Italian - a trip to the Sicilian Pasta Kitchen

Italy, well I know that Italian food was not one of our chosen country foods, however I graced the doors of the Sicillian Pasta Kitchen (downtown location) on Saturday.

In Edmonton we have a large population of Italians and with this we have quite a few restaurants dedicated to the tastes of Italy. Italy has many regions; each region has different foods and cooking styles. Though most Italians will tell you that breakfast is the smallest meal of the day and lunch was there biggest meal usually consisting of a few courses. Though with the change in times Italy now eats a larger supper than Lunch.

The northern part of Italy favours the Ribbon shapped pasta and the South favourite pasta dish is the Macaroni with tomatoe sauce.

At the Sicilian Pasta Kitchen I had the lunch special the Penne All' Arrabiata; Penne in a spicy tomato sauce with finely chopped pancetta ham and crushed chilies and the Fetticini with roasted red peppers in a cream sauce, with bread and olive oil and balsamic vinager for dipping.

Doing some web surfing i found that most of Sicily uses fresh vegetables and fruits, such as tomatoes, artichokes, olives (including olive oil), citrus, apricots, aubergines, onions, beans, raisins to compliment sea food, freshly caught from the surrounding coastlines, including tuna, sea bream, sea bass, cuttlefish, swordfish, sardines, and others.

The most well-known part of Sicilian cuisine is the rich sweet dishes of ice creams and pastries. Cannoli, to name one, is a very popular pastry it is a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with a sweet filling usually containing ricotta cheese. As with most of the southern part of Italy pasta plays an important part in Sicilian cuisine, as does rice.

For the most part it seems that the Sicilian Pasta Kitchen has remained true to its roots.