Una pizza, per favore

A popular food in Sicily

“I’d like a pizza, please.”

Pizza is the most popular food for foreigners on holiday in Sicily. It was invented by the Neapolitans in homage to Queen Margherita, at the time when the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were united, and thus was brought to the island.

The imagination of Sicilian pizza-makers is well-known: there is the classic pizza with mozzarella and tomato, and other, more complicated choices – sometimes with ingredients from the countryside like sausage and mushrooms, other times with seafood, like mussels and clams.

A classic pizza is the Norma, with aubergines and salted ricotta cheese: “La Norma” is one of the most famous operas by Vincenzo Bellini, who lived in Catania in the 19th century. Even today, when something works out exceptionally well, the Sicilians have a saying: “fatta a norma”.