Under-the-radar Food Tour of SICILY, Italy - Sicily STREET FOOD + ITALIAN Couscous | Vegan Cultures

Welcome guys, this is Vegan Cultures and I'm in Sicily. This island is packed with traditional food that just happens to be plant-based. From chickpea fritters to stuffed flatbreads, pasta and even couscous and of course the famous granita. There's a lot to explore, so let's go and check it out. Together with Slow Food, I'm exploring the traditional plant-based food of Sicily, an island that is known for its street food, foreign influences as well as its very own method of making chocolate. Get ready to find out what Sicily has to offer because this is plant-based food like you've never seen before. I'm in Palermo, a city that dates back over 3,000 years. Over the course of history, Sicily has been conquered by Arabic, Greek and Spanish invaders and you can sort of see that influence everywhere in the city. Right now I'm walking through the old Arab quarters on my way to Antica Focaccia via San Francesco to see how they make one of Palermo's most famous street foods, pane panelle. Now this place has spread all over Italy in the last years, but here on the Piazza San Francesco is where everything started in 1834. Let's go inside. Ciao Giulio. Ciao. Benvenuto. Ciao. What are we making today? Panelle, chickpea flour and cazzilli or croquette di patate, two of the most typical street food in Palermo. So pane, panelle and cazzilli. Andiamo? Ok. Allora, facciamo noi un chilo di farina di ceci, sale, pepe, prezzemolo, tre litri di acqua. Andiamo questo. Andiamo a cuocere. He has to mix everything and in a few minutes there will be a cream like the polenta for example, if you have an idea. That's the next step. We use the dishes to make a form of panelle that normally is a round one, you see. This is a plate, you can also do it in a shape that is squared. These are now put here. When they dry, you can already see how you can do it. Let it dry a little now. Look, did you see? Very fast. Si, se non sei veloce, questa qua non si può utilizzare più. Behind me are all the panelle. So we've seen Ignacio shape them on the saucers here and then within a minute they set on the saucer and Alessandro removes them and then you have the sort of halfway finished panelle right here. Proviamo? A friggere o così cruda? Ah, adesso? Cruda? Si, cruda. You want to taste now? Si, prego. Be careful. This is already cooked, but the right way is to fry. It's such an interesting texture because we've seen it, it takes minutes and it's already coagulated into a texture that's completely set. Okay, I'm going to try it halfway through the process. Yes, I find it interesting to recognize all the simple ingredients also before to be fried. This is a perfect snack already because it hasn't been heated too much. You taste the parsley a lot. You know, you taste a lot of parsley, you taste the chickpeas, obviously from the flour. It has a really interesting texture because it's quite soft, but it's sort of set. But when you bite on it, it's almost like a paste. I like it like this. Absolutely. Cazzille. These potatoes are boiled, this is the result, then they are put in a bowl, salt, pepper, mint. Alessandro? Yes? I'll get some mint. Mint? Yes. I'll show you like this. Now I'm going to pass it through the meat grinder. Okay, so now we're on to the next one, which is Cazzilli. And behind me, he is setting up the machine to process the potatoes, mint, salt and pepper into a really fine dough. Cazzillo. They are made by hand, then the form, as you see, is not always the same, because they are very artisanal foods. And then, you see, they are not perfect, but that's the beauty of our food, it's not industrial. 7, 14, 21, 28, 35. Quarantine. When the pan is like this, good? Good. When it swells. When it swells, good. Yes, ours yes. Okay. So the panella are now frying in the oil. We have the first batch done, so I'm going to try one. Can I? They puffed up, look how they puffed up, and they're really hot. Towels are being handed over. So when I tasted it raw, you sort of tasted a lot of the parsley, and the chickpea flour was quite mild, but frying it actually amplified the chickpea flavor, because you get this really nice crust, and you get this fried, toasted aroma of chickpeas, which is so unique to this. Mmm. You can snack on it like this. I think we're going to pack it into a sandwich later. Pane e panelle, for proper Palermo street food. Okay, so we snatched our first casserole, fried just a minute ago. It's so soft. And that mint flavor is still really, really strong. I thought if you fry them, the mint flavor sort of goes away, but it's really powerful. