today we're in Italy and we're on the island of Sicily we're in the capital
city of Palermo and we are here to eat we can't wait to show you some of the
best food this city has to offer
Sicilian food is some of the most unique
in Italy the local food culture is heavily influenced by its past and here
you'll find food that you won't see anywhere else in the country this is our
first video from Palermo and we're here to hunt done the best Sicilian Street
food watch out for delicious octopus and snails from the market mouth-watering
seafood pasta and famous Sicilian pastries in this three-part series we'll
show you Palermo's tastiest food from local favorites to traditional recipes
you don't want to miss this series, get ready for some mouth-watering food I'm
Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate, we hope you're hungry, let's eat!
Sicily has a really vibrant street food culture so we're starting
this video in Ballaro market which is the biggest market in Palermo, there's all this
colourful vibrant produce around me there's a ton of seafood, meat, cheeses, olives
household goods but there are also lots of street eats to sample here so we're
heading for that
I can spot the crowd which is gathered in front of our first stop
so we are going start breakfast the
Palermo way we are going to eat frittola now frittola it's probably not
your usual breakfast it's left over calf scraps that have been boiled and
then fried in lard
there are a ton of people gathered around that stall eager for the frittola
so this is frittola it is basically the scraps leftover from a calf that's been
slaughtered and I mean I think it's just tendon and cartilage and skin a little
bit of meat he sprinkled some black pepper over the top some lemon
squeezed some lemon over the top and then it's served piping hot so it's super mysterious
he's got this huge basket that's covered with a cloth to keep the frittola warm
you can't see him but he just sort of reaches in grabs a handful of the the
guts and scraps pops it on your plate and then serves it
up let's just get in I'm gonna get this sort of gelatinous bit right here
that bit was some tripe it's great with the pepper and the the lemon juice
so they really love their nose to tail eating here and this is the perfect
example of that let's just go for another bit
I'll get a meaty bit
it's all very tender
so what they do with the bits is they boil it up and then they fry
it in lard so it is really really tender and soft it's got a lot of flavour
it really just tastes like um beef
it's beautiful and the fact that it's
really hot
this is a really good breakfast the guys were um screaming at
us while we were filming saying mancia mancia, eat, eat, it's getting cold and ohhh this is so good
that was a fantastic start so much flavour and the next thing is right here
we're going for some seafood now
Sicily being the biggest island in the Mediterranean of course means seafood
there's a lot of seafood here so we've grabbed two things from this stall in
fact he only does two things we've got some sardines and some octopus so I've
got the boiled octopus here to start with so it's very simple boiled octopus
it's got a whole lot of olive oil over the top and then it's come with a lemon so
let's just squeeze some lemon juice on there and covered in parsley a lot of
parsley there all right get a big chunk
it's got a great flavour a real burst of the sea a nice saltiness it's quite chewy
which is quite common with octopus probably would have liked it a little
bit more tender and I really like the zing of the lemon that was on there as
well that gave it a really nice sharpness it balanced really well with
that saltiness of the sea and I love the colour of it it's really um come out with
beautiful colour once it's been boiled so it goes in white comes out this
beautiful pinky sort of purple-y colour
incredibly simple street food
boiled octopus those fresh flavours from the parsley the lemon that little bit of olive
oil really really good and very simple combo perfect sort of market street food
there are a lot of sardines around the waters of Sicily and so sardines are
really really popular so these ones just seem to be rolled up and they've got
breadcrumbs stuffed inside them I think there's some parsley over the top
some more breadcrumbs and I think actually I spy a raisin alright
let's give this a taste
the sardine is so good Thomas and I really love oily fish it's got a really
strong flavour it's very meaty the sardine is massive
and it has just been stuffed with a breadcrumb mixture and then there's a
pine nut on the top so the cuisine in Sicily is very very distinct Palermo is
considered the world's most conquered city the Phoenicians of North Africa have
been here the Spanish the Normans the Greeks the Arabs and they did not join
the Kingdom of Italy until 1861 so the cuisine is really widely influenced by
Italian cuisine but it's also got all of these cultural influences from its past
and that's where you see raisins and pine nuts and saffron and cloves
and nutmeg in the food here in Sicily it's really really amazing
really really good
those were some intense flavours particularly the fish so if you like
strong flavours you'll like what we just had and this market is full on as well
it's very intense it's not the biggest market but there's a lot going on in a
very small area scooters, people shopping tuk tuks, it's crazy
one of the first things we do when
we get to a new city is always check out the local market it's a great way to
familiarize yourself with local ingredients we're heading over there
down that way for our next snack
our next street food are babbalucci or snails now there are big baskets,
mounds of live snails all throughout this market but we're after the cooked ones
these snails are cooked really simply and they have the most incredible smell
because of these huge pieces of garlic but they're all cooked together with some
olive oil massive bits of garlic and covered in
parsley let's just grab one and get it out of that shell
yum, really really tender
really salty actually ohhh they're good I'm going to get another one
those are beautiful
