Just about every visitor falls victim to Sicily’s seductive ways with food. My passion for this island’s glorious crossroads cuisine, influenced by Arab, Spanish and Greek occupiers, began with first sight of dazzling seafood displays. A friend succumbed to caponata, sampling local takes on the sweet-and-sour eggplant dish wherever he went. Others lose their hearts to a lemon granita, ravioli stuffed with luscious ricotta or the thick savory pizza called sfincione.

If you’re a curious person who enjoys cooking, the idea of replicating some of these marvels at home may appeal. The best way, of course, is to watch Sicilian cooks in action. To research a cookbook, I sought a variety of in-depth experiences. But even if you’d like a quick dip in Sicilian cooking, not a full immersion, this guide is for you.

Western Sicily
When she’s not travelling around the world to promote her family’s extra virgin olive oil, Natalia Ravidà teaches classes on seasonal Sicilian cooking in their Menfi villa or 16th-century farmhouse overlooking the Mediterranean. “Right now we’re doing a lot with artichokes, fava beans and wild asparagus,” she told me in February. Most recipes appear in her cookbook, Seasons of Sicily. Farm tours, olive oil tastings and accommodations are available, and some groups schedule expeditions to nearby destinations such as Selinunte, Segesta and Erice.

Natalia also teaches customized classes in Mondello, a fashionable seaside suburb of Palermo, where she lives with her husband and son. It was here that two highly productive days organized by Natalia enabled me to visit five fish markets, talk with two chefs and, most important, learn the essentials of Sicilian seafood cookery in her kitchen. She showed me how to bake an enormous sea bass, make zuppa di pesce in a terracotta pot, press the shells of red-orange prawns through a food mill to make an unforgettable pasta sauce. While we cooked, my daughter Mary went to the beach, returning in time for lunch on Natalia’s spacious terrace.    

Center of Palermo
Next stop: La Dimora del Genio, a pleasant B&B in Palermo’s medieval quarter. Owner Paola Mendola would be my teacher, with Italian as our common language. We spent the mornings on our own, exploring the area, including the historic Vucciria and sprawling Capo markets. At mid-day Paola and I braved Palermo traffic to shop at her favorite fish market and a well-provisioned supermarket.

By 1 we were back in Paola’s sunny kitchen, where her mother Sara was already peeling eggplant for a pasta sauce. Paola, once the chef/owner of a prominent restaurant, cooks at warp speed and within minutes the aroma of frying eggplant filled the air. I alternated between clicking photos over Paola’s shoulder and chatting with sweet-faced Sara, who recounted childhood memories of country life and cooking.  Soon we sat down for a three-course pranzo with Paola’s husband, Maurizio Muscolino, an artist whose luminous paintings adorn the apartment.

For someone with even modest skills in Italian, Paola’s classes offer a chance to improve cooking and language skills while sinking into the rhythms of Palermo life.

Ortygia and Siracusa

A typical day for Fiorangela Piccione, a youthful-looking grandmother, begins with pastry baking for L’Approdo delle Sirene, her Ortygia B&B. She dons running shoes to circle the island and then does an afternoon stint at her travel agency. Oh yes, Fiora also makes time for cooking lessons, which I had heard about from Susan Baldassano, a culinary vacation organizer.   

At one produce stand, Fiora compared big green olives cracked before brining to small black ones pierced with a needle. At another, she chose huge bunches of sinepa, mustard greens, and tenerume, velvety greens attached to dramatically long, convoluted squash. Fiora’s favorite fishmonger, whom she introduced as “an artist,” deftly filleted lampuca, a popular fish similar to mahimahi.

Afterward, I toured Siracusa’s fine archeological museum with my daughter until 4. By then Fiora had prepped and artfully arranged many ingredients. She demonstrated her method of toasting breadcrumbs, layering them in a casserole with fresh anchovy fillets. Fiora sautéed the lampuca fillets with onions and peppers, and simmered the mustard greens before seasoning with garlic and hot red pepper. The tenerume leaves joined chopped tomatoes in a soupy pasta sauce.

Fiora had invited other americani staying at L’Approdo to attend the feast, which began with antipasti, including olives, soft tuma cheese and the anchovy casserole. As we finished dessert, a boat docked just yards away. From the balcony, we watched fishermen unload big blue tubs filled with lampuga for tomorrow’s market.

