I thoroughly enjoyed my personal Sicilian history lesson provided by Alessandro Adorno, the founder and director of the Babilonia language school. In addition, he suggested that I attend one of the cooking classes organized by Babilonia which gives students of Italian the opportunity to create Sicilian delicacies first hand.

Just a minute and a half from the language school is the home of Aurelio and Angela Ferrari, a couple who regularly host language students as part of Babilonia’s homestay program. The couple currently have three language students staying with them, providing them with comfortable accommodation as well as three home-cooked meals a day.

Aurelio, now retired, has spent his entire life in the hotel industry. He has lived and worked in different hotels and resorts in Rome, France and England and has held a wide variety of positions in the tourism business, including working in various hotel and restaurant kitchens, and has gained a wide variety of operational and managerial. After all the years abroad during his international career, he returned to live in Taormina, in the house where he was born. He said that he loves living here, it is beautiful and very safe as there is virtually no crime.

He explained that he loves Sicilian cuisine and really enjoys sharing his knowledge. Lessons are held three times a week and focus on Sicilian home cooking, using all the fresh, locally grown ingredients this fertile island has to offer.

Today Aurelio and his two culinary managers, Marjolein from Holland and Takashi from Japan, were going to produce a wide variety of Sicilian specialties:

– Pasta alla Eoliana

– Fish all Messinese

– Pomodori Gratini or Crostini

– Arabic style Sicilian caponata

– Aciughe marinated

– Fried formaggio

– Mint salad with olive oil

– Mele to Agrodolce

As you can imagine, a proper Sicilian meal always consists of several courses, and after all the preparation, the students, the master chef and their family enjoy the meal together. Aurelio, quite a character, added that the students usually sing, or play the guitar or the piano that is on the main floor of his four-story house. He also added that he always makes sure to ask his students if they have any food preferences or allergies or if they are vegetarian.

Tonight was going to be a real feast for the palate with two main courses: Pesce alla Messinese, a local fish specialty, and Pasta alla Eoliana – Aeolian Islands style pasta. Both dishes call for a basic sauce made from tomatoes and eggplant, flavored with local staples like onion, garlic, olives, capers, mint, basil, and oregano. Aurelio refers to these herbs as “profumi di Sicilia” – the fragrances or aromas of Sicily. The fish, cut into rectangular pieces, is cooked for just 10 minutes on the stovetop in the sauce to ensure it’s perfectly tender. To round out the flavor, a little red wine is added to the sauce at the end.

Pasta alla Eoliana starts from the same base and Aurelio explained that the pasta added to it is called “spacciatella”, a type of pasta that is not normally found in supermarkets. Any type of longitudinal hollow pasta should be able to replace this variety of pasta.

Various aromatic side dishes accompanied our meal: Pomodori Gratinati (gratin tomatoes), according to Aurelio, are a great way to use up old bread. Simply cut a breadstick into slices, create a mixture called “pane saporito”: breadcrumbs flavored with parsley, garlic, salt, all mixed well in a blender, and pour the mixture over the tomatoes and add pecorino and parmesan, topped . with some anchovies, and we bake the small pieces of bread in the oven for ten or eleven minutes to arrive at a delicious side dish.

Sicily’s multicultural heritage manifested itself in the next dish: “Caponata Siciliana Stile Arabo”, a sweet and sour culinary relic of the Arab period in Sicily’s history. The ingredients in this dish include raisins, pine nuts, sugar, balsamic vinegar, onions, and finely diced eggplant, all of which come together to form a delightfully fragrant vegetable condiment that makes for a savory and slightly sweet addition to any meal.

Aurelio and his two enthusiastic cooking students continued with the next side dish: “Acciughe marinate” are anchovy slices that are marinated for at least two hours in vinegar, lemon and salt, with an addition of hot peppers, parsley and oil.

For the cheese lovers among us, Aurelio prepared “formaggio fritto”: slices of ricotta, breaded in beaten egg and flour and then fried on the stove. With the leftover egg he created an omelette, adding that nothing goes to waste in a Sicilian kitchen.

Next, our chef and his two assistants created the dessert: “Mele al agrodolce”: sweet and sour, a mint salad composed of mint leaves, with the addition of “pane saporito”, olives, oil and vinegar. apples For this dish, apple slices were coated with lemon juice and sugar and topped with sweet prunes, a sweet and sour way to top off a variety of healthy dishes made with fresh, local ingredients. Sicilian cuisine is very healthy, with lots of fish and vegetables and very little animal fat. Aurelio’s eight-course meal was a perfect example of the focus on simple yet flavorful local ingredients that come together to form a mesmerizing array of aromas.

After cooking the food, we all carried the many double decker containers up to the covered roof terrace which had a long table that could seat at least 10-12 people. Aurelio, always with a big smile on his face, graciously introduced all the dishes to the camera, and we all sat down to sample this smorgasbord of Sicilian cuisine.

Aurelio and his wife Ángela told us about their families and life in Sicily, which they both enjoyed very much. The entire evening and cooking class were conducted in Italian, another opportunity to learn the Italian language and the warm hospitality of a true Italian family. After a delicious dinner, Marjolein and I left this wonderful gathering and went out into a warm moonlit night. We spend a few minutes on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean and we both comment on what a special experience this time in Taormina.