Local Products

The prosperity of the agriculture of Catania is due to its rich soil. The main cultivations are the culture of citrus and grapevine. The first includes: orange, lemon, mandarin orange, clementine, bergamot, citron, grapefruit and prickly pear.
Among the nuts are important for the high quality: almond, hazelnut and pistachio, which are the basis of traditional confectionery.
Many farming products of Catania and its province are well-known within Italy and abroad. For example there are: red pulp oranges, prickly pears of San Cono and Maletto, lemons of Acicatena, strawberries of Maletto, pistachio of Bronte and many more.
The traditional culture of grapevine enables the production of excellent wines, high alcohol content, both red and white, liqueurs and rosoli, which are appreciated all over the world.

The tasty Catania cuisine offers a range of typical local delicacies. There are savoury or sweet typical recipes which are famous and delicious.
Catania specialty par excellence is Pasta alla Norma. This is a first course, with tomato sauce, fried eggplant, basil and lots of salty ricotta cheese. The name given to this recipe was in honor of the composer Vincenzo Bellini, who came from Catania and who wrote the opera Norma, which opened the Massimo Bellini Theater in 1890.
There are the rice balls, arancini di riso, one of the most common recipes, offered in a thousand varieties, mostly enriched with minced meat, and sometimes with mushrooms and pistachio nuts.  Another snack that you can find are crespelle: soft fritters full of ricotta cheese or anchovies. Scacciate are another local recipe. These are bread-dough pies, filled with local cheeses, such as tuma, anchovies and different type of vegetables.Cakes and desserts are one of the strong points of Catania cuisine, you can find the best Cannoli di ricotta, made with crunchy pastry filled with ricotta cheese or chocolate flakes or candied fruit. Olivette di Sant’Agata, cakes with green almond paste made for the traditional festival of  Sant’Agata are another delicacy.In all the ice-cream shops of Catania one can find the summer products par excellence: the granita and the ice cream.The spread of ice-cream started from Sicily where the Arabian lessons were perfected thanks to the Sicilian fancy and the richness of this earth. The ice-cream business was invented by Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, from Acitrezza. In 1686 he opened “Cafè Procope” in Paris and so he started the spread all over the world. The preparation of granita is not the same of the ice-cream’s one, it is not a grit of ice with aromas, but it is a granulous and creamy mixture. Near the classic lemon, coffee, almond and chocolate granita, one can find strawberry, mulberry, blackberry, peach and raspberry granita. During the good season it is an ideal breakfast, accompanied with a soft brioche.

Places that offer refreshment, fast and typical snacks

The refreshment booths are situated in a square or at the corner of a street, they look like island. They make people relax thanks to the syrup, the juices, the shakes and the coffee. It is a lap after the dinner and after the cinema,  it represents a refugee from the thirst during the summer heat, it is a moment of pause for the workers and it is a loved place for the children.

The sandwiches sold in the van are not mentioned in any gastronomical and tourist guides, but they are everywhere, at the corners of the streets or in the squares. They can serve lots of sandwiches of tasty ingredients among which one must remember the mushrooms, the olives, the eggplants, the sauces and the vegetables. They are open only late in the evening, they are the ideal solution for appeasing one’s hunger after the cinema or late at night.

"Arrusti e mangia" - In Catania, especially in the popular quarters, there are some shops, above all the horse butcher’s shops that, in the evening, in the external parts, turn on big braziers for roasting different kinds of meat. It’s an ancient tradition linked with the taste and the smell that characterize these streets.