TO SEE A FINE LADY

Ever since the Venere di Aidone or "Aidone Aphrodite" was brought back to Sicily in March, I've been longing to go and see her and on Saturday, reader, I made it.

Aidone, a town of 5,176 inhabitants, lies peacefully in the hills of the Province of Enna beyond Piazza Armerina.  Nearby is the Greek site of Morgantina, from which not only our "fine lady" but many other precious statues and objects have been stolen over the years.  The Venere was returned under an agreement signed by the Aidone and Getty Museums in 2007 and it must be emphasised that the Getty Museum's administrators have always denied acquiring the statue illegally. It was also in 2007 that experts proved that the statue was sculpted from "Ragusa stone".

Museo Archeologico di Aidone

My friend and I expected the little town to be crowded but, despite the presence of a goddess in their midst, life seemed to be going on as usual for the citizens and we were the only people in the specially renovated Museum.  

We passed through two rooms of other interesting antiquities before coming upon the Venere and in one of them a pair of smiling Acroliti, representing mother and daughter in Greek mythology, are displayed.  Only their faces, hands and feet remain but a mesh frame represents their bodies, they are seated and have been tastefully dressed.  These two figures were returned to the Museum from the US in 2009 and I have beside me a booklet which shows their faces as the box in which they travelled to Aidone was opened there.  I am sure that, upon their homecoming,  they are smiling more than usual. 

In the centre of a third room stands the Venere and I must say she is breathtaking:  So fluid are her robes, so majestic her pose and so calm her gaze that I have no doubt that this is a very confident goddess.  The body is of the famous Ragusan limestone though the exposed flesh is of marble and the lady's hair was probably of bronze.  Archaeologists have dated the statue to 420 - 410 BCE.

There are some who believe that she is not Venus but Demeter or her daughter Persephone, who both feature prominently in Greco-Sicilian myth, and there are others who believe she is Hera.  But I am sure she is a voluptuous Venus from an era before Botticelli brought misery upon Western women by portraying the goddess as tall, blonde, long-legged and slim.  

A reminder of our own era came as I spotted, among the ancient Greek hair ornaments, links from chains and fragments of pottery in one display case, a 100 lire coin from 1978.  This was found as illegally excavated land at Morgantina was being refilled.  In my opinion the Museum staff have done well to preserve it, for it is likely to be worth far more than all our euros soon!

On to lunch and, on the recommendation of the Museum staff, we repaired to the Vecchia Aidone restaurant:

The zucche must grow well in Aidone!

Would you like some grappa?

I hate ironing but I'm sure I would hate it even more if I had to use this!

There were homemade strozzapreti ["priest-strangling" pasta] with a sausage, wild fennel and tomato sauce

followed by veal stew for my companion

and rabbit braised in white wine with fennel and herbs for me:

Then there was a delicious mousse of fichi d'India [prickly pear] ....

...  all of which set us up nicely for our journey through the Enna rains back to Modica.  We were quiet as we travelled, thinking of "our" goddess and the tales she could tell.  Bentornata, dea.

BILL AND ERIC DAY

It is several months since I received an email entitled, "Avid blog reader wants to meet you in Modica" and made the online acquaintance of Bill, the writer of the mail and his partner Eric.  Through further emails, I also got to know Toby, Bill and Eric's cute Yorkshire terrier and of course, they all got to know Simi.  From Bill I also learnt about the autumn beauty of his home state of Vermont and more about Bill the man by reading the poetry on his blog. 

