If you really want to learn about Italian cuisine, the first thing you need to do is banish any expectations created by the "Italian restaurant" back home. There is no such thing as Pasta Alfredo, your meal should always reflect what's in season, and cheese should have a minor role on pizza and not hog the limelight.
The next step is to accept that "Italian cuisine" is a very generalized term for what is actually a very diverse and geographically specific diet; a condescending term for northerners is Polentoni or "polenta eaters", street vendors in Caltanissetta sell freshly fried panelle but in Catania your more likely to find freshly grilled horse meat, and everyone knows that the best pasticcerie are in Sicily.
Because of this I can only offer a rather narrow view of my personal gastronomic experience down here in Sicily... though admittedly Sicilian cuisine is generally considered the epitome of the Mediterranean diet and the basis for most Italian dishes found in America (which I assume is due mostly to the large population of Sicilian immigrants). Despite these limitations however there is still much to share, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Ingredients
The most important part of any dish, regardless of cuisine or country, is the quality of the ingredients. Here in Sicily, nearly everything you could possibly need is within arms reach, whether it's lemons hanging from your tree in the campagna, or fresh ricotta from the sheep that graze in the field next door.
Recipes
This is my (currently very limited) collection of local recipes which I have personally tried or at least witnessed. There are endless variations on each of these dishes, mostly because few Sicilians actually follow recipes. They merely copy what their mothers have made for generations, with occasional embellishments or deviations based on gut instinct rather than instructions from a book.
Masterpieces
These are the dishes which I have yet to try personally (usually because they are rather daunting or require special equipment), but feel I need to include in my blog because of their importance in the local diet. Gelato, cannoli, and pizza, while difficult to make properly at home, are still titans of the cuisine.
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