SICILY

26
100% Made in Sicily
Capers, herbs
and great cuisine
Pantelleria is not just sea. It is also a vast
range of typical local products, starting
from the highly aromatic local basil and the
oregano of Pantelleria. Basic ingredients for
making the island’s famous pesto, used to
flavour pasta, as well as with roast fish (better
still grilled) or boiled meats.
And then there are the celebrated capers,
recognized as an IGP (protected geographical
designation), which need to be conserved in
sea salt. In this way they keep for years their
intense, strong and penetrating flavour, which
gives them a leading role in a series of dishes
ranging from hors d’oeuvres (bruschetta
ai capperi) to starters (pesto alla Pantesca
crudo) and main dishes (baked swordfish).
Highly flavoured, too, are the island’s wild
rabbits, the delicate Tumma (the local fresh
cheese) and Baci (“kisses”), typical local
pastries filled with ricotta cheese.
Such is the quality of the Passito di
Pantelleria that the DOC dates back as
far as 1971. It is scarcely surprising that
recognition came so soon. The Passito
had already impressed at the 1900 Paris
Exhibition, and in 1936 it was included
among typical Italian wines for its “delicate,
refined fragrance and its velvety, sweet,
caressing and generous flavour”.
Various legends have grown up around the
Passito, such as that of the Goddess Tanit
who disguised herself as the cupbearer
of the Gods and replaced Ambrosia, the
habitual drink of Olympus, with the must
of the vines of Pantelleria, thereby winning
Apollo, with whom she was in love.
This Sicilian wine is a perfect
accompaniment for blue cheeses, cassata
(a Sicilian dessert) and baci panteschi
(the local fritters). It should be served
at a temperature of around 10-12 °C in
medium-sized tulip wine-glass. The fortified
version is a wine for meditation which may
be tasted with blue cheeses and typical
Sicilian desserts such as the cassata, and
should be served in small tulip wine-glasses
at 12-14°C.
Passito di Pantelleria is a golden-yellow
wine, sometimes tending towards amber,
A Zibibbo grape. It was originated
in Egypt and was brought to Pantelleria
by the Phoenicians.
with a typical Muscat bouquet and a sweet,
aromatic and pleasing flavour. The minimum
alcohol level is 20°. The fortified version
is a more or less intense golden yellow,
sometimes tending towards amber, with a
typical, intense bouquet and a sweet, velvety
flavour. The minim alcohol level is 22°.
Grown on a short tree under the scorching
sun of the Mediterranean summer, it owes
Tasting Sicily n.01/2013