Ustica Food and Wine
The Ustica lentil, very small, is prized for its intense taste, for its scent in the cooking phase, for its tenderness. Cultivated since ancient times on the very fertile lava soils of Ustica, farmers still produce it today with ancient techniques, without herbicides and without chemical fertilizers, respecting the environment and nature.
Ustica Slow Island
Discover a rich and uncontaminated nature that produces good fruits such as lentils and Ustica beans, which have been a Slow Food presidium for years. Lentils and Ustica beans have deserved Slow Food recognition because they are grown according to organic farming methods. Today many young people are engaged in the cultivation of lentils and broad beans and production has increased with the recovery of uncultivated land with important results also from an environmental point of view. The lentil is now exported to Italy and abroad and has permanently entered the astronauts menu.
USTICA SLOW FOOD PRESIDIUM
Sicilian Excellence – The smallest lentils in Italy
Lentils are sown between December and January by letting the seeds fall by expert hands into furrows traced in the ground; the land is low, it is said, and the lentil does not give discounts, it is a delicate plant and in March the hoeing is done by hand to eliminate weeds; the seedlings are harvested in the first half of June by grubbing them up manually and the seedlings collected and dried in the sun were formerly placed in the farmyard for the “Pistata“, an operation with which couples of donkeys or cows, dragging a special stone, crush the pods, reducing to straw the seedlings. There followed the “Spagliata“, an operation that required skill and consisted of throwing straw and legumes into the air with a wooden trident to separate them using the wind, and then the “Cirnuta” made with a large sieve to clean the lentils from flakes and lumps of land. Today the use of the threshing machine has been introduced, which speeds up and lightens the process.
Ustica and the other products of the earth
The volcanic soil of Ustica is fertile and agriculture develops with excellent results with a particular vocation for legumes: white beans, very small, chickpeas, cicerchie and then the Ustica broad bean cream (Slow Food Presidium), excellent in flavor, yes sown in January and harvested in May, they are left to dry in the sun of Ustica. In June, the “Pistata” process is also used for the bean to free the legume from the pod. In the kitchen you can find it in the traditional bean and fennel macco or, when the legume is still green, in the “fave a cappotto” dish or salad.
Then there are vegetables and fruit of the highest quality, they are often local varieties, which express a great biodiversity and typicality: unique apricots, small and very sweet, purple aubergines, seedless and very tasty in all recipes and wild capers that grow spontaneous on the cliffs.
In recent years, efforts have been made to restart the cultivation of Pilusedda, an ancient and local grain, saved from oblivion and produced in very limited quantities, but some restaurants are starting to use it for bread and breadsticks.
THE LAND PRODUCTS
The Ustica Lentils Soup
Organic, healthy and rich in beneficial properties, the Ustica Lentil has a particularly intense aroma and taste, while its peculiar tenderness allows for rapid cooking without the need for prior soaking. Tasty and nutritious food, Ustica lentils are a fundamental ingredient of local cuisine. The island tradition sees its main dish in the classic soup that can present variations in the preparation based on family traditions, enriched with local vegetables and scented with basil. The soup can be eaten alone or accompanied by croutons of your choice rubbed with raw garlic. For a complete and balanced meal in terms of carbohydrates and proteins, you can add pasta, traditionally broken spaghetti.
The traditional Usticese soup is prepared with the addition of various types of vegetables that vary according to the season. Certainly there is no shortage of onion, courgette and tomato. In the summer version, the lagenaria courgette is used with its sprouts, called tenerumi and basil, to be added at the end of cooking. In the winter version, the courgette can be replaced by the red pumpkin and the tenerume by the chard. Some versions also see the addition of potatoes. Further variations include the presence of celery, cauliflower or broccoli. Wild fennel or rosemary leaves, bay leaves and very often garlic are used to flavor. Chilli pepper can also be added to taste. Lentils should be cooked in cold water brought slowly to a boil. To facilitate cooking, do not add salt and stir until the lentils are completely soft. The vegetables can be previously fried in extra virgin olive oil or they can be raw at the same time as the lentils. A little raw extra virgin olive oil should always be added to the dish.
Today, however, there is a lot of experimentation with lentils: from lentil flour panelle, to caponata with lentil and apple oil, from salad with zucchini, mint and turmeric, to first courses based on lentils and fish or shellfish, and finally lentil and cocoa cakes. Ustica lentils are increasingly present in the gastronomic panorama of Usticese.