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Mint, potatoes. That's the ultimate croquette. And there we go. Pane e panelle. I mean, look at that. Loads and loads of chickpea fritters in there. The entire sandwich is packed. Also, we've got half a lemon here, so loads of lemon juice on here. Let's go. Look at that. The ultimate street food. I'm in front of Antica Focacciaria San Francesco right now, where it all started in 1834, tucking into one of their famous pane e panelle. Mmm. It's so simple, but it's so full of flavor. Loads of chickpea fritters, white bread, sesame seeds on top, lemon juice. Really simple, wonderful street food. We've been to Molino Crisafulli, where they milled the chickpea flour from scratch. It was literally just whole chickpeas going into the machine, and within seconds, you had the chickpea flour. So, there's no waste with that product. It's the entire chickpea. And that's so exciting because you have the whole chickpeas in these panelle. It's still street food, but as a vegan street food snack, it is actually quite cool that you've got the protein from the chickpeas, and they're packed into a sandwich. Love it. And we are on to the next piece. This is the pane e panelle e cazzili. So, these are the potato croquettes on top as well. So, this is going to be a good mix of flavors here. Chickpeas and potatoes, parsley and mint, and then, of course, all packed into a sandwich. That first hit is mint from the cazzili. It's such a fresh flavor. This is incredible. So, you've got so many different flavors going on. You've got the chickpea fritters, but because of the herbs, it brightens it all up. It doesn't actually need the lemon juice, this one. I already left Palermo, and I'm in the west of the island now in Trapani, a small town by the sea. And here we're going to taste a special pesto that just happens to be vegan. I arrived at the slow food restaurant Cantina Siciliana, and here they serve a traditional pesto from this region. Pesto Trapanese from Trapani. Let's go inside and see how they make it. Okay, so we're inside Cantina Siciliana now. I am with Ager. Ciao, Ager. Ciao, Giulio. We're going to make a traditional, typical dish. So, to make the pesto Trapanese, we're going to mince the garlic like this. Basil and a little salt. We take the tomato, peel it like this, open it like this, throw in some seeds, and put it in. Almond flour. And finally, the oil. The smell in here is incredible. Imagine garlic, basil, tomatoes. Okay, so we've prepped our pesto alla Trapanese. In Siciliana, it's... So that's the Sicilian dialect. Now we're jumping on to the next one, which is couscous with vegetables. Of course, couscous is a typical Trapanese dish. Imported from North Africa. Because we know very well that the Arabs, let's say, were here in time. And so, in turn, they kind of exchanged what are the culinary bases. From couscous to many other things. Now comes the frying. Frisculiare la semola significa asciugare, dividere i chicchi. Quindi fare in modo che i chicchi si staccano e scendono uno per uno. Ecco la differenza. Adesso la semola è pronta. Mettiamo cipolla, cannella, prezzemolo e olio. E questo è pronto per essere messo nella couscousiera. Adesso si mette nella couscousiera, che è una battaglia dedicata a cuocere la couscous. Quindi la couscous non cuoce in acqua bollente. Ma ha un'acqua in fondo. Just the steam, not the water? No, just the steam. It has to cook for about two hours. Two hours? Yes, two hours of cooking. Per due ore. For me, it's the first time I've had a dish with couscous in Italy. You've always seen it in North Africa. Yes. Okay, so now she's taking the couscous here onto a pan of boiling water. You can see the steam coming off out of here now. But what she's doing is she made a paste out of flour and water. It's quite a soft dough that she's now sort of taping all around. And that blocks out any of the steam coming out from the sides. So it really cooks the couscous really well. How cool is that to see that here in the Tartarie in Italy, in Sicily. An old ancient technique to cook couscous that way. Now we're going to make the vegetable soup. The vegetable soup that we're going to need to wet the couscous in Sicilian. Oil. Onion. Let's make the onion sauté. Let's start putting the peppers in. This is the concentrate, the double concentrate. Tomato. And then we mix everything. Parsley. Potatoes. Carrots. Tomato. Pumpkin. Ceci. Garlic. Salt. Gia just brought the pasta. So this is exactly what we made earlier. So you can see the pesto on top. And she serves that with a traditional pasta shape from here. Here we go. A good amount of the pesto and then the busiata pasta. The first hit is the fresh tomato and the garlic. And then you get basil. And then you get that really nice nutty flavor of the almonds. That is such a summery dish. It's so wonderful. It's literally the colors and flavors of summer. The tomatoes, the basil. And then she served them with fried aubergines. Which is a really nice addition. It's another layer of flavor to that. That is the couscous con le verdure. The couscous with vegetables. Unbelievable. I'm completely blown away by this dish. Because of the cooking technique, the time, the effort, the passion that went into this dish. Okay, let's try the couscous first. The couscous looks so juicy. It absorbed all of that stock and all of that liquid. Wow. That is by far the best couscous I've ever had in my life. The couscous must have been slightly undercooked before. And then with the stock, it absorbs it. And it's perfectly cooked through. And it has the richest flavor of the tomatoes and all the vegetables that she cooked in the stock. And then you've got the vegetables in here as well. What an exciting dish. Because it really shows that Sicily is this place of culture. It has so many different influences. Because of who ruled the island at that time. And this is definitely North African influence. Because of the couscous. But