Fresh Pomegranate Juice

One of the best things about Palermo in fall and early winter? Fruit juice. FRESH fruit juice! Pomegranate juice is one of our favorites.

Sicily’s climate is perfect for growing luscious rich-tasting fruit. The warm days and cool nights allow pomegranate shrubs to grow much larger than the ones you might find in California, or other places in the world. Pomegranates, native to Asia, spread through the centuries to the Middle East and then the Mediterranean. Pomegranate is called melograno in Italian. I Melograni have always been known as a symbol of fertility and bounty. Inside every pomegranate there are hundreds of edible seeds called arils. Pomegranates are rich in fiber, vitamin c, potassium, and even protein. They help reduce the risk of illness. Some even say they are an aphrodisiac!

When that winter chill comes along in Sicily pomegranates, with their high anti-inflammatory effect, are just what you need to feel good. When you press the whole fruit, pomegranate juice contains more antioxidants than any other fruit juice. All of the good stuff actually comes from the oils in the peel and the pith, so don’t forget to press the whole fruit!

In order to reap the best benefits of the pomegranate fruit, make sure to pick them when they are already ripe. This is not a fruit that will continue to ripen after it comes off of the tree. To extract the most juice, roll them on the countertop like you would do with citrus fruit.

Another easy way to pick the seeds out is to score the fruit into quarters from top to tail, then pop out each section and remove seeds from the pithy membranes. Many people also use this technique. Cut the pomegranates in half, place over a bowl, and swiftly hit the back with a wooden spoon.

Where to find Fresh Pomegranate Juice in Palermo?

During fall and early winter in Palermo, you can find pomegranates in the outdoor markets.

Many shops will sell freshly-pressed pomegranate juice for around €3 per cup.

Across from Piazza San Domenico there is a small bar that always sells freshly squeezed orange juice and when you’re lucky, you can find pomegranate juice here too.

In the Ballarò and Capo markets, there are stands that sell the juice daily. Enjoy a cup as often as you like and keep that winter cold away.

Written for Palermo Street Food: DECEMBER 21, 2018

Palermo’s Hardcore Street Foods: Stigghiole

Palermo is famous for its street food culture. There are the crowd-pleasers like panelle chickpea fritters, fluffy sfincione, and arancine rice balls. But, only the bravest know about Palermo’s more hardcore street food. With this new series, we will introduce you to some of our favorites from the more extreme echelon.

Southern Italy, famous for “cucina povera,” a way of making due with what little you have. Now a days, these recipes are a great way to use leftover ingredients in order to create a new dish the next day or to eat well with only a few simple and affordable ingredients. With Sicily’s history of aristocratic noble families on the island, there were luscious French-inspired dishes but there are also these more common countryside dishes that were made with what was available when the best ingredients were too expensive or already given to the landowners. Eating well does not mean you have to spend a lot of money. Which leads us to the topic at hand: stigghiole.

The name stigghiole comes from the Latin word “extilia” meaning intestines, but this dish actually has Greek origins here in Sicily. Stigghiole are made with lamb, veal, or sometimes goat intestines that have been wrapped around green spring onion and a few sprigs of fresh parsley. Some versions of stigghiole wrap a small amount of meat in intestine fat first and others use no meat at all, filling them with chopped white onion, long parsley sprigs, and a sprinkle of grated pecorino cheese before coiling the outside with sausage casings. It almost looks like a sausage and really, when you think about it, it is practically the same ingredients as a sausage. The sausage casings need to be soaked in salt water and rinsed over and over again until they are cleaned properly before using. The perfect balance of fat, salt, freshness from the parsley and a little kick of raw onion make it absolutely mouthwatering.

Throughout Sicily’s “entroterra” and center of the island, you’ll easily find stigghiole in butcher shops or served in the streets during festival celebrations. They are most common in the city of Palermo where we serve them grilled over charcoal or wood-burning barbecues throughout the city center at outdoor markets like Ballarò or Vucciria. It’s a dish that most people do not make themselves since you can buy them pre-made at the butcher shop. Most commonly here in Palermo, we just eat them on the go as a street food snack with lots of lemon squeezed on top.

In Vallelunga Pratameno, a small village in central Sicily, we learned how to make stigghiole with the town butcher. In his shop, they use chopped onions, parsley, and some grated pecorino cheese. The lacy thin pieces of caul fat helped hold it together in this case because the onions were chopped into small pieces. It ends up melting away on the grill but keeps the stigghiole juicer.

In Palermo, the vendors grilling stigghiole are called “stigghiularu.” They grill stigghiole over charcoal fires then slice into bite-sized pieces finished with a squeeze of lemon juice. We absolutely love this dish and know the smell right away when we walk through the market or wander through the streets near la Vucciria after a few beers on a Friday night. The stigghiularu send up their smoke signal to make sure everyone knows where they are. With just a little piece of fat on the grill, the piazza fills with a cloud of delicious smelling smoke and it’s easy to find our beloved stigghiole. Just follow the smoke, and you’ll know what we mean.

Where to find stigghiole in Palermo:

Piazza Caracciolo also known as the old Vucciria market behind Piazza San Domenico

From Monday to Saturdays, you can find them In the Ballarò market

Written for Palermo Street Food: FEBRUARY 18, 2019

babalucci for the Festa di Santa Rosalia in Palermo

Summertime means the people of Palermo skip off to the beaches of Mondello or the nearby wildlife reserve Capo Gallo. For those staying in the city, you’re lucky enough to get one of my favorite seasonal dishes, babalucci. On July 16, Palermo celebrates their patron saint and one of the typical dishes eaten for the festa di Santa Rosalia are these tiny little snails (lumache). They are cooked right in their shells with loads of garlic, olive oil, black pepper and parsley.

You can buy the live snails in the open air markets (look for them climbing up little poles in their baskets) or better yet, just find some guys on the street selling portions to eat as you go. They’ll usually give you a container and weigh them out and you just pick them up with your fingers and suck the little guys right outta their shells. I order them by the euro, 2 or 3 euros is usually enough for a small portion. Simple, seasonal, local + delicious.

The best best best ones are sold along Via Torremuzza in Piazza Kalsa. Luckily, this is just below the little loft apartamentino I used to stay in. I like to grab a few cold beers, a container of babalucci, a loaf of bread and head to Foro Italico to sit by the water and relax with my fav seasonal snack. #SNACKsicily