East of Palermo on Sicily’s north coast is a fishing village called Porticello
where the day boats go out every morning
to harvest what’s in the nets that were set the day before.
Chef Franco Crivello has his restaurant here.
He calls it "Frank the Fisherman," "Francu U Piscaturi,"
but its proper name is "Trattoria del Arco,"
and Franco is truly a chef, not a fisherman at all.
It’s not a very grand place
but the food draws crowds for the simplicity and abundance of the traditional preparations.
Steve Jilleba, a Certified Master Chef and Executive Chef of Unilever Foodsolutions USA
joined Franco for an exuberant morning in the kitchen.
While they prepared polpicinni — which are tiny baby octopus in a tomato sauce —
skewers of fish fillets rolled around a savory stuffing,
and a couple of vegetable dishes
that could be served as primi or first courses as well as contorni....
the sort of go-withs that might be served with a main dish,
but almost always on a separate plate.
But first Franco makes what he calls condimento di caponata,
an all-purpose caponata sauce in which he can cook many different vegetables
—eggplant, peppers, zucchini, even mushrooms sometimes.
His method is quite different from Carmelo Chiaramonte’s.
Franco starts by chopping a whole bunch of celery, leaves, heart, everything,
and blanching it in salted water.
While the celery blanches, he chops and sautés 3 big onions in oil,
then adds loads of chopped green olives and a big handful of capers,
and then tomato purée,
which he says is lighter than the tomato extract
we saw in Catania in the market.
The extract or "stratto," he says, he only uses when he’s cooking for family.
He adds in the blanched celery and some of its liquid,
so he ends up with a fairly liquid sauce,
which he boils down for at least an hour
before he adds vinegar and sugar to make it properly agro-dolce, or sour-sweet.
To finish off the caponata, Franco cut strips of peppers, eggplant, and zucchini,
deep fried them, then dressed them with the caponata sauce.
That same sweet-and-sour flavor combination
comes out in other dishes, including an enormous squash
— 8 to 10 kilos it weighed, he said —
—that he sliced and deep fried.
The fried squash slices were dressed with fresh mint,
then topped with a dressing of garlic and more mint.
"Serve this cold," said Franco,
meaning actually at room temperature rather than hot.
And let it sit for an hour or more so the squash absorbs the agrodolce,
sweet-sour flavors, along with the garlic and fresh mint.
A dish called polpicinni muratti
showed off more of these sweet-and-sour flavors,
when he made baby octopus in a tomato sauce,
first sautéing lots of onions, then dropping the octopus into the pan,
later adding a little chili pepper, a lot of chopped parsley,
and canned plum tomatoes.
A big splash of wine vinegar at the end.
Now he darkens the sauce,
pressing on each little cooked octopus to release the black ink inside.
The result? Octopus on a plate.
Skewers of fish fillets were rolled around a stuffing of breadcrumbs
mixed with raisins, pine nuts, chopped parsley, a little chopped onion, and a bit of tomato,
bound together with orange juice and olive oil.
The rolls alternated on the skewers with quarters of orange,
quarters of onion, bay leaves, and pieces of stale bread.
Chef Steve was beginning to understand something
Ciccio Sultano had told us....
That every family, every housewife,
every restaurant and trattoria in Sicily,
has a different way with caponata.
We had seen Carmelo Chiaramonte’s very precise caponata
garnished with chocolate and mint and made with honey and honey vinegar,
and we had seen Franco Crivello’s condimento di caponata,
made with white wine vinegar and sugar
and lots of tomatoes, then tossed with fried vegetables.