Sicily: Noto Part 5 - The Noto Market
Mar 27, 2024 14:06:45 #
On our way back to the bus parking area, we slowly walked through the fascinating Noto Market, home of many stalls with an eclectic assortment of goods and foods.
From the website: https://www.crumbsonthetable.co.uk/sicily-part-i-noto-town-and-market/
"The Noto market was smaller than some, but of excellent quality and far more varied than one might expect in February (it still surprises me how much can be grown here, and how good it is, when northern Europe is still under snow). It sits on the margin of a scrap of land that supports, with typical Sicilian resourcefulness, a few olive and orange trees, wild fennel and borage, and even some vines looking well-tended by someone, as no doubt they were.
There were local walnuts and almonds, and pecans from Mount Etna; native lentils, and black rice; dried wild oregano with the most gorgeous fragrance; big round green Castlevetrano olives; interesting greens and bitter lettuces; excellent celery and huge bulbs of fennel; artichokes and enormous pumpkins; and oranges at the peak of their season, incredibly good. The long, green peppers we chose for the caponata may have looked like any other pepper, but they were the most flavourful I have tasted.
The fish matched the freshness, if not the variety, of Palermo markets: swordfish, sardines, and the ‘neonata’ or jelly-like, translucent baby whitebait used to make fish pancakes (Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano acknowledges a portion of such newborns ‘a massacre’ while tucking in with gusto). These are sold legally here on the grounds that the whitebait is a small fish when mature. It isn’t always clear whether these tiniest of fish are a mixed by-catch (e.g., immature sprats, sardines, mackerel, bass, squid and other species), so critics advocate outlawing them, while others argue it’s wasteful not to eat them as they don’t survive being put back.
This was an animated and colourful market, boisterous with bonhomie and transactions amongst people who were clearly regulars. Shoppers consulted freely with vendors, and vendors were vocal with each other. A truckload of tomatoes were being sold by a performer who waved his cigar at his neighbours and jokingly warned me “they were so ugly they would break the camera”. The brothers bantered back as we consulted them for help in choosing the sweetest oranges for our salad.
It seemed the best kind of local market, where one can procure just about everything one needs to cook good food from scratch, sometimes for a bargain. Renée was tempted by a truckload of Istica carrots, noted for their sweetness. She filled her backpack with them for pennies a kilo and gave them away to friends and neighbours on our walk back to the kitchen (all of whom accepted with enthusiasm and the Sicilian double kiss). It was on this walk that we spotted a number of Noto street-cats tucking into plates of pasta left for them by kind-hearted souls. I’ve never seen a cat eat spaghetti anywhere else, and I have to say, I’m not sure this little one was too happy about it.
A little more about the food in Noto
Amongst Noto’s many culinary treasures are simple places to enjoy the ubiquitous Sicilian cannoli, which newly crisp and filled with the freshest, milkiest sheep’s milk ricotta of the island are heavenly confections bearing little resemblance in taste, at least, to those with which we are more familiar in the UK and US (which typically use the milder cow’s milk ricotta and far more sugar).
There are so many other tempting little sweets, typically made of the native Sicilian almonds (or pistachio) and flavoured with its intensely perfumed citrus, that it’s nearly impossible to go on holiday here without wearing a perpetual dusting of powdered sugar. And it goes without saying that it’s possible to sip a very good espresso (generally for about a euro) in any number of pasticceria and modest corner-bars: an oh-so-agreeable habit.
An historical landmark for all the above, dating from 1892, is Café Sicilia, where artists and philosophers once squandered their time, and which now attracts the cognoscenti of Sicilian dolci, locals of many vocations, and of course visiting caffeine and pastry junkies like us. The pastry chef and owner, Corrado Assenza, represents the fourth generation of his family to run Café Sicilia. He is known throughout Sicily for his interpretations both traditional and innovative, and for his mission to save varieties of local almond, wild strawberry and other Sicilian tastes, from extinction.
We also stumbled across down-to-earth family-run businesses that specialise in particular Sicilian dishes like arancini – savouries made of saffron rice wrapped around a filling (typically ragu, cheese and peas), then patted into the shape of a dome using hands posed as for prayer (Palermo style), or rolled round between the palms (Noto style) to mimic the little orange for which they are named, then fried with a coating of egg and fine bread crumbs. Their simplicity belies a tradition preserved through passion and love. One such place near the cathedral, which we learned later is considered the best for arancini in the city, typified the care bestowed on such ‘fast foods’ and the strong family ties so common in Sicily. Andrea, who runs his modest premises with courtesy and quiet pride, credits his own talents as an arancini master to his late father, whose photo he keeps on the wall behind the till as a mark of respect, gratitude, and authenticity.
As for wine, we easily found small shops that sold bottles of good, gutsy local wines for a couple of euros, and one where we filled plastic litre bottles from large casks with an excellent local Nero D’Avola for less than the cost of a small glass in England.
For more images of Noto, please see my prior posts:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-802612-1.html#14521681
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-802778-1.html#14525101
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-802870-1.html#14527333
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-802956-1.html#14529250
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-803029-1.html#14531691
I hope you enjoy these!
Mark
From the website: https://www.crumbsonthetable.co.uk/sicily-part-i-noto-town-and-market/
"The Noto market was smaller than some, but of excellent quality and far more varied than one might expect in February (it still surprises me how much can be grown here, and how good it is, when northern Europe is still under snow). It sits on the margin of a scrap of land that supports, with typical Sicilian resourcefulness, a few olive and orange trees, wild fennel and borage, and even some vines looking well-tended by someone, as no doubt they were.