also the cooking methods. Absolutely wonderful. What a delicious, delicious dish. I'm in Monaco now. A city that was almost entirely rebuilt after an earthquake in 1693. This city is known for its chocolate. But before we tuck into something sweet, I'm meeting up with Conchetta to learn about a flatbread from Sicily that is really difficult to find in any other region. Let's check it out. Behind me is Officina dei Sapori. And this is a small shop run by Conchetta. She uses her grandmother's recipe to make scaccia, which are stuffed flatbreads. And she agreed to show us how she makes them. So let's go inside. Okay, so we're heading inside the kitchen now to see how Conchetta makes the scaccia. Salt. Let it rest. She's challenging me to do one. I follow you. So she holds that together. And this is the difficult part. Because you... Fold it over. Okay. No, no, no. I don't think it's really working with me, but I keep going and pretend it's all fine. Oh, God. No, no, no. Let's do the comparison. Have a look at what's happening. So this is hers. A perfect round edge. And then look at... Brutto ma buono. Adesso si mette l'olio che serve per dare un colorito un po' più unico. No uova. Anche c'è chi mette l'uovo e c'è chi mette solo l'olio. Okay. L'olio è meglio. Noi a casa mettiamo l'olio. L'olio va bene. Noi a casa mettiamo l'olio. Okay. So the scotch are now in the oven, but she's showing us something else. I can't wait to taste them because if they go in the oven, it's tomatoes, capers and oil. And you know that is a serious combination. Now we're on to the next thing. So we had a little bit of leftover dough. But... Che cos'è? Questa è la vastetta. Di solito è di forma rotonda. Noi l'abbiamo fatto per essere un finger food. È la pasta della scotch fritta. Fritto e sale. E poi sale oppure anche con lo zucchero. La versione dolce. Zucchero. Oh, dolce. Okay. So you can also have it sweet. Mmm. You can taste the sourdough that she uses in the dough. Okay, it's finally time to taste it. We've got a lot of choice. Let's start with the scotches. So which one do we have? Over here, this one is the one with tomato and onions. And look at that. Look at the layers. So many different layers by folding over the dough and then brushing it again with the tomatoes. So excited. I can't believe this is vegan. Mmm. The dough is crunchy on the outside, but inside it's quite soft. So you get this really nice filling and then a really nice crispy dough on the outside. This is delicious. So this is the one with parsley and onions. Mmm. You get such a big hit of parsley. Look at the crust. It's perfectly baked. So you have a nice crispy top. And then inside, there's really, really rich parsley and onion filling. Okay, so next one. Tomatoes and aubergines. It's like a norma, but without the ricotta cheese. So really nice traditional filling from Sicily. Never heard about scotch before Sicily. And suddenly we have three different flavors. So another one I never heard about is the bucca toredo. And that is similar to an empanada. And this is the one with chard. Mmm. Wow. Completely different. Mmm. You've got the same dough for all these pastries here. But just that little bit of change in filling gives it a completely different direction. I'm really excited about the next ones. So these are ciffiteru. And Conchita explained that this is the ultimate summer dish of Modica. Not even all of Sicily, but Modica. And just look at the tomatoes. Roasted tomatoes. You know this will be good. The pastry is thick enough to keep all of the juices inside. So the oil, the tomatoes, there's a little garlic in there, the basil. Nothing of that leaked out of the pastry. So this must be packed with flavor. And I have a pretty good feeling that I'm gonna burn myself. But it will be worth it. Oh. Mmm. Okay. Wow. That is wonderful. It's like the flavors of Italy packed into a pastry. Wow. Look at that. There's so many juices in there. So what's so exciting about all of these different pastries is they're all made with the same dough. And it's a dough that doesn't use any animal products. So it's traditionally vegan. And Conchetta showed us so many different ways how you can serve it. So it's a really exciting opportunity for vegan baking. We've had plenty of savory food so far. But now it's time for something sweeter. When the Spanish ruled Sicily, they brought cocoa beans from South America to this island. And here in Modica, they actually developed their very own method of making chocolate. There's something unusual about that and we're about to find out because we are in front of Antica Dolceria Bonaiuto, which is the oldest chocolate shop in Modica. And we're going inside to see how they make their chocolate from scratch. Let's go. Okay, so we've arrived. We're here with Pierre Paolo. Yes. And I think Pierre Paolo already has the first introduction to chocolate for us. We do this kind of particular product that is very simple because it's only chocolate in water. Okay. But in a cold version. So it's quite unusual with this kind of density. Oh, it's heavy. Yeah. It's a small cup and it's very heavy. That is thick chocolate. It smells bitter. Sure. It doesn't contain so much sugar. Here, all chocolate was first of all a food. Something for having right energy for affording the day. Not something only for