A taste of Sicily amongst the forests of Switzerland

We woke to one of those grey days heavy with the promise of rain.

Saturday afternoon with a bit of sunshine on a wet day

You knew it was coming because the mountains and the Lake across the valley were shrouded in grey mist.

All a contrast to yesterday and earlier in the week when the sun shone down and made everyone feel happy.

But the rain held off long enough for us to leave Varese and travel the hour and a bit to Virginia’s flat in Switzerland.

And it came down in torrents accompanied by thunder and at the termination of each outburst vapour rose from the forest by the playing fields.

The added surprise

Not that we were over bothered. 

There had been no plans to venture out and anyway it was time to eat, and had we wanted a bit of warmth and the promise summer the meal Rosario offered up .

Rosario is from Sicily and at the centre of the meal was parmigiana di melanzane which is a wonderful dish of fried aubergine slices interspersed between a mix of parmesan and mozzarella cheese, a little beaten egg and topped by tomato sauce.

Rosario's aubergines

That said his version was different from the one we usually eat which is from the recipe Rosa uses. 

She is from Naples and she fries the aubergines in flour while Rosario left out the flour and used a different Italian cheese creating a dish which was similar but different, and was accompanied by deep fried potato balls, some locally baked Sicilian bread a jar of sundried tomatoes.

It was simple, colourful  and filling which at the end of the day is what you come to expect of the food of the south.

Home made sun dried tomotoes

So there you have it two versions of one aubergine dish from two places in southern Italy, from the same family.

All of which just leaves me to ponder on how many more I might come across.

Location, Sicily and Switzerland

Pictures, parmigiana di melanzane, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson