ortigia and tuna covered pasta9th entry – italy 2014

Sept-4 035The above image is the lungomare in Ortigia. The original rental for Siracusa was on this street. (It fell through, because the owner of the house sold it and therefore not available to the rental agency.) On Tuesday, we met the rental agent I had been working with at a caffè in the piazza of the Temple of Apollo and she refunded the down-payment.

There is a difference in the colors here and I can’t seem to put my finger on. For example, what makes for the very blue sky; what makes for the golden light in the late afternoon? I keep thinking it’s the near-desert latitude and mountainous terrain, but have no evidence for this conclusion.

Supper was great. I began by sauteing minced garlic and scallions in olive oil; to that I added cut fresh tomato, and after letting that cook for a while, I added small pieces of sun-dried tomato. (The fresh tomatoes are for liquid, the sun-dried are for flavor.) The last ingredient was the tuna in olive oil. (I would have preferred fresh tuna in olive oil, but there was none. The market in Ortigia is more like the Stip District than a farmers’ market. The vendors are permanent, local farmers do not bring their produce to sell.)