rich people and so on. A source of energy. Okay, that's interesting. That's an energy shot. Okay, I'm up for that. A cup of really thick cold chocolate. So chocolate in water. Yeah. And the carob seeds flour as a thickener. Let's try it. Wow. What a beginning. It's so creamy. I think because it's cold you taste the chocolate more. Is that right? Yeah. You can feel some flavors that usually could be disappear. Until 1960, my grandfather used that kind of stone. So this would be used to traditionally grind the cocoa beans and that's quite heavy work. So they would grind the cocoa beans but they would also put a flame underneath and that would heat up the stone to around 45 degrees. And that means that the cocoa fat would actually start melting. So by grinding up the seeds, you're releasing the fat with the heat and then you add a little bit of sugar to it and that's a simple way of making chocolate. So behind me are the cocoa beans which arrive here after having been fermented and sun-dried in South America. And after they arrive here, they get split open with this kind of guillotine to have a look at the fermentation process and the qualities of the actual cocoa bean. After that, they get roasted before they get cracked open in the machine behind me to remove the shell from the nib. And that's when the process of chocolate making really begins. So he's doing a little trick to actually establish the flavor of the cocoa bean. He's using a popcorn machine to heat them up. The entire room fills up with the smell of that bean. Just like that? Mmm, it's acidic. Yeah. Tangy. This is the first idea that a chocolatier could have about the cocoa that they start to process. Leather, tobacco. I love that you pick up on the tobacco because now that you say it's there, I would have never associated chocolate and tobacco together. We have to think of the chocolate as a wine. What grows around your cocoa plantation? How is the terroir? Every country could express several kinds of flavors. Now, obviously, the cacao nibs are not ground by hand anymore, so they're using the machine over here which grinds it into the cocoa mass. And during that entire process, they're never heating the chocolate above 45 degrees to preserve that quality of the chocolate. This kind of chocolate never becomes completely liquid. The sugar, working at 45 degrees Celsius during the process, never melts inside, so it remains in grains. With this kind of strange texture, you feel the sugar and then the aromatic part of the cocoa. Industrial chocolate, they add more fat and then they conch the chocolate. Conching the chocolate is a sort of process for having less acidity, mixing all the ingredients, but it's made at 80 degrees for about two days. Imagine to make a great wine and cook it for two days. Okay, so he filled the chocolate into these little moulds and then he started to shake it to set the chocolate in the moulds. And now we're going to taste the chocolate. It's very thick. It's unlike any chocolate you would have before. The first thing you notice is the texture because you get these little granules, but what makes it so special is the sugar and the chocolate aren't combined, so you get the aromas of the pure chocolate and then you get a little bit of sweetness which sort of balances it out. And the texture actually adds a really fun element to eating the chocolate because it's so unusual. I've never had chocolate where you have granules of sugar to bite on. It's also really fun that the chocolate isn't completely set yet. Almost like when you melt chocolate and you eat it with a spoon. It's wonderful. Our label is very, very short because it's only cocoa mass, sugar, and vanilla in this case. There are literally three ingredients on here which is, if you look at a 50% chocolate, that's usually not the case. Often they also add milk to it. Yeah. But this one is senza latte without milk. It's dark chocolate. There is some kind of sugar that is refined with animal stuff but not in this case. That's a really good point because I've heard that white sugar is sometimes clarified or purified with bones from animals. So that's another thing to keep in mind when you eat chocolate that contains sugar which makes this a 100% vegan snack which is so wonderful because it's so nice and so delicious. So we tasted the chocolate when it hasn't actually set yet but here's a bar of the finished chocolate. Let's try it out. Okay, so this is the finished bar of chocolate. You can see the sugar granules in there. Wow. It's again completely different to the chocolate we actually tasted earlier when it was liquid because now that it's set the chocolate sort of melts in your mouth as you bite onto it but you also have the textures of the sugar and it's almost two separate flavors. The sweet and then the very aromatic 100% chocolate that then get blended as you chew on it. So yeah, that is modicum chocolate and that's what makes it so special. Okay, so we've got one more stop on our first episode of our Sicily tour and I'm in Taormina and this is in the east of Sicily a part that is known for one of the most famous Sicilian specialties Granita. Okay, so we arrived at Bambara which is named after the owner Saretto Bambara and he is known as a maestro for Granita all across Italy. So this place is not a secret anymore