Meet our Sicilian Santa, "Babbo Natale"! He will be visiting our shop Sunday, Dec. 4th from noon - 5pm & have FREE Gifts for the first 75 children. Shop our newest arrivals too: Holiday Gift Baskets, Holiday Cakes, Torrone & Cookies and much more!

November is the time to eat salsiccia (sausage), fungi (mushroom), fico di India (cactus pear or "prickly pear"), figs (fico) or castagne (hot chestnuts) in Sicily. The fall harvest in now complete and road side vendors proudly sell their freshly harvested or made products.

Driving up to St. Alfio,I stop and my favorite fruit and vegetable road side stand to pick up some hot chestnuts. My friend Stefano has his outdoor cooker slowly roasting freshly harvested chestnuts, and the fragrance of hot chestnuts fills my nostrils as soon as I get out of the car. I buy a little bag of these gems ...hand picked (of course) by Stefano just for me and as soon as I get in the car I peel off the skin of a nice big one and pop it into my mouth.

If you have never had a warm, bursting -with- flavor chestnut practically melt in your mouth on a nippy November day...well...that is one experience that you must put on your list of things to do! Driving up to Saint Alfio...that beautiful little village half way up the mountain toward Mt. Etna, I stop in the nearby village of Nicolosi to pick up my mushrooms. Rumor has it that a few years ago when Etna erupted and was threatening Nicolosi with a giant lava flow that the pastor of the local church placed a crucifix in the middle of the road not far from the slowly oncoming molten lava. Of course, the lava stopped flowing as the story goes. My friend Saro has put aside mushrooms for me; big, tender mountain mushrooms that he has picked from his "secret" place not far away. We exchange small talk about local news, and I move on. Stopping in Pedara a small village next to Trescastagni (my ancestral town) I run into Giovanni's meat shop to pick up some sausage that he made earlier that morning. By now my chestnuts are gone; mysteriously disappearing as I popped one after another into my mouth as I drive. Arriving at Sant Alfio I head to my favorite pastry shop next to the Church of Sant Alfio to pick up some "pasta di mandorla" cookies; freshly baked almond cookies made from almonds harvested a stone's throw away.

That evening I made a meal fit for a king.....Massimo and Anna were coming over. And I wanted to show Anna a little about how Americans barbecued sausage. For the first course, I made a quick sauce (oil, garlic, salt and pepper, a little red pepper, a dash of sugar, a dash of red wine, plenty of basil). I topped my pasta dish with those fresh mountain mushrooms that I had sautéed in olive oil, salt and pepper and a little garlic.
For the second course we ate my freshly barbecued sausage, salata mista (a salad with fresh vegetables),and a piece of hot bread from the pane facio (bread maker) that I had picked up on the way home.

We shared a bottle of red wine from a local vineyard in Via Grande ($4.00 a bottle) which was terrific and that was it. Later on for desert we had a little Averna Amaro (a bitter herb liquor used as a digestive that becomes addictive once you have acquired a taste for it),and a few almond cookies.

After dinner, Massimo said to me "Alfred, not bad...do you have these fresh things to eat in Boston this time of the year?"

Thinking about my weekly trips to the supermarkets in America, especially to their tasteless fruit and vegetable departments where everything I buy usually ends up in my vegetable bin uneaten because I know it taste so bad, I responded.

"Yes Massimo, we have the same things but here they taste a little better"
Geez....if he ever finds out the truth.......

Ciao, Al

Catania-All month-Market Festival (visit the fish market by the Duomo in the center of the city....very interesting!)

Mascali-Annual livestock fair (most animals in Sicily are range fed...the original organic country!)

Puntalazzo-Feast of patron saint San Leonardo (November 6)

Ragalina-Sangra dell salsiccia,caliceddi e vino (Festival celebrating local sausages, vegetables and wines..yum!)