Pasta by region
Pasta from Sicily
Sicily holds some of the oldest evidence of dried pasta in the Mediterranean: a twelfth-century account by the geographer al-Idrisi describes itriyya, strings of dried pasta, being made near Palermo and shipped by the boatload. The island's cooking still carries the Arab pantry of raisins, pine nuts, fennel, and saffron, most famously in pasta con le sarde with fresh sardines. Busiate are wound by hand into long spirals around a thin reed and dressed with pesto alla trapanese, the almond and tomato answer to Genoa's basil version. Anellini, small rings, are baked into the Palermo timballo, casarecce twist around a hollow, and the spaghetti the world twirls traces a long Sicilian lineage. The flavors lean sweet, sharp, and salt-cured.
The shapes of Sicily
| Shape | Family | Section | Cook (min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anellini | Pastina | tiny ring | n/a |
| Busiate | Hand-formed regional | long twisted spiral coil | 8-10 |
| Casarecce | Shaped shorts | rolled open tube with an s-curl section, a narrow ribbon folded in on itself, leaving an open channel down the length | 9-11 |
| Spaccatella | Shaped shorts | short curved tube split open along one side, a C-shaped channel | 8-10 |
| Spaghetti | Long strands | solid circular strand, no hole | 9-12 |
