Things you don't realize you need until you're in Italy

1. Mac&Cheese (I know, I know. The pasta looks like wet cardboard, and the "cheese" is about as unnatural as you can get. Still, there's something about that uniquely fluorescent orange macaroni that I can't resist. Sometimes you just need something cheesy and instant. I do like adding parmigiano grattugiato to it though, to dress it up a bit.)  

Ricotta

Ricotta is an Italian staple used in everything from egg frittata and various pasta dishes, to cakes and cannoli.

Though considered a cheese, it is actually made from the remaining whey of the cheese making process. Similar to cottage cheese, it is surprisingly low in fat and has a distinctive curdled texture.

I Cachi

Cachi (kah-key) or "Japanese Persimmons" are a popular fall fruit in Sicily (though you can hardly consider daily temperatures of 25 degrees C as your typical autumn weather... Even the Sicilians are starting to get tired of the heat).

To me they look like psychedelic tomatoes, more of a florescent pinkish orange rather than red. The taste isn't bad either... but I just can't get past the texture.

Peperoni, not Pepperoni

The first thing nearly every tourist wants once they have landed in Italy is pizza, shortly followed by gelato. So after waiting for the notoriously late opening hour of restaurants, American tourists will rush into the nearest pizzeria and gaze happily upon an Italian pizza menu.

Hopefully this menu won't have a word of English on it. Because let's face it, if you want genuine Italian pizza uninfluenced by the monotony of globalism, it shouldn't be in a glammed up tourist trap where every waiter speaks perfect British English.

It should be in a hole-in-the-wall where the pizza oven takes up more room than the seating area, and the menus are half in Italian and half in incomprehensible dialect.

This is by far the best way to eat pizza in Italy... with one drawback. How to figure out what you're getting on your pizza.

Cherries, Ciliegie

Cherries, or Ciliegie, are one of the first signs of approaching summer.

Here they are eaten as early in the season as possible, mid-May, before the verme (worms) can get to them. While you can still eat cherries later, it's best to cut them in to pieces first to avoid unwelcome surprises.

I have yet to see any recipes related to cherries. Possibly because the Sicilians see no need to fool around with perfection.

Oranges, Arance

Though Sicilians are very proud about all food produced on their island, they are exceptionally passionate about their citrus fruits. Arance,in particular, are the pride and joy of Sicily. 

Here the Arance fall into one of three basic categories: 

Your classic orange colored Arancia, often referred to as Brasiliana (Brazilian), l'Arancia Vaniglia (Vanilla Orange), and l'Arancia Rossa, the Blood Orange. 

Peeling an Orange, the Sicilian Way

Whenever I ate oranges growing up, which I avoided whenever possible, it was a fairly unpleasant experience. The oranges were quartered and served with the peel still attached, and was thus eaten in a watermelon fashion. Bite too deep, you get a bunch of pith stuck between your teeth. Not deep enough and you squirt juice all over yourself.

Then I came to Sicily and discovered that there is indeed a better way to eat an orange... without the peel and extra pith. Though some Sicilians get really fancy with spiral peeling (Zia Michela once peeled an entire honeydew melon in one long spiral), the below instructions are for the basic "wedge" method of peeling.