13 Sicilian Dishes You Have to Try

Though it’s just 20 minutes from mainland Italy across the Strait of Messina, Sicily is an entirely separate entity with its own history, heritage, and cuisine. Over the centuries, it was ruled by the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Bourbons before becoming part of the unified country of Italy. And all of the cultures that have passed through have left their mark on the island’s gastronomy. It’s also blessed by natural resources and fertile soil, where everything from tomatoes and grapes to almond and pistachio trees grow. Sicily’s rich food culture makes it one of our favorite places to bring guests on our tours. Whether you join one of our Eastern Sicily or Western Sicily tours, or visit the island on your own, these are the Sicilian dishes you have to try there.

Arancini

Arancine or arancini? It depends on which side of the island you’re on. Either way, these fried, breaded baseball-sized balls of rice are one of the most popular street foods you’ll encounter. They have their roots in the Arab domination of Sicily, when rice was often flavored with saffron and shaped into balls for easy transport. The classic ones are filled with ragù and peas, but there are countless versions filled with eggplant, cheese, and other things. In Palermo and western Sicily, they’re usually round, but around Catania and eastern Sicily, they often come cone-shaped in an allusion to Mount Etna.

Sfincione

Something between a focaccia and pizza, sfincione is its own thing entirely. Legend has it, sfincione was invented by the nuns at the Monastero di San Vito, who created it as a rich bread for the holidays, but it soon became widespread when street vendors simplified the recipe. The thick, soft dough is baked in rectangular trays and comes topped with a tomato sauce made with lots of onions, anchovies, olive oil, caciocavallo cheese, and breadcrumbs and makes a perfect snack.

Pane cunzatu

Commonly found in and around Palermo and Trapani, this sandwich loaded with anchovies, tomatoes, caciocavallo cheese, oregano and olive oil is perfect for lunch or an afternoon snack. It was born as a peasant food among farmers who would dress a loaf of bread with olive oil and preserved ingredients that could survive the heat. Some places add capers, olives, tuna, ricotta, or eggplant.

Panelle

Another popular street food, panelle are chickpea flour fritters cut into pieces and fried. They, too, likely date back to the Arab rule of Sicily and became popular because they’re cheap, filling, and easy to make. They’re best eaten piping hot and sprinkled with salt and maybe a squeeze of lemon. You’ll find them at markets and street food spots all over the island, sometimes served in a sandwich.

Insalata pantesca

This simple, refreshing potato salad hailing from the satellite island of Pantelleria is perfect on a hot summer day. It consists of boiled potatoes, cherry tomatoes, red onions, olives and capers, which grow in abundance on the island, and is dressed with plenty of olive oil and oregano. No mayo or acid—it’s simple and delicious, another example of the way Arab ingredients and Mediterranean preservation techniques shaped Sicilian cuisine.

Caponata

This sweet and sour eggplant dish is meant as a side dish or antipasto, but we would happily eat a heaping portion of it as a main. There are many different versions of this dish, but typically eggplants are cubed, fried, and combined with onions, celery, green olives, tomatoes, capers, and pine nuts cooked down until they become melt-in-your-mouth soft, then dressed with an agrodolce sauce and aromatized with heaps of basil. It’s one of those dishes that gets better the longer it sits around and is typically served at room temperature.

Sarde a beccafico

Seafood is, understandably, a staple in Sicily and this is just one of many seafood dishes we love to eat on the island. Its origins lie in cucina povera, since historically peasants couldn’t afford the expensive meat eaten by the aristocracy, so they created their own version of a noble dish using humble sardines instead of a bird known as beccafico. The sardines are stuffed with a sweet-savory filling made of breadcrumbs, pine nuts, raisins, parsley, olive oil, and lemon juice, then rolled up and baked or grilled.

Couscous with seafood

The Arabs brought couscous to Sicily and it’s still a popular dish, especially in the northwestern part of the island around Trapani and San Vito Lo Capo. It commonly comes served with a kind of seafood stew packed with mussels, shrimp, grouper, and red mullet and flavored with tomatoes, garlic, saffron, parsley, and olive oil. This dish is celebrated every year at the Cous Cous Fest in San Vito lo Capo.

Pasta alla norma

One of Sicily’s most iconic and delicious pastas hails from Catania but can be found all over. Eggplant, cubed and fried, is combined with tomato sauce and tossed with mezze maniche, rigatoni, or another short pasta. A generous dusting of ricotta salata (aged ricotta) gives it a bit of a salty, cheesy kick. Fun fact: it was named after the opera Norma written by Vincenzo Bellini, who hailed from Catania.

Pestro trapanese

Hailing from Trapani, on Sicily’s western coast, pesto trapanese is a fresh, uncooked sauce made with tomatoes, almonds, garlic, cheese, olive oil and basil combined in a chunky pesto sauce that coats corkscrew-shaped busiate pasta. It was inspired by pesto genovese, which Ligurian sailors brought over to Trapani during the Middle Ages. Sicilian chefs put their own spin on the recipe using local ingredients.

Granita

Gelato may be considered a dessert or snack, but in Sicily granita is eaten all day. In fact, a classic Sicilian breakfast is granita with brioche, which you tear apart and dip. It, too, traces its roots back to Sicily’s Arab dominion, when they would gather snow from atop Mount Etna and flavor it with fruit syrups for a refreshing snack. The most classic flavors are almond, pistachio, coffee, and lemon, but you’ll often see it in fruit flavors, like blackberry or strawberry. If you ask nicely, you can often combine two flavors in the same cup.

Cassata

Sicily’s most iconic cake, cassata is made with sponge cake and sweetened ricotta (sometimes studded with chocolate chips), covered with white marzipan on top and green marzipan around the sides and topped with colorful candied fruits. Some bakeries make the large version and sell it either whole or by the slice, while others make miniature versions called cassatine. Either way, it’s a sugar bomb in your mouth.

Cannoli

“Take the gun, leave the cannoli.” Is there anything more iconic than this Sicilian sweet? According to legend, they were invented during the Middle Ages by nuns in Palermo, who adapted earlier Arab sweets. The best cannoli are the ones filled a la minute. If they sit around too long, the crispy shell starts to get soggy. Authentic Sicilian cannoli are made with fresh sheep’s milk ricotta sweetened with sugar, candied orange peel or citron, ground pistachios, which grow in abundance on the slopes of Mount Etna, and sometimes chocolate chips.

Want to taste all of these things in one delicious week? Join us for a food tour to Sicily.