Apart from the excellent food in Pocho.it near San Vito Lo Capo, the meals on this whistle stop tour of Sicily have been a bit disappointing.
Last night’s dinner at Trattoria del Crocifisso was an exception and deserves a brief blog post all of its own.
We stumbled into this lovely trattoria, high up in Noto Alta, about 10 minutes walk from Corso Vittorio Emanuelle, to escape the thunder and lightening and rain lashing down from the north.
On a Sunday evening it was full of locals, in couples and family groups, settling in for a long evening of chatter and food.
We had a simple meal and what singled it out from others was the rich flavours and perfect balance of the dishes.
We shared ravioli to start. It was oozing ricotta and served with a pork and tomato sauce containing tender chunks of pork.
My main course was tagliata di manzo – sliced fillet beef served rare with caponata and was perfectly tender and delicious.
My other half’s secondo was a stuffed fillet of pork in a Marsala reduction.
My desert, described on the English menu as a “cup cake” was the most divine chocolate essence I have ever tasted
And the other dessert, involving pistachio, was every bit as good.
We washed it all down with a bottle of Arianna Occhipinti’s SP68 Nero d’Avola from 2011, a lighter take on this Sicilian classic. The whole meal, including tip, came to €70.
For once I was too busy eating and ogling the delicious dishes on the way to other tables to take careful note of the full descriptions of the food but all is not lost. We’ve booked to return there tomorrow night for a last supper before returning home and this time I will bring a notebook 🙂
Noto itself is a lovely town and its cathedral (pictured above) looked splendid in the sunshine yesterday morning. It is well worth a visit for it’s gelati and granite alone. The granite di mandarino from Corrado Costanzo is like tasting Sicily in a dish.
I’m only getting the hang of uploading a blogpost from iPhone so forgive any errors. I will tidy it up when I get home!
