I get the idea of most of the ingredients but can you give me an idea of these dishes?

Tra i primi piatti proposti:

Sarde "allinguate": prima marinate nell'aceto, poi infarinate e fritte;
Bruschette con Bottarga e uova di tonno;
Gamberi macerati con olio e limone;
Cuscus alla trapanese con calamari fritti;
Busiate al tempio, con pesto alla trapanese e gamberetti;
Busiate con pesce spada e melenzane.

Tra i secondi piatti proposti:

Pesce spada alla pantesca, con ciliegino (pomodorini), capperi e mandorle.

RR

I'll try a few:

Sardines marinated in vinegar, then floured and fried. (I'm wondering if there's not a typo with "allinguate". All'inguaiato would mean messy, and all'inguantato would mean gloved, or covered; either seems appropriate here. But it may be dialect, too.)

Bottarga is dried, salted, packed fish eggs that are usually grated or sliced thinly. Uova di tonno would be tuna eggs.

Prawns macerated in oil and lemon.

Cous cous Trapani style with fried calamari.

Busiate I don't know, but the first is served with small prawns and Trapani style pesto. The second with swordfish and eggplant.

Swordfish in the style of Pantelleria, with cherry tomtatoes, capers and almonds.

Busiate is a fresh pasta shape. And hey, I found the recipe for busiate con pesce spada e melanzane. Looks good except I am not a big fan of eggplant (tho I am trying; had it today, in fact)

Allinguate means (in Sicilian) shaped like a tongue. Essentially, the fishes get gutted, beheaded and opened completely to remove the bones, so that you can lay them flat on their skin with the inside meat exposed, like in this pic. Cuscus is typical of western Sicily and a couple of years ago the world championship of cuc cuc cooking was won by a Sicilian cook; it's usually done with fish.

Busiati are described here. It's fresh pasta made rolling a small rectangle of pasta on a knitting needle.

Cous cous trapanese is made with fish broth and from my experience was wet.

quote:

Originally posted by Matt L.:
Cous cous trapanese is made with fish broth and from my experience was wet.

Yes, In fact I ate it at the restaurant at the little hotel in Scopello. It was also pretty full of bones and had to be eaten carefully.

Robert, I'll look up my trip report and find my favorite restaurants in Western Sicily, when we were there in 2001.

Pat

Robert, I posted a few places on your thread about Western Sicily restaurants.

Pat