There were local walnuts and almonds, and pecans from Mount Etna; native lentils, and black rice; dried wild oregano with the most gorgeous fragrance; big round green Castlevetrano olives; interesting greens and bitter lettuces; excellent celery and huge bulbs of fennel; artichokes and enormous pumpkins; and oranges at the peak of their season, incredibly good. The long, green peppers we chose for the caponata may have looked like any other pepper, but they were the most flavourful I have tasted.
The fish matched the freshness, if not the variety, of Palermo markets: swordfish, sardines, and the ‘neonata’ or jelly-like, translucent baby whitebait used to make fish pancakes (Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano acknowledges a portion of such newborns ‘a massacre’ while tucking in with gusto). These are sold legally here on the grounds that the whitebait is a small fish when mature. It isn’t always clear whether these tiniest of fish are a mixed by-catch (e.g., immature sprats, sardines, mackerel, bass, squid and other species), so critics advocate outlawing them, while others argue it’s wasteful not to eat them as they don’t survive being put back.
This was an animated and colourful market, boisterous with bonhomie and transactions amongst people who were clearly regulars. Shoppers consulted freely with vendors, and vendors were vocal with each other. A truckload of tomatoes were being sold by a performer who waved his cigar at his neighbours and jokingly warned me “they were so ugly they would break the camera”. The brothers bantered back as we consulted them for help in choosing the sweetest oranges for our salad.
It seemed the best kind of local market, where one can procure just about everything one needs to cook good food from scratch, sometimes for a bargain. Renée was tempted by a truckload of Istica carrots, noted for their sweetness. She filled her backpack with them for pennies a kilo and gave them away to friends and neighbours on our walk back to the kitchen (all of whom accepted with enthusiasm and the Sicilian double kiss). It was on this walk that we spotted a number of Noto street-cats tucking into plates of pasta left for them by kind-hearted souls. I’ve never seen a cat eat spaghetti anywhere else, and I have to say, I’m not sure this little one was too happy about it.
A little more about the food in Noto
Amongst Noto’s many culinary treasures are simple places to enjoy the ubiquitous Sicilian cannoli, which newly crisp and filled with the freshest, milkiest sheep’s milk ricotta of the island are heavenly confections bearing little resemblance in taste, at least, to those with which we are more familiar in the UK and US (which typically use the milder cow’s milk ricotta and far more sugar).
There are so many other tempting little sweets, typically made of the native Sicilian almonds (or pistachio) and flavoured with its intensely perfumed citrus, that it’s nearly impossible to go on holiday here without wearing a perpetual dusting of powdered sugar. And it goes without saying that it’s possible to sip a very good espresso (generally for about a euro) in any number of pasticceria and modest corner-bars: an oh-so-agreeable habit.
An historical landmark for all the above, dating from 1892, is Café Sicilia, where artists and philosophers once squandered their time, and which now attracts the cognoscenti of Sicilian dolci, locals of many vocations, and of course visiting caffeine and pastry junkies like us. The pastry chef and owner, Corrado Assenza, represents the fourth generation of his family to run Café Sicilia. He is known throughout Sicily for his interpretations both traditional and innovative, and for his mission to save varieties of local almond, wild strawberry and other Sicilian tastes, from extinction.
We also stumbled across down-to-earth family-run businesses that specialise in particular Sicilian dishes like arancini – savouries made of saffron rice wrapped around a filling (typically ragu, cheese and peas), then patted into the shape of a dome using hands posed as for prayer (Palermo style), or rolled round between the palms (Noto style) to mimic the little orange for which they are named, then fried with a coating of egg and fine bread crumbs. Their simplicity belies a tradition preserved through passion and love. One such place near the cathedral, which we learned later is considered the best for arancini in the city, typified the care bestowed on such ‘fast foods’ and the strong family ties so common in Sicily. Andrea, who runs his modest premises with courtesy and quiet pride, credits his own talents as an arancini master to his late father, whose photo he keeps on the wall behind the till as a mark of respect, gratitude, and authenticity.
As for wine, we easily found small shops that sold bottles of good, gutsy local wines for a couple of euros, and one where we filled plastic litre bottles from large casks with an excellent local Nero D’Avola for less than the cost of a small glass in England.
For more images of Noto, please see my prior posts:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-802612-1.html#14521681
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-802778-1.html#14525101
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-802870-1.html#14527333
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-802956-1.html#14529250
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-803029-1.html#14531691
I hope you enjoy these!
Mark
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Mar 27, 2024 14:07:52 #
Mar 27, 2024 14:59:58 #
Mar 27, 2024 18:02:54 #
Mar 27, 2024 18:23:17 #
Mar 27, 2024 18:42:08 #
Mar 27, 2024 18:42:26 #
kpmac wrote:
What a delightful stroll. Very colorful.
Thanks very much Ken.
Mar 27, 2024 18:44:50 #
UTMike wrote:
That was a challenge to your stomach and wallet, Mark.
It was indeed Mike, but we restrained ourselves since we had a special lunch planned later that day. We did buy hand held lemon juicers as you'll see in my next set.
Mar 27, 2024 20:50:48 #
srfmhg wrote:
On our way back to the bus parking area, we slowly... (show quote)
I loved this set Mark! One of your best.
Mar 27, 2024 20:52:20 #
DJphoto wrote:
I loved this set Mark! One of your best.
Thanks very much Dennis. I appreciate!
Mar 28, 2024 06:53:36 #
Mar 28, 2024 08:38:41 #
Mar 28, 2024 09:51:16 #
I love local markets. It's something the rest of the world seems to do naturally, and we've never quite learned the art of doing (or using) them.
Mar 28, 2024 11:50:21 #
Mar 28, 2024 12:10:26 #
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