Nicosia’s cooking is mountain cooking: shepherding, wheat, kitchen gardens, and a sure hand with sweets. This is inland Sicily, in the province of Enna, over 700 metres up — a different Sicily from the seaside one of the postcards, with dishes that speak of pastures and long winters more than of beaches. Here you eat first-rate cheeses, some of the island’s best cannoli, and almond sweets you won’t find elsewhere.
Here’s what to look for, and where to taste it straight from the people who make it.
Cheeses and the milk supply chain
Milk is the starting point. High pastures and clean air give a raw material you can taste on the plate: tuma, fresh ricotta and salted ricotta are the base of the everyday table.
The surprise, in a mountain area, is buffalo mozzarella. In the countryside of Nicosia, in the early 2000s, what is described as one of Sicily’s first buffalo farms was started, followed soon after by the dairy. Today the Albereto dairy works buffalo milk in the Albereto district, and you can see it up close: the visit with tasting takes you from the barn to the tasting counter. For a wider look at the local basket — cheeses together with the area’s extra-virgin olive oil — there’s the Cheese and EVO oil experience.
The sweets: cannoli and nocattolo
Nicosia has earned a solid reputation for cannoli, thanks to the quality of its ricotta and a shell the local pastry chefs know how to keep crisp. It’s not village boasting: the town devotes the Festa del Cannolo (Sicilian Cannolo Festival) to the sweet, with tastings and master pastry chefs, which has put Nicosia on the island’s sweet-tooth map.
The signature sweet, though, is another: the nocattolo. It’s a soft pastry topped with a layer of almond paste scented with cinnamon, bound with honey, sugar and egg white. Since 2015 it has held the municipal denomination (De.Co.) that protects its recipe and name, and it has its own festival in early September. You’ll find it year-round in the pastry shops of the centre.
Alongside the two headliners, a repertoire of home sweets survives: the mustazzoli, made with almonds, honey and cinnamon under a dark glaze; and the cucciddateddi, baked sweets filled with almonds, dried figs, raisins, cinnamon and cocoa. Anyone who wants to learn to make them can book the traditional-sweets cooking class.
Savoury dishes and the country tradition
On the savoury side the cooking stays true to the mountain pantry. The dish that best tells the Nicosian winter is zuzzu: a pork jelly made by boiling the cuts of pork with a trotter, vinegar and salt, then boned, seasoned with lemon juice and left to set in the cold. It’s poor, cold-season food, the kind that never reaches tourist menus but is still found in homes and in the odd trattoria.
Around it turn home-made pastas, garden vegetables and the meats of the pasture: the same supply chain that gives the cheeses.
The beer of the 24 barons
There’s something to drink too. The 24 Baroni brewery is the only brewery in the province of Enna and took its name from the baronial families who dominated the town in the 1700s. The visit with tasting is quick to book. Every summer the Beer Fest brings beer into the square, with local and international craft brews. For prices and availability you contact the producer directly: we point you there, we don’t sell.
Where to taste it all
The most direct way to fill up on flavour is to go to the producers. The food experiences line up the dairy, the brewery, oil and sweets.
To see where all this sits, between one monument and the next, there’s the guide to things to do in Nicosia.
Frequently asked questions
What is the typical sweet of Nicosia?
The nocattolo: soft pastry with an almond-paste topping scented with cinnamon, holder of the municipal denomination (De.Co.) since 2015. Nicosia is also known for its cannoli, celebrated each year by the Festa del Cannolo.
What cheeses do you eat in Nicosia?
Tuma, fresh ricotta and salted ricotta from the pastoral tradition, and the Albereto dairy’s buffalo mozzarella, made in the Albereto district by one of Sicily’s first buffalo farms.
What is zuzzu?
A winter pork jelly: the cuts of pork boiled with a trotter, boned and set with lemon and vinegar. It’s a country dish of the cold season.
Where can you taste the local products?
Straight from the producers, with the food experiences that lead to the Albereto dairy and the 24 Baroni brewery, or during food events like the Festa del Cannolo.
Sources
Comune di Nicosia (municipal denomination of the nocattolo, 2015), Sicilian food portals (VivaSicilia, Ricette di Sicilia) for nocattolo and zuzzu, local press (Telenicosia, La Sicilia, EnnaLive) for the cannolo festival, Slow Food and product records for the dairy chain and the 24 Baroni brewery.