the garlic flavour's really penetrated in there
really well and they've been really heavily salted they're very small so
let's get some more
oh and they're full of a full of liquid and the liquid is
really salty they are really good sometimes snails can be a little bit tough and
chewy these are not at all they're super soft and really really easy to eat and
you can see it just hanging out that little bit of snail
mmm you just pull them out with your teeth
they are absolutely delicious
they've got a really good flavour, the garlic's
strong that nice saltiness really really good oh and not slimy at all like you
sometimes think snails might be nothing like that
we're still hungry after that street food but luckily there is a brilliant
trattoria just around the corner from the market we ate here the other day
while we were researching for this Sicily series and the food is top-notch we
can't wait to share it with you
this trattoria has been here since 1904 and it's a really local place
really casual super busy so as I said before we ate here the other day as
part of our research for this series and we loved it so much we had to show
you so we have just ordered a couple of pastas I have got the cuttlefish
spaghetti and as you can see it is jet black with that cuttlefish ink Thomas
went for the spaghetti with swordfish and aubergine or eggplant he had that
the other day and it was top-notch and to go with our pasta we've got two
glasses of vino bianco just white wine just the house white wine and the glasses
are brimmed they are so full
you can see my spaghetti is just
coated in that cuttlefish ink it is jet-black
let's just taste this thing
it's really really good the pasta water was obviously very very salty so the
spaghetti is perfectly seasoned it's got a really great savoury flavour and the
cuttlefish has sort of made the pasta quite creamy I didn't get any
cuttlefish pieces in that mouthful so I'm gonna for another bite
it's literally just pasta, the cuttlefish
ink and the pieces of cuttlefish
beautiful the cuttlefish is very very tender not chewy
at all, it's just a beautiful savoury creamy texture so good
so I have a tomato-based pasta and this has swordfish in it so you see swordfish
all the time here at the market they are absolutely massive and this has a lot of
swordfish in it so all these cubes of swordfish got some lovely big chunks of
eggplant we've got some fresh parsley all over there got what looks like a little
bit of mint I'm not sure if that is
the tomatoes are full of flavour here so it's got a lovely punch of sweetness and it's
got a beautiful tanginess from those tomatoes but I didn't get any swordfish
and no eggplant that time so you can see if I break up the swordfish
beautiful white fish inside and
definitely some of that spaghetti which
is coated in that sauce there's not too much of the sauce but it just coats everything
perfectly
it's really well-balanced the saltiness versus the sweetness and then that
tanginess of the tomatoes it's a perfect balance and the eggplant's
really well cooked super soft but it does have a little bit of bite so you
can still tell it's there it's not completely just disintegrated and
dissolving
this is some mint leaves in there so it's giving it a real zing when
you get one of those in your in your mouthful and I love how perfectly the
pastas cooked super al dente so it's got a nice bite on the teeth it's not all soft and
squishy and overcooked and it's so perfectly covered in that sauce
it's really good and it goes so well with the swordfish it's quite a meaty fish quite
a solid fish
but a nice subtle flavour I absolutely love this dish
Sicily is very famous and has a long tradition for its pastries so next we're
going to a pastry shop which is family-run and has been around since
1940
I'm so ready for sweets and as Thomas said Sicily is really famous for
its pastry and we have two of the most famous Sicilian treats in front of
us this here is cassata so it is made up of
ricotta which is that middle layer there on the bottom is some sponge cake which
has been soaked in liqueur then it's topped with marzipan and then there's
some candied fruits on top there and this here is Torta Settevelli
which is the cake of the Seven Veils I'm just going to have a taste of it before
I talk you through what the different layers are
oh my goodness look at that it's like the ultimate bite
so light
very chocolaty
so let me show you what layers we've got we've got the top which is the
chocolate mirror glaze the shiny layer then there's some chocolate mousse then
some chocolate sponge
the lighter coloured mousse is hazelnut bavarian
cream and then there's more sponge cake some more cream there's a praline layer
in there which is really crunchy and then more chocolate sponge so this cake
is often used as a birthday cake as a celebration cake and it's from this bakery right here so
this bakery created this cake I'm gonna go for another bite
it's the perfect level of sweetness it's not sickly sweet but that chocolate delivers
a real sugar hit and it's great with that hazelnut praline crunch and that beautiful
creamy mousse
this cassata has an incredibly long history it dates back to
the 10th century when the Arabs were ruling here in Sicily so normally it
would be an entire cake we just have a slice of the cake here because there's
just the two of us we can't eat the whole cake dive right on in there oh it
looks really creamy that ricotta in the middle so cheese in the middle
yum
so it's got a great hit of that ricotta
the cheese but it's quite sweetened of that is really
really good I'm gonna get some off the back here I'm not actually sure what
this green is it looks like it's probably pistachio oh it's really really
thick we'll get some marzipan and a whole lot of that ricotta
yeah it's pistachio it's a little bit salted that on the back and that's quite
um solid it's like a icing whereas the ricotta and the marzipan from the top
are really soft it's quite sweet I can really feel the sugar in my throat but
you expect that with a cake like this it's a really good really unique flavour
another super interesting dish that you'll only find here in Sicily