but we're meeting with Saretto to see how he makes this Granita. Let's go inside. For to make the Granita lemon we have to make the lemon juice. It's important to balance our water our sugar. I have no recipe but I make every time different sour lemon. It's more sweet or more sour and the difference of this I put the sugar. Good. In 10 minutes it's ready Granita. The Granita have origin from domination Arabic in Sicily. They have bring here the sherbet. Sherbet was the sorbet. The Sicilian people everything to go in the Etna on the mountain in Ebrodi where it was the snow take the snow and conserve in the cave. The snow with the lemon juice is born the Granita limone. I control about three. Can you control the consistency? First taste of the lemon Granita. Taste of the man. Very smooth. So refreshing. Granita lemon ready. Ok. Here is the lemon. Now we make Granita coffee. Coffee water and sugar. The coffee always espresso. Espresso always. How many espressos? Many many many. Granita coffee ready. Fresh coffee Granita. It's unbelievable. Fresh out of the machine. Literally seconds. It's so smooth. And also coffee it's ready. Here is the coffee. Ok. And now we're making strawberry Granita. We clean the strawberry. All the fresh fruit. Only fresh fruit. One container so it's 25 people which means This container 25 people. This container 25 people which means he makes it a lot of times in the day. Put the water in the strawberry. Trying the strawberry Granita before it's been frozen. Grande. Is it good? Not too sweet. We can put it in the machine. I can go in the machine. Ok. And also strawberry it's ready. Mucho Flavor. Granita di Limone. Ok. So Reto sorted us over four different flavors. So we've got lemon. We've got peach. We've got almond. And we've got strawberry over here. And all of the fruit flavors so the lemon, the peach and the strawberry are made with fresh fruit. We saw the delivery of fruit which comes throughout the day. So he keeps making it batch by batch by batch to always have a fresh Granita. Ok. Let's try the lemon first. Oh you know when you eat lemon and it's you know when you eat lemon and it just pulls everything together in the mouth it's the sour flavor of it. It's so fresh it's like biting into a frozen lemon. It makes so much sense that this started as a refreshment when they shaved the snow from Mount Etna and stored it in caves and then flavored it to have a really refreshing snack. So this is the peach flavor. And just like with the lemon it's like biting into a frozen version of that fruit but it tastes like the essence of that fruit. But you know with some others it's like a gelato. Gelato is really creamy and rich whereas this feels so light and refreshing. Strawberry. Again the same thing. Just the essence of that fruit. Just the perfect fruit in its season. Oh yeah. That is wonderful. Okay so we had three fruit flavors but now I'm really excited to try mandola, the almond. Wow. That tastes like the strongest marzipan. You know when you make marzipan you really taste the oils of the almond. That's what happens here. By making the pasta di mandola the almond paste which is similar to marzipan because it's almonds and sugar. It really brings out these oils and then when you bite into this frozen refreshing granita that's the first thing that hits you and then he's mixing in these little bits of almond and that sort of like breaks it up and gives a really nice texture as well. If you like almonds if you like marzipan you will love this. We almost finished our granita and then Saretto came out and got us some bread. So this is the coffee granita which is apparently very traditional to the region of Messina in Taormina and because he also got us some bread sticks and a pane a small bread we can dip the bread into the coffee because this is traditionally it's a breakfast a colazione in Taormina or in Sicilia. Usually with a brioche bun the brioche bun isn't vegan so we're going to have a little griffini a little bread stick and we'll dip it straight in. Exactly. Mmm. It's good. Buonissimo. Mmm. It's so much fun especially because it's a coffee flavour as well. It's like eating a small breakfast having a coffee on the side it doesn't stop anymore the next thing arrives. We still have our coffee granita here. It's a good mixture is almond and coffee. In Catania many many people take alfa-alfa or granita almond a little bit of coffee. So a little bit of almond a little bit of coffee. Together. Yes, together. It's a good mixture. So we've got almond and coffee and we'll try it together. Because the almond is a little bit sweeter and my coffee is not too much sweeter it's a good combine. That's a perfect combination. I have to do another one. Guys that was the end of the first Sicily episode but I've got a second episode coming up and it's all about pasta. We're going to mill our own semolina flour and see how it's turned into traditional Sicilian pasta dishes that just happen to be vegan. Plus we're going to check out another famous Sicilian ingredient the almond. We're going to visit an almond farm to see how they turn almonds into latte di mandola which is almond milk. And we're going to see how they make pasta di mandola which is an almond paste that they use for a traditional Sicilian sweet called frutta mattarana. See you soon.