(We have wonderful news: Based on our mad love for Sicily and its gastronomy, we're adding The Sicily Gastronomad Experience! If you want to experience the true, authentic Sicily, please join us!)
Sicily has a volcano. A giant, beautiful, majestic volcano. And it's still active — the largest and only “active” volcano in Europe.
Mount Etna is nearly triple of the size of Vesuvius, which destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae in the year 79 A.D.
But Etna doesn't destroy. (Or, rather, hasn't done since 1669.) It’s a happy, gentle volcano that nourishes the surrounding area with countless, glorious gifts of gastronomy.
Wherever you go in Northeastern Sicily, you can always see titanic Etna, with smoke steadily billowing from its peak. You gaze at the vineyards — there's Etna. You look up from the beaches — there's Etna. A village church bell rings, you look at the belfry and Etna looms over the scene. Try to drive away, and Etna dominates your rear view mirror. It's the inescapable geographic landmark of Eastern Sicily.
In this part of Sicily, you exist in the volcano's world. You stand on its ancient ejecta. And every local thing you ingest is a gift of the volcano. Let's start with the wine. Oh, my God, the wine.
The Etna DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) wine appellation spans the north, east, and south slopes of Mount Etna. Imagine a vast geographic half-circle 27 miles from the top Northern point to the bottom Southern point on the Eastern side of the volcano, from 450 meters above sea level to over 1,200 meters — some of the highest wine grape-growing altitudes in the world. The Etna DOC has 289 wineries, some of extraordinary quality.
Etna’s volcanic soil is crazy-rich in iron, copper, phosphorus, and magnesium, formed from decomposed lava, ash and sand, giving the wines a gently acidic, pleasantly mineral aspect. Cabernet? Merlot? Chardonnay? Tempranillo? Oh, no. Around here, you can enjoy indigenous varieties you probably haven't heard of. Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, Carricante, Trebbiano, Minnella and others. Grape varieties here are accounted for in Greek mythology, going back millenia.
Etna vineyards bask in the sun in ancient lava-enriched soil, which is dark and acidic and nutrient-rich. And the vineyards are often terraced using large, black blocks of volcanic stone. (Sicilians use volcanic stone not just for terracing, but also for roads, buildings and palmentos.)
Wait, what's a "palmento"?
Until the 1960s, Sicilian wineries used lava stone to make wine in special cellars called palmentos.
A palmento is an old, spectacularly Etna-centric technology for making wine. Imagine a large building 300 years ago, with steps (made from volcanic stone, of course) rising to a second-story trough (also made of volcanic stone) inside a wine cellar. Once the grapes were deposited by workers carrying baskets of grapes up the steps, women crushed the grapes with their feet in a high lava stone trough called a pista. When they were done crushing, the juice and must sat in place to vinify. Once it became wine, the smaller palmentos used flat circular woven-reed mats workers stood on to squeeze the last juice out of the must. Larger palmentos used enormous wooden circular flat plates to squeeze out the juice with huge wooden screws. The wine was transferred via carved lava stone channels (called cannedda) which directed the juice into stone vats below call ricivitùri, using gravity, rather than pumps. And there it sat until it was ready to be transferred to barrels for aging.
In other words, they used lava stone instead of crushers, pipes and tanks.
The palmento system ended in the mid-20th Century. But the palmentos are everywhere in the Etna region of Sicily.
Many modern Sicilian wineries make their wine in old palmentos, with the modern equipment sitting side by side with the centuries-old lava stone structures.
And Sicilian wine has strong minerality, but not saltiness, and it’s acidic without being lemoney. The unique characteristics of Sicilian wine are all about the volcanic soil.
Sicilian cellars are often surprisingly cold because they're carved into underground lava stone deposits. The lava chills the entire cellar like air conditioning.
The slopes of Mount Etna create a unique microclimate that's great for agriculture of all kinds. The altitude and the volcanic activity contribute to temperature variations and a specific humidity level, which are favorable for crops, especially wine grapes but also all kinds of produce.
On the slopes of the volcano, plants grow like crazy, like a rain-forest. And the local cuisine is characterized by its simplicity and the use of high-quality, fresh produce, including tomatoes, eggplants and citrus fruits. The region is also known for its specialty products, such as pistachios from Bronte, which are considered some of the best in the world. The volcanic soil contributes to the unique flavor and quality of these foods.
Traditional Sicilian dishes, such as pasta alla Norma (pasta with eggplant and ricotta salata) and arancini (stuffed rice balls), often incorporate ingredients grown in the fertile volcanic soil. The local culinary traditions are entirely dependent on the agricultural bounty provided by Mount Etna. And everything is delicious as a result.
Food and wine in Sicily is all about the volcano, the ancient Sicilian gift that keeps on giving. Come join us on the new Sicily Gastronomad Experience and taste the incredible bounty of Mount Etna.
-Mike