A RICH IN FISH SEA
Eating in Ustica
In Ustica there is not only fertile land and many typical products, but also, thanks to the Ustica Island Protected Marine Area, a sea full of fish; to enrich the tables of the islanders and restaurants there is swordfish to eat in many specialties, the excellent albacore tuna in oil, lots of roasted rock fish, baked or in mixed soups, and then the parapandolo: local red shrimp very small, whose shell is also eaten, so thin as to be imperceptible to the palate, it can be eaten naked and raw, marinated, on bruschetta with lemon peel and bottarga, with spaghetti or in a nice mixed frying. Many vegetables from the garden cooked according to ancient recipes, or first courses based on fish and shellfish, but also various soups and traditional Sicilian appetizers and side dishes such as caponata, peperonata and eggplant rolls. Finally, the traditional Usticesi desserts, the Giggi (a sort of pignoccata made with fried dough and cooked wine), the Cassatelle (shortcrust pastry mixed with lard and stuffed with raisins, figs, citrus peel, dried fruit, chocolate), the Donis (fried donuts and sugar) the Sfince, fried balls with sugar and cinnamon, and finally the Nataline with lentils.
In pubs and snack bars it is possible to taste not only ready meals, reinforced aperitifs, but also the whole tradition of Sicilian street food (arancine, rotisserie, etc.) and the one from Usticese based on sfincione pizza from usticese, vastedda with albacore tuna or anchovies and cherry tomatoes. , and fennel meatballs and sweet and sour caramelized onion. The pizza that can be tasted in the island’s pizzerias is also good.
Impossible not to pay a visit to the characteristic shop of Maria Cristina’s specialties, typical products from Usticesi, aromas, in oil, legumes, ready-to-use condiments for pasta, preserves and desserts. For a very welcome gift to bring back from the holiday.
USTICA SPECIALTIES
Wines from Ustica
The quality of Usticesi wines is constantly growing, represented by the only Hibiscus winery founded by Nicola Longo in the 1980s, and today managed by Margherita Longo and her partner Vito Barbera and extends for about 10 hectares, in various districts north of the island, about 200 meters from the sea.
The company, starting from native vineyards such as inzolia, catarratto, grillo and nero d’avola, produces wines that are the result of the vocation of the island environment, strongly influenced by the proximity to the sea and by a territory of volcanic origin beaten by sun and wind. The flagship product of Hibiscus is Zhabib, passito di zibibbo, awarded in 2021 with the Three Glasses of Gambero Rosso, born from the desire to make a passito different from the universally known one of Pantelleria; A wine that is diversified by the breeding system and by a good acidity given by a sugar residue lower than the standard production, Zhabib evokes in one sip all the heterogeneity and beauty of the island territory of Ustica.
Other productions are slowly appearing in the culinary panorama of Usticese, the number of olive trees and the production of extra virgin olive oil of good quality is growing more and more, while at the beginning a small production of saffron is growing.
All of Sicily, including the islands, is a precious treasure chest of places where the tradition of the table crosses millennia and traditions, enhancing food: the primary element of identity of a people that reflects the characteristics of a territory and its evolutions, recorded over the centuries.
Based on this consideration, the project by Anna Russolillo and Vittorio Arnò was born which led to the drafting of this first volume on Ustica, a precious and unpublished anthology that collects the ancient recipes of the Usticese families and the traditional recipes of two well-known Sicilian chefs Enzo Oliveri, Rosario Picone and the young pastry chef from Ustica Paola Padovani. The oenologist and president of DOC Sicilia Gianni Giardina closes the circle.
The 120 recipes of 50 families on the island collected from kitchen to kitchen are accompanied by contributions from many professionals.
In “Isola di Ustica – Cuisine is Culture” dishes are told in which an ancient wisdom is preserved that the inhabitants have been able to enrich and rework, the millenary history of the island, the evolution of food, utensils and ways of community cooking, the added value of wild herbs, the relationship with marine biology: elements that define the magic of Ustica between flavors and knowledge.
USTICA LEISURE
Our Studios
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Le Terrazze sul Mare – Ustica Studio Apartments
Via Cristoforo Colombo, 90051 Ustica (Pa)
Tel: +39 0917574482 – Cell: +39 338 9066477 / 339 4294992
info@leterrazzeustica.it
The studios are rented with a short tourist lease without the provision of personal services (Article 4 of Legislative Decree 50 \ 2017).