Bill and Eric invited me to lunch in Modica and today I met them for real at the Osteria dei Sapori Perduti.  We had a long, leisurely meal and discussed a wide range of topics including, of course, Sicilian food!  Without further ado I'll get on with showing you some of that:

You absolutely cannot visit the Sapori Perduti without partaking of their magnificent antipasti, so we happily tucked into these dishes:

Then Eric ordered two primi, cavatieddi with aubergine sauce and pasta with maccu, a kind of broad bean paste

while Bill had fastola, a bean soup

and I had my favourite sweet ravioli with a pork sauce:

While Eric finished his primi, Bill had coniglio stemperato [the traditional Modican dish of rabbit cooked in wine vinegar] while I had grilled veal:

Finally Bill had gel alla mandorla [almond gel] while Eric and I had gel al limone:

And here we all are:

Afterwards, Bill and Eric came home with me to meet Simi, as Toby, I'm told, is expecting a full report:

It was great to meet you, Bill and Eric.  Enjoy the rest of your Sicilian trip!

VALENCIAN PAELLA - SICILIAN STYLE

This is another recipe that I've adapted from a magazine and, even if I say so myself, it turned out to be delicious. The brown rice is probably sacrilege but it does give the dish an excellent colour. I know you are supposed to cook the rice in oil in a separate pan first but it was just too hot to have another flame on!

You need:

olive oil
4 skinless chicken breasts if you are in the UK, where the halves are sold separately or 2 skinless chicken breasts if you are in Italy, where the 2 halves are sold as 1 breast [if you see what I mean].  The breasts should be cut into large pieces.
1 rabbit, jointed
1 onion, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow pepper, cut into wide strips
2 fresh bay leaves
1 chorizo sausage, cut into pieces [or a  long, dried Italian sausage]
500 gr brown rice
1 large can tomato pulp
1 litre chicken or other light stock
300 gr peas

500 gr green beans, topped & tailed

2 sachets powdered saffron [sold in sachets in Italy - about half a teasp per sachet, I guess.]
coarse seasalt, black pepper.

To serve 6 people very generously, heat 5 tablesp olive oil in a deep, wide pan or wok.  Add the chicken and rabbit pieces and brown on all sides.  Lift the meat out with a slotted spoon and put on a plate. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook until softened.  Now add the peppers and cook till they are softened, too [about 10 mins.] Add the bay leaves to the pan with the sausage and toss everything around a bit.  Now put in the rice and stir it around a bit, too. Put the meat back in with the tomato pulp, about three-quarters of the stock, the beans and peas. Stir well and season with paprika, the saffron, salt and pepper.  Put the lid on and cook for about an hour, checking now and again. If the dish appears too dry, add the rest of the stock.

Serve straight from the pan.  It was so hot here the day after I made this that I had some cold - and it was surprisingly good.

SWEET & SOUR RABBIT WITH PEPPERS

This recipe is a hybrid of one I saw in a magazine and the recipe for coniglio con peperonata in Il Cucchiaio d'Argento.  If you don't want to use rabbit, you can use skinless chicken joints.

Heat 5 tablesp olive oil in a wide pan and brown six rabbit joints on all sides.  Add a handful of fresh herbs - I used 2 fresh bay leaves, a couple of sage leaves, some sprigs of rosemary and thyme - 1 onion, roughly chopped and 3 or 4 red and yellow peppers, cut roughly into wide strips.  Let the peppers soften - about 15 mins - then add a few chilli flakes and some coarse seasalt. After a couple of minutes add half a glass of balsamic vinegar and half a glass of water.  Cover the pan and let the ingredients simmer for half an hour, turning once.  Then sprinkle over 2 teasp brown sugar, mix everything well and leave to simmer for another half an hour.

RABBITING ON

Back to one of my all-time favourite Italian cookery books, Marcella Cucina, last night: I decided to make this dish of rabbit with peppers and I must say it turned out very well. For this you peel the peppers without grilling or roasting them first, so you need unknobbly ones, and they should melt into the sauce. I'm not convinced they all did, but it's definitely a dish I'll be making again. You are supposed to put a very small chilli pepper in but I used this chilli pepper spray [because I wanted to try it out] instead and I think it was successful. Here's my latest cookery motto: "Half is accuracy, half slapdash and you can serve it with panache". Yes, well - better stop for tonight!