Did you know that a lot of Italian food just happens to be vegan?

In my series Vegan Cultures, I explore traditional plant-based food from around the world. In collaboration with ‪@SlowFoodInt‬ and with the support of Meatless Monday, this episode is taking us to Sicily.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:42 Pane e Panelle
03:34 Cazzilli
07:47 Pesto alla Trapanese
09:08 Couscous con Verdure
13:43 Scaccia
15:22 Buccaturedda
16:31 Scifitieddu
17:01 Vastedda
20:04 Modican Chocolate
26:45 Granita

Find all the food spots here (mobile only):
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We're starting in Palermo to taste some of its famous street food like Pane e Panelle (chickpea fritters in a sandwich) and Cazzilli (potato croquettes).

In Trapani, we'll taste a traditional pesto called Pesto alla Trapanese, which is served with the local pasta shape Busiate. Here, we also learn that Sicilians have their very own couscous dishes, which are a product of North African and Arabic influences. We'll taste Couscous con le Verdure, a delicious dish of couscous soaked in a rich vegetable stock and served with veg.

Afterwards, the journey takes us to Modica, where we find some local stuffed flatbreads like Scaccia and Buccaturedda filled with loads of herbs, tomatoes and aromatics, as well as a savoury pastry called Scifitieddu that is filled with Italy's best summer ingredients. And there's Vastedda, a simple fried dough snack.

Modica is also known for its very own method of making chocolate, a result of the Spanish reign during which cocoa beans arrived in Sicily. We'll see how the chocolate is made from scratch and why it is so different to any other chocolate you might have had before.

And finally, we'll visit Taormina to taste Sicily's famous granita with five different flavours: Strawberry, peach, lemon, almond and coffee. Plus, we'll learn that granita is actually a breakfast and sometimes even eaten with bread!

This series is all about the kind of food that just happens to be vegan - food that emerged from poverty, religion or foreign influences. As such, it’s the type of food that can be truly sustainable. It has already stood that test of time to prove that its core ingredients can grow dynamically in the local climate, while the dishes that sprung from it have been welcomed into the cultural fabric.
But often, these dishes get overlooked as plant-based options. So it's time to uncover the under-the-radar plant-based foods that exist all around us.

Let me know in the comments which culture I should visit next and what kind of dishes I might find!

Want to support my work? You can buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/bakinghermann

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Thanks for watching!