Three months ago, during my summer stay in Polizzi, I drove to Favara, a small town close to the Greek temples of Agrigento on Sicily’s Mediterranean coast. I went there to cook Sicilian food for a morning in Sicily’s most innovative meeting place, Farm Cultural Park, with the vivacious Annalisa Pompeo, the passionate founder of  Go Sicily cook, eat, explore.

Annalisa met me in front of the cathedral and we walked together up a side street of abandoned houses and turned into a fabulous collaborative cultural space of seven interconnecting courtyards and small whitewashed houses: Farm Cultural Park.

We entered one of these houses and walked through a secluded sitting space, furnished with deep arm chairs, art and a fabulous Front Mooi horse lamp, past a long pine table and an assortment of dining chairs to the kitchen bench and work space. The stainless length of the bench was lit by a series of lights made of large, upturned pots.

This is where I cooked caponata, sfincione and mignolata with Annalisa. We prepared food, laughed, and then enjoyed eating together.

Annalisa had already prepared a plate of bruschetta drizzled with local olive oil and basil, and slices of orange topped with honey, anchovies and walnuts to welcome me.

The saltiness of the anchovies with the sweetness of both the local honey and the orange slices was so good. The jug of homemade juice, made with the tangy freshness of lemons, iced and infused with mint was refreshing and echoed Sicily’s Arabic past.

For the caponata, Sicily’s sweet and sour eggplant - 'made in the summer for the Sicilian winter' - we peeled deep purple Tunisian eggplants, fresh tomatoes, and stalks of celery.  Annalisa peeled two eggplants to my one and she pulled the peeler down the eggplant with experienced ease. I, on the other hand was guilty of  gouging the flesh. We laughed.

We diced onions and sautéed them. We cubed, fried and drained the eggplants, added it to the onion and then we tossed in the plain tomato sauce, added the exotic capers, green olives and vinegar and simmered it all for a while.

Annalisa tasted the caponata, offered me a spoon and then added a little more salt. There was an ease with how we cooked and Annalisa’s calm was what I needed: this was my first time ever as a student in a cooking school.

We started the tomato and onion sauce for the Palermitan sfincione as the caponata simmered.

The sfincione, a 'springy' pizza (to borrow writer Mary Taylor Simeti's word) from the province of Palermo, made with soft wheat flour and topped with anchovies, caciocavallo cheese, dried oregano and tomato and onion sauce was made in a flash. (The dough was done earlier)

Annalisa pressed the elastic like dough into the rectangular pan; sfincione is something quick, simple and tasty. It is loved by the Palermitans.

And, the mignolata, a tradition from Agrigento, is a crisp pastry filled with a taste of the Mediterranean. We  pressed pieces of pork sausage, onion and black olives into the flatten, stretched dough. And, as Annalisa started to roll up the dough dotted with simple ingredients she asked me to roll the opposite end. She 'mended' little holes as we rolled. Once cut into pieces, it was ready to bake.

We set the table together and Annalisa opened a bottle of Nero d’Avola wine from a local wine maker, Baglio Caruana. We toasted each other and drank a glass while we waited for the sfincione and mignolata to bake.

We ate well at the kitchen table and the lemon granita, fresh and sharp, was a perfect finish.

To cook with Annalisa go to her website to book www.go-sicily.it. 

Salve,

Suzanne