Taormina Cooks

May 31, 2018

Since we live in Victoria BC, we were naturally inclined to stay at the Hotel Victoria in Taormina. It is a classic hotel built in 1885 and lovingly maintained and staffed with caring people. Two identical twins, Philippo and Luigi, manned the reception desk with panache for the 3 days we stayed here (each had a 12h shift). They were a pleasure to chat with each time we left and returned, dropping off and picking up the key each time.

Hotel Victoria was our base for 3 nights.

Early each morning, vehicles are allowed on the main pedestrian street so that vendors can bring in their supplies. Garbage is also collected in the morning so if you’re not already awake, the sound of waterfalls of breaking glass (wine bottles) will do the trick. After about 9:30am, it becomes a pedestrian only strip.

While researching this trip back in January, I learned about a cooking class in Taormina offered by the family who owns the Netunna restaurant. We couldn’t pre-book the class because we didn’t know when we would be in Taormina so I was thrilled to find there were two spaces available when I booked the class three days ago. Today was the day of our 5hr cooking class. We were to meet at 10am at the Messina Gate, a 3 minute walk from our hotel.

David went on an early stroll through the town to catch a few morning views. As you’ll notice, the outside walls and facades of the buildings are left to age without much intervention (...maintenance?) and this provides a great backdrop for the floral touches: geraniums, succulents, petunias and oranges in terracotta or majolica pots.

Majolica ceramics shops are typically jammed with pieces like they are in this storefront. I could stop and gaze at every one of these displays except it would severely slow us down as there were so many of them. We looked into the shipping costs and decided against a purchase, partly because of the risk of them arriving in several pieces.

The San Guiseppe church sits facing the Piazza IX Aprile, next to the Clock Tower. Notice the hilltop behind the church to get a sense of how steep the terrain is here. There are hiking trails throughout the area for those who need some exercise to work off all the amazing meals. For example, if you’re inclined you can walk up another 300 meters to Castelmola, the hilltop town that lies above Taormina. I hear the views over Taormina are spectacular.

The views from the piazza of the Ionian Sea and Mt Etna are magnificent and at this time of the morning, David had it all to himself.

Etna is the second most active volcano in the world after Kilauea, which has been intermittently spewing lava all the while we have been on this trip. In the early morning you’ll commonly see small clouds gather at the 3,350m summit and these often build during the day and obscure the mountain from view. It gets a fair bit of snow over the winter and we could see a few patches of snow remaining on the upper slopes.

Cruise ships in the Ionian Sea near Taormina.

Colourful side streets head up from Via Umberto.

The island of Sicily with lava flowing down Mount Etna, all in corks.

Beautiful balconies dressed in geraniums.

We headed to the Massina Gate at 9:30am to meet chef Domenico for the Sicilian cooking class. Our group consisted of 4 men and 8 women. We set off to do our shopping in the small daily Taormina market. Dom explained what characteristics to look for in each of the ingredients he picked up: mint, Italian parsley, basil, eggplant, tomatoes, spring onions, peppers, olives, fish, and cheese. The market was full of banter as the vendors greeted us and the smells of fresh produce and herbs filled the air.

The Taormina market was small but it had everything you’d need or want.

Fresh red peppers...not on the menu today however.

Italian parsley, mint and tomatoes for our menu.

There was a wide selection of fresh fish.

Kitty was well positioned in front of the fish stall.

We walked up a long set of narrow steps off the Via Umberto to the courtyard of the Nettuno Restaurant to begin our class. The outdoor covered classroom was equipped with prep tables, cooktops and all the needed equipment and was connected to the bar and restaurant. Beside it was a small garden with a lawn and large orange trees. Large bowls, each with 1c of semolina awaited us.

Semolina and water is all that’s needed to make pasta.

We simply added water to our bowls and within minutes, Dom and his mother Francesca had us massaging our little balls of pasta dough. Those who used their fingers instead of the heel of their hand didn’t fare as well but daughter, Veronica, jumped in to help out.

Francesca proceeded to show us many ways to shape pasta. First up was maccheroni, a hollow tube about 3-4 inches long. The trick here was to use a small bit of dough, roll it on a spoke until the pasta was quite thin and then gently coax the pasta from the spoke. A popular variation of this is busiate, made by coiling a thin maccheroni around the spoke.

Then Dom showed us how simple it was to make orecchiette by pressing a small ball of dough against the work surface with your thumb. Curl the edges together and you have another shape. Press the ball against a mould with angled grooves and you have gnocchi! We were all having a lot of fun with this and within short order we had a large pile of pasta.

Next we made the fresh tomato sauce. The tomatoes were popped into a pot of boiling water and within a few minutes the skins were floating off and Francesca transferred them to a large bowl of ice water. They were macerated by hand while I sautéed the garlic and a full bunch of basil in a large pot. Then the tomatoes went in and the sauce was to cook at a light boil for another 30 minutes.

