WHY SICILY?

The largest Mediterranean island is drawing much attention as a hot spot for food and wine. Sicily has a spin on the ease of mainland Italian food with the exotic cultural influences of its stormy history. This produces a cuisine with a hint of rawness but also with unique cultural sincerity. The great contemporary wines of Sicily give a snapshot of the ongoing revolution in things vinous in Italy, blending New Age techniques to old styles and varieties as well as introducing some exotic blends.

Head Chef Jonathan Barthelmess’s Spring into Sicily menu nuances Mediterranean sensuality and celebrates our shared abundance and love of seafood.

Trademark ingredients of Sicilian cooking: olives, eggplants, prawns, tuna, blood oranges, fennel, nuts and cous cous will feature on the menu. Many ingredients have been sourced from Sicily to combine with the superb quality local produce.

Coast’s Spring into Sicily menu $75 per person

Spuntini

Messemese olives from Campo Bello di Mazara. in the South west of Sicily and gardeniera of pickled vegetables.

First course: Poached Prawns with couscous and caponata.
Couscous, or cuscusu, was introduced from North Africa, and is a treasured ingredient in Sicily, Caponata, a classic recipe using the island’s most popular ingredient dates from the ninth century. The other prominent ingredient for caponata, capers, come from the outlying islands, known as the IGP Capperi di Pantelleria, regarded as producing the best capers in the world.

Second course: Seared Tuna with blood orange honeyed almonds and shaved fennel.
The honeyed almonds reference the Arabian impact. Wild fennel is a speciality grown in the fertile volcanic soils. Sicily is famous for it’s lemon and orange trees.

Dolci: Sicilian cassata

With its candied fruits and nuts, marzipan, ricotta and icecream consistency. Cassata was traditionally a Christmas sweet made by nuns.

Diners will be dunking their bread in Fiore del Belice olive oil, produced by Azienda Agricola Lombardo , who source the olives from Campo Bello di Mazara in south west Sicily and seasoning with Sicilian sea salt from the coastal Trapani.

Wines to match the courses are available for $55 per person. Our three featured wineries; Donnafugata, Planeta and Pellegrino, will be poured to compliment each course. Here is an opportunity for guests to sample some varieties and producers that they may not be familiar with.

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