Over a stove in a Palermo kitchen, there is a girl who, at only 25 years old, is already telling a story much greater and older than she is: Elena Amico expresses Mediterranean tradition both in her restaurant, the Sesto Canto in Palermo (one of the few gluten-free restaurants in the city), and around the world: thanks to her culinary skills, Elena was asked to cook a dish where “the land meets the sea” for an event of the same name. But beware, the Sesto Canto is a sort of Dantean circle where gourmands are punished. That’s because Elena Amico's cuisine is like the currents of the Mediterranean: it goes deep.
The Sesto Canto of Palermo
Elena spent a third of her life in the kitchen. In fact, Elena started cooking long before the current restaurant where she has been working for eight years. She remembers when she was cooking at home to the notes of the greatest jazz musicians, her father's passion, as can be seen from the decor of the current restaurant. A series of fateful meetings brought her there – most important of all was her introduction to chef Riccardo Panarello, her mentor to this day that brought her up along a path that was tough, long and difficult at times. Because the Mediterranean is not something you inherit; it is something that you achieve over time. It is a decision, not an inherent advantage. This is the cuisine served at Sesto Canto, one of the first (and few) reataurants in Palermo to give special attention to food intolerances with menus and dishes of the day always present in a gluten-free version alongside the normal options. But Elena's main characteristic is something else: what matters most is her devotion and respect for raw material, without altering any recipe more than necessary, just as the products of Sicily deserve. Both those of the sea and those of the land.
Products from the sea
If there is one thing that Elena knows how to do, it’s how to cook fish, especially tuna ( an integral part of Sicilian history and culture). There are some notable names connected to the best fish in the area such as the Macaluso family of the Coalma company who select the best bluefish caught in the Mediterranean: they offer bluefin tuna, tuna, anchovies, mackerel and tuna cooked in water and salt according to an ancient recipe handed down since 1922. The same goes for the very young Paolo Gennusa di Mare Puro in Custonaci; Gennusa completes the entire processing of his fish products in Sicily – including a delicious tuna bresaola. He is also very attentive to environmental issues with continuous monitoring of energy and environmental parameters such as drinking water, electricity and CO2 emissions. But too often, we forget that the islands are not only sea, but also land.
Products from the earth
Do you know anything more fascinating than the art of baking in the Mediterranean? It’s all the more incredible in Sicily; for years, they have been carrying out important work on durum wheat and the recovery of the oldest varieties of this kind of grain used in cooking. An example always present in Elena's kitchen is the Pandittaino of the Cooperativa Agricola Valle del Dittaino, in the province of Enna, that completes the whole chain: from the production of wheat to its storage, from milling to baking, for a daily result of about 2,000 kg of bread. Pandittaino is one of those old-fashioned loaves of bread that lasts over a week with a high degree of craftsmanship, prepared only with durum wheat semolina, water, salt and sourdough criscenti to ensure the sensory characteristics typical of Sicilian bread with a slightly acidic taste paired with the smell of wheat and earth. Not to be outdone are the cheeses of the Sicilian dairy tradition like those of the historic Zappalà family; or the wines obtained from vineyards that extend from 40 to 450 meters above sea level like the Chiarelli estates; or, again, the Barbera oil, an ingredient that is never lacking at Sesto Canto for many reasons, including one above all: it tastes as much of the land as it does of the sea.
The sea reaches as far as the olive tree grows
In Sicily, Manfredi Barbera needs no introduction. By now a prophet at home and ambassador to the world, Manfredi is a man who leaves his mark, a man who has had the strength of the men of the sea to carry on a history of land for over 120 years. It was at the end of 1800, in fact, when the Manfredi family moved from Menfi to Palermo and founded the Società degli Oleifici Siciliani in 1888, together with the Florio delle Tonnare (whose oil was used for the preservation). Since then, 120 years have passed with periods of highs and lows – like the first two decades of the twentieth century. Yet Manfredi oils have reached their fifth generation, drawing something from each passage, even if it is undeniable that a particular vital impulse was given to them by Manfredi from his travels and his Mediterranean passion – the same passion that he tries to transmit to his sons Carlo and Lorenzo (whose oil we suggest you try). Manfredi has also organized (together with the other producers like the Atmosfere Siciliane and the Department of Mediterranean Fishing) a moment to bring together, in Elena's hands, of course, the land and the sea.
The land meets the sea
“The land meets the sea” is an initiative born to make Sicilian fish and food products better known, taking them on a sailing boat where traditional foods are cooked by Elena, making passers-by and wayfarers taste them from Palermo to Ustica, up to San Vito Lo Capo (during the days of the Cous Cous Fest). The deepest meaning of the event, in fact, is the recovery of that ancient sense of belonging to the sea and its laws, even if the Mediterranean is much more than just a simple feeling of belonging. And as a sustainable means par excellence of travel through the use of a sailboat that exploits the winds, the true gods of the sea; the winds that only those who live there know how to recognize and anticipate, just like Manfredi. Serving this cuisine it by land would not have had the same meaning because, as Predrag Matvejević wrote in his Mediterranean Breviary, “As long as we sail, we forget the differences, and then remember them once we go ashore.”