Sicily! – a land of delicious food and fine wines. We were transported for an evening in Sicily by Chef Don Guthro, drawing on his years of culinary experience in Sicily, and Jack Segal, with Sicilian wines from his Seacove portfolio. Our evening started in the casual venue at DICED NSCS Discovery Restaurant, with scenic videos of Sicily and a special DICED Averna spritz cocktail as we sat for our traditional starters of Sfincione: fluffy Sicilian pizza, Cipolline Catanesi: onion puff pastry, Sarde e Beccafico: stuffed sardines, and Invotini di Pesce Spada: rolled stuffed sword fish followed by Arancino: stuffed risotto deep-fried filled with ragu sauce and braised veal and a delicious wine Tornatore Etna Rosso 'Pietrarizzo' 2017.
Next came the famous Pasta alla Norma: traditional pasta with tomato, eggplant, garlic, basil and salted ricotta. Norma named after Bellini’s 19-century opera 'Norma' and both the dish and the music are regarded as true masterpieces. The wine for this dish was Tasca Almerita Nero d'Avola Sicilia Regaleali 2018.
This was followed by another traditional dish, Caponata: sautéed eggplant, pine nuts, raisins, lemon, tomato, capers, kalamata olives served hot and finished with pecorino cheese. And another delicious wine Tasca d'Almerita Sicilia Le Rose di Regaleali 2020.
Our savoury courses ended with Merluzzo: a Sicilian prepared cod, seared with sweet onions, citric, grilled artichokes and finished with light butter sauce and another very fine white wine, Tornatore Etna Bianco 'Pietrarizzo' 2021.
Our dessert was, of course, the traditional Cannoli: cannoli pastry filled with sweet orange ricotta, chocolate shavings and pistachios – heavenly and paired brilliantly with a sweet Tasca d'Almerita Capofaro Malvasia di Salina 2017.
During the evening we were pleased to present Kim Mead with the Americas silver medallion for her years of service as cellar mistress and a certificate of appreciation to Alvin Nirenberg for his guidance in selection of superb wines for our cellar.
What a superb evening and our thanks go to Chef Don Guthro for such excellent food, to Jack Segal for sourcing the special wines and for his comments and to the DICED brigade and servers for an excellent evening.
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