of the food at the scores of Italian restaurants that opened in the twenties, but they couldn't understand the appeal of spaghetti and tomato sauce: Where was the meat? To accommodate, the restaurants began to top the pasta with meatballs. This recipe takes the dish a step further by adding the Sicilian flavors of pine nuts and currants.

Broccoli is called sparaceddi in Sicilian. In this side dish, it is "drowned" in a heady mixture of olive oil, onions, anchovies, olives, red wine and cheese. While there are variations of the basic preparation throughout Italy, food historians generally think it to be of Sicilian origin.

Culinary archaeologists Susan Lord and Danilo Baroncini named their cookbook Pani Caliatu (available from Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York), for the traditional Aeolian twice-dried bread. For this recipe, the people of the Aeolian Islands use totani (flying squid). The recipe works just as well with squid found in the U.S. Since squid is often sold cleaned and in parts, be sure to get one set of tentacles per squid body to ensure that there will be enough stuffing. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

The radicchio is seasoned in the style of a Sicilian agrodolce ("acid-sweet") dish, which typically combines a vegetable with raisins, pine nuts, vinegar, and a sweetener.

This is a variation on the Sicilian classic gelo di melone, which is steeped with jasmine flowers. We substituted anise seeds but kept the traditional garnishes of chocolate shavings, pistachios, and whipped cream. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 4 hr (includes chilling)

Sicilian caponata is a salad or side dish composed of several vegetables cooked separately and joined together by a sauce, often of tomato. Serve it as an antipasto or with grilled meat or fish. To keep artichokes from browning as trim them, run a paring knife through a lemon before each cut. The juice on the knife acidulates the surface of the artichoke.

This pesto, from Trapani, in Sicily, is made with almonds and tomato and far less basil than traditional pesto — don't expect it to be green.

Good accompaniments to this Sicilian-style pasta are an arugula and fig salad, breadsticks, and gelato with amaretti.

(GRANITA DI LAMPONE) Sicily's Arab conquerors were on to something when they chilled sarbat (sweet fruit syrups) with snow from Mount Etna. The evolution from chilled syrup to frozen syrup-granita-was only a matter of time. Granita is still very popular in Sicily, where the most common kinds are coffee and lemon. But it is also enjoyed throughout Italy in a host of other flavors. A big plus to this refreshing ice is that it is prepared without an ice cream maker.

Arabs brought the eggplant to Sicily in the late tenth century and, in fact, the Italians once called eggplant radice arabica, or Arab root. It is an integral ingredient in Sicilian cuisine, and the variety of recipes featuring it — the most famous being caponata — is astounding. Sicilians often serve room-temperature vegetable preparations as appetizers. In this one, a caper-flavored tomato sauce "blankets" the eggplant.

Syracuse, the beautiful port city on the Ionian Sea, has a cuisine that is marked by highly aromatic combinations of vegetables and seafood. This pasta recipe is a distinctive example.