Tràpani

Tràpani, May 16, 2010—

WE DINE TONIGHT and indeed sleep tonight on the edge of a sickle, the sickle that gave Sicily its name (as I understand it), the sickle with which Zeus castrated his father. Tràpani is one of the cities I have always most wanted to visit: like Skagen in Denmark, Tarifa in Spain, it's a city on the edge of things.

We settled into a cheap, clean, pleasant hotel in this windswept, clean, pleasant city; and we chose a restaurant from the Slow Food guide Osterie d'Italia, and we ate reasonably well. We began by sharing bruschetta con bottarga, because after all we're near the home of the tuna mattanza, and tuna roe is specific to the area, and we like tuna roe. Then we went on to pasta con uva di tonno e mandorle, pasta (which looked much like my favorite, strozzapreti) with more tuna roe and ground almonds.

So far so good. The secondi, however, the "main course," disappointed, as it so often does. Lindsey had a scallopine alla Marsala, since Marsala is the next big town; I had a cotolette alla Palermitana, since Palermo was our last big town. Both seemed tired, undersalted, cooked in oil used too much. Oh well: the restaurant was otherwise very pleasant, crowded, small, you could talk, people-watching was fun, we liked the wine.

Oh: and the dessert, a parfait of almonds, while a little too heavily chocolate-sauced, was a nice reminder of the texture of the bottarga, and the taste of the pasta's almonds.

Grillo, Haral, Terre di Shemir (Tràpani), 2008