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