Sicily Food: Lamb!

Those who know me, know how much I enjoy lamb. It is just about one of my favourite foods. Today, after a solid nap to recover from the Palermo Questura, we headed out to try and find some more EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). Amazing how much EVOO one can consume in a two week period. Any way, this trip took us into Castellemare del Golfo and the Enoteca there. We'd found good olive oil there before inexpensively - 16 Eu for 2l.

Not only did we get olive oil, but on our way out of town we found the butcher we liked so much on our first day in Casetellemare. He remembered us too! He must have seen my eyes light up when I saw the lamb carcass hanging behind the counter. He offered to sell me the whole thing, but I demurred (even I don't think I could eat an entire lamb, plus, I don't have any where to cook it, except the beach....). We did walk away with a nice collection of lamb chops. Keep in mind this was around 7pm ... what would I cook with it? The Alimenari on the way home from Castellemare was open and they had potatoes - a match made in heaven. Christopher was a little less certain because he is the dishwasher, and he knew that at home was waiting an entire meal's worth of dishes already from our lunch. But hey! That is the deal, we live here, so we cook! And clean of course.

The potatoes were astoundingly creamy and moist - after almost an hour at high heat they were a bit crisp, and melt in the mouth delicious. The lamb... well, a quick dredge in fresh rosemary, salt, pepper and into a hot pan with a little bit of EVOO. Divine. We paired the meal with a salad dressed with an EVOO/lemon juice dressing and a local white wine recommended by our landlord called "Grillo". There were some moments of pure food joy here this evening.