Giorgio Locatelli - Made in Sicily

1 chilli pepper, finely chopped (optional)

1 carrot, cut into matchstick pieces

1 celery stalk, chopped

If the octopus is fresh, beat it with a meat hammer to tenderise it and rinse it very well under cold running water, with the help of a clean sponge, to remove any excess saltiness. If it has been frozen, you don’t need to do this, as freezing has the effect of tenderising it.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add the octopus, but don’t season it, or it will toughen up. Cover with a lid, turn down the heat and let it simmer gently for about 20–30 minutes, or until tender. Remove, drain and chop into pieces about 2.5cm long.

While the octopus is cooking, bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the white wine vinegar, add the cubed potatoes and cook until tender, then drain.

Drain the olives and pat dry. With a sharp knife, make three or four cuts in each olive from end to end, then cut each segment away from the stone as carefully as you can.

Pour the extra virgin olive oil into a bowl. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper, the chopped parsley, the lemon juice and the chilli, if using. Mix well, then add the octopus and potatoes.

Finally add the olives, carrot and celery and toss everything together. Finish with a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some more chopped parsley.

Calamari fritti

Fried squid

One day when I was in the kitchen of my friend Vittorio’s restaurant in Porto Palo, he said, ‘Do some calamari fritti for me,’ so I dutifully sliced up the squid, dusted it in flour and put it in the fryer, got some kitchen paper ready in a container, and when the calamari was golden I lifted it out on to the paper to drain off the excess oil, as we always do if we fry anything in Locanda. Vittorio looked at me as if I had landed from another planet:

‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m drying them, so the people don’t eat so much oil.’

‘This is not a Michelin-starred restaurant,’ he said. ‘People like oil. That’s why they eat fried fish.’

And then he throws Trapani sea salt, which is a little moist and a bit grey, over the top, literally throws it – fingers into the pot and bang – so you can see the grains. But his food never tastes over-salted, because the quality of the salt is so high; it really makes all the difference to a calamari fritti.

Serves 4

about 400g plain flour

500g calamari, cleaned and cut into rings or strips

vegetable oil for deep-frying

sea salt

finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Have the flour ready in a shallow plate. Dip the calamari rings into the flour and shake off the excess. Heat the oil in a deep pan, making sure it comes no higher than a third of the way up the pan. It should be 180°C. If you don’t have a thermometer, put in a few breadcrumbs, and if they sizzle straight away the oil is ready. Fry the calamari until golden, and drain, season with salt and scatter with chopped parsley.

Fritto misto alla piazzese

Mixed fried vegetables, with anchovies or sardines

Sicilians love fritto misto, so much so that in the summer people set up stalls or park vans or three-wheelers with gas burners and big pots on the back, and deep-fry vegetables or fish for you there and then.

Serves 4

4 baby artichokes

juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon salt

1 small cauliflower, cut into florets

500g cardoons, tender heart only

1 apple, peeled and cored

vegetable oil for deep-frying

500g fresh anchovies or small sardines, cleaned

For the pastella:

250g plain flour

150ml water

1 large egg, beaten

10g fresh yeast

Peel the tough outer leaves from the artichokes, stopping when you reach the tender leaves, then cut in quarters vertically. With large artichokes, you need to cut out the hairy choke, but with baby ones, the choke will not have developed properly, so there is not much to remove. Put them into a bowl of water with a little lemon juice squeezed into it, to keep them from discolouring, until you are ready to use them. Drain, and dry.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the salt. Put in the cauliflower and cook for a couple of minutes, until just tender, then lift out and drain. Put the cardoons into the same water and cook for about 7–8 minutes, until they too are just tender, but still retain some bite. Drain and keep to one side.

Combine the flour, water, egg and yeast to make a pastella (batter) with a fluid consistency. Slice the apple, and cut the cardoons into strips. Heat several inches of oil in a high-sided pan (make sure it comes no higher than a third of the way up the pan) to 180°C. If you don’t have a thermometer, put in a few breadcrumbs, and if they sizzle the oil is ready.

Immerse the artichokes in the pastella and deep-fry until golden. Lift out and drain on kitchen paper. Repeat with the cardoons, cauliflower and apple, then the anchovies or sardine fillets, and arrange everything together on a warm serving plate.

Polpettine di tonno o pesce spada

Tuna or swordfish balls

As well as putting these out as part of an antipasti, you can also add the tomato sauce ( Salsa di pomodoro) and serve them with pasta.

Serves 4

olive oil

400g yellow fin tuna, bonito or swordfish, cut into cubes

50g pine nuts

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

a handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

200g breadcrumbsfrom stale bread

50g pecorino cheese, grated

2 eggs

zest and juice of 1 lemon

a little vegetable oil, to oil the tray

Heat a good couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan and add the fish and pine nuts. Season lightly and sauté for a minute or so, until the fish is coloured on all sides and the pine nuts are golden.

Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then add the oregano, parsley, breadcrumbs, pecorino, eggs, and the lemon zest and juice. Mix everything together well, then moisten your hands with water and form the mixture into smooth balls, slightly bigger than a golf ball. If the mixture is very sticky, add a few more breadcrumbs.

Lightly oil a baking tray with vegetable oil, lay the fish balls on top, then put into the fridge for an hour to rest and firm up.

Heat a little more olive oil in a clean frying pan. Add the fish balls and fry in batches, shaking the pan to move them around, until they are golden brown all over.

Chiocciole a picchi pacchi

Snails in tomato and chilli sauce

When we go to Castelvetrano in the spring and early summer, we usually see the old guys who sell land snails in the square outside the walls of the old city. The snails come out after the rain, and are best around May, when there is a chance of eating green grass that hasn’t yet been burnt in the heat. Because of the association with rain, there is a belief that if there is an abundance of snails in the spring it will be a good year for crops.

If it has been very wet, the old people will go out and if they are lucky they might collect up to ten kilos of snails, some to cook themselves, and the rest to put into boxes and sell to anyone who wants to buy them. Even if families no longer need to gather and eat snails to survive, they are still a big thing in Sicily, and sometimes you can choose between snails that have just been gathered, and those that have been collected a couple of days earlier and have already been purged for you. Snails always have to be purged, or purified, before cooking, in order to remove any dirt, grit or chemicals that get into their system from the leaves they eat.