When in Sicily...

>> Caffe della posta offers a taste of the
region’s vibrant and diverse palette

by A.J. KINIK

I think it’s safe to say I had Sicily on the brain. A good friend of mine had just recently returned from a one-week vacation in Sicily and he’d come back raving. The villages, the islands and the landscape: picturesque. The pace of life: relaxed. The food: simple but phenomenally fresh. By the time I arrived at Caffè della posta, a restaurant that bills itself as a home to cucina Siciliana, I was primed and ready to go.

Sicily, of course, is one of the world’s great crossroads. For literally thousands of years, the Mediterranean’s largest island was also one the world’s most hotly contested pieces of real estate, and wave after wave of colonists laid claim to it. Caffè della posta’s menu draws attention to this rich legacy, alerting its patrons that their cuisine is Sicilian (as opposed to Sicilian-American), and that consequently one shouldn’t be surprised to find Arab, Spanish, Greek and Norman influences front and center when one’s plates arrive.

I’d been to Caffè della posta once before, several months earlier, and knew that its antipasti and salads were something of a forte. I noticed they were no longer offering the very reasonably priced antipasti sampler I’d encountered on my first visit, but we still made a point of getting a decent selection, two hot and two cold. Our choices arrived neatly arranged on a single, square white plate, accompanied with some outstanding home-baked semolina-sesame bread.

As its name suggested, calamari alla diavola ($6) consisted of tender hunks of squid stewed in a (mildly) spicy tomato sauce. The two deep-fried sardine croquettes ($6), meanwhile, were made with extra briny salt-packed sardines and came with an accompanying tomato dipping sauce. The fennel salad ($8) was just as refreshing as one would hope for, with thin slivers of fennel served over mesclun and adorned with slices of pink grapefruit and orange. The most interesting dish of the lot, though, was the second of the cold antipasti: swordfish carpaccio ($10) served in paper-thin slices. Dressed with lemon zest, capers, finely minced parsley and the house olive oil (which was very fine indeed), this was a subtle and refreshing carpaccio, ideal for a warm summer evening.

The remainder of Caffè della posta’s menu is divided between primi, its pasta dishes, and its meat-based secondi, or main courses. There are a number of tempting pasta dishes to choose from, including a traditional linguine alla trapanese, with almonds, basil and tomatoes, and bucatini with sardines. My companion, however, opted for the most exotic of the offerings: casarecci (mid-length, s-shaped noodles) with monkfish, eggplant, pine nuts and raisins.

The dish that arrived was not bad, but it left us a little baffled. First of all, for a dish that came off the list of primi, this was an awfully substantial serving of pasta, one that would be hard to follow with a full main course. You can’t fault someone for being too generous, right? Yeah, sure, but it helps if you get what you thought you ordered. While the dish contained healthy hunks of stewed monkfish and eggplant, neither of us could find any trace of the pine nuts or raisins. When we asked our server about it, he got a little flustered and told us they were there but they’d been ground into a paste. Which is all fine and well, but shouldn’t you still taste them? If not, why even list them as ingredients?

The grilled lamb chops with pistachio pesto ($23), on the other hand, were simple and well executed. Served with thinly-sliced lemon rounds, fresh tomatoes and a baby asparagus and Parmesan gratin, the three lamb chops seemed small, and the effect of the pistachios wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I’d expected. But they were nicely grilled and added up to a good portion.

Overall, the night wasn’t without its successes, but ultimately, it was that pasta dish that summed things up: not bad, but definitely not great either. And when you’re starting with a palette as bright and vibrant as Sicily’s, don’t keep it hidden, let it shine.