Chopstix to Steaknives: Catania Eats & a sweet stop in Siracusa, Sicily

Catania is a good base to be to travel around the east of Sicily. After touring the west, we arrived in Catania to continue our travels.

A walk around the area found us walking into a shop that sells fresh pasta, Leantichearti Della Pasta. They looked so tempting but it was not possible to buy any being only midway through the holidays. The shop is family run and we managed to get by with our minimal Italian. The papa offered us some fresh raw pasta to try and having never tried raw pasta before, it was definitely an experience biting into thin and semi frozen pasta shell before tasting the pistachio and cured meat filling. Disappointed that we couldn't buy any pasta as they looked awesome, we consoled ourselves with getting a bottle of pesto each. We left with a dessert pastry courtesy of the papa and son who said that the mama makes them every morning.

We found ourselves at U Fucularu for dinner.

Pistachio, pesto and gorgonzola €8

Carbonara €7

Tiramisu €3.5

Maybe we didn't order the right dishes or we might have higher expectations after researching and this place had a lot of good reviews. There was just no sparks or fireworks.

I did however try horse meat for for the first time. It has quite a chewy texture and requires a decent amount of chewing action. It has a mild chicken liver taste to it.

The next day, we headed to Syracuse and walked by this corner cafe along the Viale Teocrito by chance. Those tiny teeny bites of sweet heaven were just calling out and I couldn't resist! Especially when most of them are just 80 euro cents.

We bought the cannoli and the tiramisu and our delightful faces say it all.

It didn't take much to run back to the display to order more to take away with us.

Back in Catania, we decided to try our luck again but this time went to a place that was also recommended by our B&B owner, Il Mare

A display of fresh seafood greeted us as we stepped in followed by the tables around us all having seafood on their table. It would seem foolish not to follow suit.

For the first course, we went with the seafood appetiser €12

Plate after plate of tapas sized seafood started to appear on our table, I couldn't even keep up with what we were having.

The few that I can remember were Baby fish, fried baby squid, prawn and salmon, salmon bruschetta, octopus with raisin and pine nuts, anchovies, mussels, baby mussels and more.

We were in 7^th heaven of delights by this stage. I have to mention that we were well taken care of by the owner’s son who works in the restaurant. And well fed we were too!

Moving onto the mains for us, we had pasta.

Spaghetti el nero si seppie (Spaghetti with squid ink) €8

I’ve tried spaghetti with squid ink before but it felt like I was re-introduced to how it is meant to be cooked. The spaghetti was al dente and with each strand coated with the squid ink, it melded together so wonderfully that I can’t even think of how to describe it. I could also feel a very slight tingling sensation on my tongue and lips.