Francesca, mother and chef, instructing us on making fresh tomato sauce.

The next course on our menu was Caponata. The eggplants, or melanzone, were round and had white flesh and light purple skins. Francesca demonstrated how to remove some of the skin with a veggie peeler, making alternate peels so it looked like zebra stripes. Then they were quartered and chopped into cubes and taken to the professional kitchen for cooking.

We each prepared the ingredients for the caponata, mis en place: tomato paste and cooked eggplant, capers, raisins and olives, celery and chopped onions.

There were 8 stations for cooking so we took turns cooking and plating our caponata using a small metal ring.

Dom and Veronica, brother and sister, coaching us through caponata.

I wish there was such a thing as smellovision...it was divine.

Our third dish to prepare was baked branzino (or sea bass). I was raised in a fishing community and spent many hours in small boats fishing for salmon, cod and trout so I was looking forward to a lesson on filleting the fish. For expediency, they had filleted the fish for us. We prepared the ingredients, assembled them in separate small ceramic dishes, covered them with foil and sent them to the kitchen for a 30 minute bake. The ingredients were olive oil, white wine, olives, capers, spring onions, a spicy green pepper, mint, parsley, kosher salt and pepper.

While the fish was cooking, we were served white wine as we watched Domineco cook the pasta and explain the importance of cooking until it was al dente. We have noticed they like their pasta barely al dente in Sicily.

We sat in the restaurant to enjoy our Grillo wine and our caponata. We were amazed at the flavour of such a simple to make dish and swore we’d be making this when we got home.

OK, I won’t fib about the pasta. The sauce and the cheese was delicious but the lack of quality control meant some (most?) of the pasta was too thick and chewy. The lesson here is to pay attention when you’re making your pasta by hand. You want them to have the same thickness and size so it all cooks to the desired level of chewiness. Our pasta was a collection of what all 12 of us made it was all over the map!

Maccheroni with fresh tomato sauce and dry ricotta.

The sea bass raised our spirits again. It was a home run and another dish we said we’d make when we got home. The collective flavours were out of this world. We sopped up the juices with a nice bread, soft and chewy on inside and crunchy on the outside. The white wine was the perfect accompaniment.

Veronica had disappeared during the final preparations and eating. She had been preparing our certificates in her beautiful calligraphy handwriting. After the presentations, we all posed for a selfie. We were almost sad to leave the restaurant, but we couldn’t have asked for a better experience and left with fond memories and smiles on our faces.

We took a short break at the hotel and then set off for to see the site that defines Taormina, its Greco-Roman amphitheatre. Prior to coming to Sicily, I had expected it to be another jaunt up the hill from town but that’s not the case at all. It was just a 10 minute walk from our hotel. The siting of this amphitheatre in the 3rd century BC was no accident. The views of the Ionian Sea and Mt Etna on a clear day are second to none and a photographers dream. The theatre was carved out of the rock on Mount Tauro and had a capacity of 5,000 spectators. The Romans transformed it in the 2nd century AD so it could be used for gladiator contests as opposed to plays and gatherings during the Greek period.

In modern times, it has been used in movies and stages concerts, operas, and plays. Among many others, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Sting, Santana, Paul Simon and Tony Bennett have all performed here. Sadly there were no performances while we were here although they we could see them preparing the stage for the upcoming season.

Scaffolding will hold the stage for summer plays and concerts.

Capitals from corinthian columns erected by the Romans.

View from the theatre, with Mt Etna in the clouds.

We spent about an hour touring the amphitheatre, marvelling once again at the technical genius of the construction and at the value of the arts so many centuries ago. Well, that’s until the introduction of the gladiator era.

We joined in with the evening passegiatta after touring the amphitheatre, exploring the alleys and streets, past restaurants, bars and stores selling one of everything. This ritual of going for an evening stroll is a tradition in most Italian towns and cities. You won’t find any Sicilians in running shoes and spandex, however. This is a time to see and be seen so they dress to impress in their finer attire for this evening stroll. I have been constantly amazed to see women navigating cobbles in 4-6” heels during the passegiatta. In this light, it’s not so surprising to see brides and grooms strolling and having photo shoots of their big moment during the passegiatta.

Bride and groom at Church of San Guiseppe.

Petunias adorned the wrought iron balconies.

Vicolo Stretto, the narrowest street in Taormina.

You could spend days exploring all the tiny alley and streets.

Jacaranda trees, with their purple flowers, were in bloom

After such a satisfying gastronomic experience today we decided to go for something simple so we chose a trattoria that was a little off the main route. We sat out on the outdoor patio overlooking Taormina dining on a salad and spaghetti aglio e olio, a simple spaghetti with garlic, olive oil, parmesan and parsley. It was the perfect ending to one of the best days ever on a cycle tour. Tomorrow we head for the mountains to get back to the real Sicily.

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