Ordinary trattoria

Ragusa, May 22, 2010—

WHERE TO EAT today? I'd have liked to return to Quattro Gatti down in Ibla, where we ate last night, but didn't want to pay for another taxi, and didn't feel like driving (these towns and their streets are pretty fierce): why not try a typical little place right up here in Ragusa? We stopped in at a travel agent to buy tickets to tomorrow's play, and asked the pretty young woman at the desk if she had any ideas: Yes, she said, not the ___ di Vita, the next little trattoria behind it, very authentic, just what everyone here eats.

But I had a little trouble finding it, partly because she didn't remember its name, or what street it was on. So we stopped in at a Tabacco and asked: do you know where the ___ di Vita is?

Yes, of course, it's around the corner, and two streets down, and not that street but the other. But don't go there; there's a little ordinary place beyond it, go there, I eat there all the time, it's very good.

And of course it turned out to be the neighborhood trattoria right around the corner from our hotel. So we made a midday meal there:

Antipasto rustica (salami, dried tomatoes, artichoke, olives, peppers, Ragusa cheese, Pecorino, eggplant, mushrooms, little pieces of foccaccia)

Manichi ri fauci: chick-peas, favas, little gnochetti, onion, celery, olive oil

ordinary white table wine in carafe

Then we went back in the evening for dinner:

Spezzatura di vitello: pieces of veal stew meat, braised, with potatoes

Spinach (with the obligatory trace of nutmeg)

Tomato salad

ordinary red table wine in carafe

•Al Bocconcino (trattoria tipica ragusana), Corso Vittorio Veneto 96, Ragusa; tel. 0932.651405