What's Good Right Now — Sicily Eats by the Calendar, So Do We
Sicily eats by the calendar: blood oranges in January, artichokes in spring, eggplant by June, and tomatoes in August. Tutto Sicilia's Garden Collection keeps August in a jar, with Sun-Dried Tomato Pâté and Hot Pepper Cream made from that summer harvest.
Sicily eats by the calendar.
Not as a food trend. Not as a commitment to local sourcing or a rejection of global supply chains. Simply because that's how it has always worked — the island produces what it produces when it produces it, and the kitchen responds accordingly.
The Sicilian food calendar
In January, the blood oranges are at their peak and the citrus is everywhere. In spring, the artichokes are impossible to avoid and worth not avoiding. By June, the eggplant is coming in. August belongs to tomatoes — San Marzano, vine-ripened, in quantities that require preserving because you can't eat them all fresh, and you'd be a fool not to try.
August in a jar
The Garden Collection is August made permanent.
The tomatoes that went into the pâté were harvested at peak ripeness, in the southernmost corner of Sicily where the summer is longest and most complete. They were dried slowly in the August sun — not processed, not rushed, just exposed to the same sun that ripened them until they became something concentrated and intense and completely themselves.
The chilis matured on the vine through that same August. Hot pepper cream made from them carries the warmth of that season — not aggressive heat, but deep, vine-ripened heat that builds slowly and stays.
Buying these jars in October or February or April is a way of eating by the calendar even when the calendar says something else. August is in the jar. The season is preserved.
I've started thinking about my pantry this way — as a collection of seasons, each jar representing a specific moment of harvest in a specific place. The orange blossom honey is a spring morning in a Sicilian grove. The marmalade is winter citrus. The sun-dried tomato pâté is August in the southernmost corner of Sicily.
Open the jar. The season is still there.
Cook with it in Pasta Aglio e Olio with Hot Pepper Cream, and read The Long Table for an August meal that went on all afternoon.
Questions about eating by the season in Sicily
What's in season in Sicily, month by month?
Blood oranges peak in January, artichokes in spring, eggplant comes in by June, and August belongs to tomatoes.
Where do Tutto Sicilia's sun-dried tomatoes come from?
The southernmost corner of Sicily, harvested at peak ripeness and dried slowly in the August sun.
What does Sicilian hot pepper cream taste like?
Not aggressive heat: a deep, vine-ripened warmth that builds slowly and stays.
The garden remembers everything. So does the jar.
the pantry
FROM THE SAME SHELF, GENERATION TO GENERATION
