A Sack of Antipasti, Please

Dear International Living Reader,

Arguably the finest no-frills, made-by-human-hands food in Italy is available at what are called agriturismos. Everything that comes to the table is produced either right outside the window of the restaurant or just down the road. I went to Casa dello Scirocco in Lentini, Sicily, on a recommendation from a local. "There is no menu," the Signora of the house warned us. "We start with a sack of antipasti." She wasn't kidding. The waitress wheeled out a cart and began to fill every available square inch of the table with plates.

A tip: Skip the bread. Delicious and fresh as it may be, the modest stomach won't last through the primo piatto. We dug into bruschetta with eggplant and sesame; goat's cheese with oil and spicy pepper; local olives; an onion-and-tomato-filled pastry; deep-fried onions; caponata--a dish of red peppers, eggplant, olives, carrots, and raisins in olive oil; and many more tasty treats. In between mouthfuls we drank a hearty red, produced in-house.

Then came the first plate. Typically this would be pasta; but this time we ate Sicilian pizza, a large calzone--light, flaky, and deep-fried with goat's cheese, with just a trace of anchovy. Just when I thought perhaps I had reached my limit, the second plate arrived. Tender grilled beef strips with fresh rosemary and basil. We finished the plate with a light salad and grapefruit from the trees outside.

Dessert was homemade almond ice cream. Total cost, about $26.

Contact: Casa dello Scirocco, Contrada Piscitello, Carlentini, Italy; tel./fax (39)095-7836-120; e-mail: info@casadelloscirocco.it; website: www.casadelloscirocco.it.

Kevin Revolinski
For International Living

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