The next day, I walked to Hotel Gutowski to join a class organized by Katia Amore of Love Sicily. Giancarlo Schiavone, a large jovial chef wearing a T-shirt proclaiming, “Sono troppo SEXY à lavorare,” teamed up with Asulta Saturo, a fisherman’s wife, to make traditional and contemporary specialties. Midway through a week of cooking and touring together, the six participants (two couples and two singles) seemed happy and engaged as they followed instructions for rolling pasta dough and assembling zucchini and ricotta tortini.
“Sometimes we include something just because it’s interesting, like pasta with squid ink,” said Katia. “But mostly it’s recipes that can be made at home because that’s what people want.” 

In Marzamemi, near Sicily’s southeastern tip, Lina Campisi delighted me  and my daughter Kate not only with her carrot-red hair but with the force of her personality and cooking prowess. In La Cialoma’s small, pristine kitchen, Lina and her equally flamboyant sous chef, Annamaria, effortlessly turned out fried sardines in sweet and sour sauce, eggplant cannelloni stuffed with tuma cheese, ricotta doused with vino cotto.

When servers started squeezing by us to pick up orders, it was time to retreat. Though Katia had persuaded Lina to make an exception, she does not make a practice of teaching while running a restaurant; however, she and other chefs are among the guest instructors at Love Sicily’s new cooking school, perched on a hill in the center of Modica. 

Katia and her husband Ronald, who pursued research careers before starting their culinary travel business, renovated an old stone house that was once home to her grandparents. While preparing for the conversion of their sitting room into a spacious kitchen with multiple work stations, they discovered some of her grandmother’s recipes, which will be shared with students.

Central Sicily
   
Fifteen years ago Anna Tasca Lanza founded her cooking school at Regaleali, a large estate in the mountains of central Sicily also known for well-regarded wines. An authority on Sicily cooking, Anna is the author of The Flavors of Sicily and other cookbooks. Some visitors stay for as much as a week, taking classes, enjoying the beautiful setting and joining in farm life, but my husband, another couple and I had time only for a single lesson when we stopped by 18 months ago.

We arrived about 10 and soon Anna was inviting us to form panelle by draping fried chickpea pancakes over the backs of dinner plates. She kneaded focaccia dough in a traditional wooden box called a maidd‡, and then turned her attention to mushroom risotto and stuffed flank steak. Our non-cooking friend Bill was at the other end of the room, listening happily to Anna’s erudite husband Vences hold forth on the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Following a convivial lunch, he gave us a winery tour.

Anna teaches small classes now and then, but her daughter Fabrizia Lanza has taken over most responsibilities of running the school. An accomplished cook, she continues to teach her mother’s recipes but plans to invite guest instructors with specialties such as pastry making and is introducing culinary vacations on Salina, an Aeolian island known for superb capers and dessert wines.

After all this, am I tapped out on Sicilian culinary studies? Absolutely not. The teachers, the places, the specialties are all different. What they share was best said by Chef Lina Campisi: “Ninety percent of my recipes are from memory, the dishes of my mother and nonna.” Cooking classes offer a fascinating window into a culture justly proud of its traditions and determined to preserve them.

WHEN YOU GO…
Katia Amore: Week-long vacation at Modica cooking school includes four cooking lessons, accommodations, meals and airport pick-up, 1,430 euros p.p.; visit www.lovesicily.com.

Susan Baldassano: Week-long stay in Ortygia includes classes with three teachers, accommodations, transport, most meals and excursions; visit www.tograndmothershousewego.com.

Fabrizia Lanza: Offerings range from half-day classes and lunch at Regaleali to longer stays and culinary vacations in Salina; visit www.annatascalanza.com.    

Fiorangela Piccione: private or small group lesson in Siracusa with market visit and tasting; visit www.siciliandemocooking.com.

Paola Mendola: Half-day customized lesson conducted in Italian and lunch in her Palermo B&B; contact paolamendola@ladimoradelgenio.it.

Natalia Ravidà: Daylong cooking demo, lunch and farm tour at La Gurra (near Menfi) for minimum of 10 students; longer stays possible; customized classes in Mondello; contact ravida@ravida.it or f.ajello@travelsicilia.com.

Unless otherwise noted, classes can be conducted in English.This article was published originally in Dream of Italy, an online travel newsletter.