How migrants add new flavours to Sicily, the best summer wines – and a seasonal feast
A country’s cooking has always been enriched by the diverse group of people who have arrived on its shores. In 1996, Shapoor Safari fled Kabul, first for Pakistan, then Iran and Turkey, then, in 2002, he took a boat to Italy, a desperate voyage where he and many others almost lost their lives. Rescued by the Italian navy, he ended up in a refugee camp in Calabria. After taking whatever job he could find in Milan, Rome and Venice, Shapoor took a boat to Sicily, where he settled in Palermo, and where now he works as head chef in a restaurant whose menu is a happy marriage of Sicilian and Middle Eastern food. In this issue, we hear his personal story of migration and integration but also how the city continues to welcome those in search of a new home, and how they continue – as they have done for centuries – to enrich the culture. A truly heartwarming read.
As always, we have recipes for you, including a summer dinner party from Marianna Leivaditaki, the chef at Morito in Hackney, who offers us fava bean puree with red onion and olives, stuffed courgette flowers with goat’s curd and baked aubergines with freekeh and sheep’s cheese. Check out, too, our fabulous summer ice-creams from Kitty Travers. Vanilla plum or ricotta and canditi anyone?
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