I want to say ciao to Dario.
Ciao Dario!
Ciao Neil, come stai?
Very good pal, good to catch up with you.
I love Sicily
Visited there a few years back.
I loved the people and I loved the food.
As an italian in Cork, what do you prefer a Cork Christmas
or the Italian Sicilian Christmas?
It's hard to choose, I'll go for both.
I got this luxury of being able to just go for both.
When you were a small fella back in Sicily
you had a very small house
but you could have upwards of 40 to 50 people in it, I'm told.
Right, exactly.
I'm kind of from a big family,
there were a lot of people from my mum's side and a lot from my dad's side.
I remember this pretty small place,
it was a tiny kitchen packed with people.
I don't know how many kids we were in there.
But it was fun.
Those were different times.
But wouldn't it be the case with Italians?
With all the relatives, and the cousins, and the cousins of the cousins.
They would all get together to eat.
But who cooked all of the food?
Was it one mother, or a mother and dad? Or would loads get involved?
Well it's normally "nonna", which is grandma.
A grandma?
Yes, she would cook for everyone.
She'd probably start cooking two days in advance
and then have everything ready, spotless.
There was never anything missing
and there was enough food for the 50 of us plus another 50, maybe.
I know, I remember when I was in Sicily
I was invited over to a family home there,
friends of mine here on the Leeside
out of Rossini have family in Sicily.
Rossini the restaurant, you know Patrizia and Tore.
The table was groaning with food!
And I remember thinking: "Oh my God, it must have taken days to put this together!".
And it was no big deal to them!
No, and the crazy thing is that there's nothing left when they leave the table.
There's absolutely no food left.
It doesn't really matter how much food is there, it's going to be finished.
But would it be lots of pasta? And antipasto?
Would you have turkey? What would it be like?
All of it, all of it.
You would start with antipasti.
I'm from Sicily, so there's different things according to the regions in Italy,
so the menu could change from one place to the other.
Back in Sicily there's a lot of fried stuff, like fried veggies
in a batter
and it's just beautiful.
It's something that I keep doing now.
I go to the English Market, I got my favorite stall there
where I get my zucchini, my Italiani broccoli
that I put in the batter and then fry.
They are going to be ready for tomorrow.
So you start with a lot of that, there's also a lot of cheese and a lot of meats.
And then you would normally have Pasta al Forno.
You know Spaghetti Hoops, right?
Not from the tin, though?
Absolutely not from the tin, it's a very special type of pasta
that's sold just in Palermo, you can't find it anywhere else.
Do you a sauce with that? A tomato based sauce?
There's a tomato based sauce
and there's layers.
Then there's cheese, and there's ragù inside and it's topped with another layer of pasta
Then it's baked for roughly 25 minutes, so it gets very crispy.
Fantastic! Would you have a big bowl of meatballs with it?
No, you would probably have meat after.
You would wait for probably 15 minutes and then start eating again.
The funny thing is that we start eating early and we finish at around 4pm.
Then we start eating again before we eat once again!
There's an interval in between.
There's a beautiful tradition too. We eat "Scaccio"
It's basically roasted pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts.
You would sit with the entire family while playing cards
sipping sweet Sicilian wines like Zibibbo or Malvasia.
Hours go by and by, and you don't notice.
It's beautiful, it's the magic of Christmas back in Sicily.
Oh my God it sounds fantastic. And that's before you even get to the desserts.
And all coming from that small tiny kitchen.
Do you go back and forth now? You're on the Lee Side, are you some time?
I've been here for about 5 years now.
And are you in the food business here?
No, not at all. I'm actually in the language and localization business.
I work for McAfee so I do something completely different.
But I have this side project that is called "The Sicilian Wanderer"
and I try to connect Sicily and Ireland through culture and history, but also food.
I know you put together a really great video
of Italians in Ireland
particularly Italians in Cork.
Do you Italians get together here in Cork from time to time?
And eat vast quantities of Italian food?
The answer is yes!
Do you have any particular favorite Italian that you guys love to go to?
I really like anything the guys at Sicilian Delights do.
It's the Sicilian cafè by the UCC.
They do amazing stuff, I'm a regular there.
I like to go to Burnt whenever I want to have a pizza.
Most of the pizzaioli are either from Naples or Italy anyway.
Is that the real McCoy then, the Burnt pizza?
I'd say so, yeah.
Well, you'd know!
What will tomorrow be like for you, then?
Tomorrow it's going to be a smaller one.
It's just gonna be myself, my wife and our two kids.
We're not going back to Sicily this year, it's a tough period for traveling right now.
But we're very happy here.
We're going to have a small party and then probably go for a walk.
Most of our friends are back home right now, so it's going to be a small Christmas, I'd say.
Thinking of family back home in Sicily?
Yes, but the kids are exited anyway. They are gonna get their presents,
we got some movies planned,
we're trying to organize it as best as possible.
That's right! And Santa Claus is coming to town, so get the to bed early!
Yes, exactly! they can't wait!
How do you say Happy Christmas in Italian?
Buon Natale.
Say that again?
Buon Natale.
There you go!
I'm learning something new every day.
You're as Italian as it gets now!
Have a good one Dario, great to catch up!
Thank you very much Neil, great to talk to you.