The largest of the Mediterranean islands, Sicily is home to spectacularly beautiful mountains and silvery beaches, as well as to Greek temples and Baroque churches.

The Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, French, and Spaniards all marched across Sicilia at one time or another, and their influence is evident in the region's cooking style. The Greeks exerted their influence on the preparation of fish and vegetables. The Arabs brought eggplants, spinach, apricots, almonds, couscous and spices and showed the Sicilians how to preserve fish and fruit, as well as how to make some of the candies for which they're now famous. The Normans advanced Sicilian baking.

Foreign influences aside, pasta is the basis of Sicilian cooking, with sauces based on fish and vegetables. Eggplant is the island's most popular ingredient, but tomatoes, onions, zucchini, capers, garlic, olives, broccoli, peppers, and cauliflower are also highly prized.

Nothing depicts the amalgam of foods on which Sicilian cuisine is based better than a pass through the Sicilian market, la vucciria, which is an elaborate bazaar of everything from marzipan, to olives, to luscious fruits and vegetables, to fresh cheese, to every kind of fish imaginable (although swordfish, tuna, and sardines are the region's trademark seafood).

Sicily has more vineyards for wine than any other region, yet per capita Silicians consume less wine than other Italians. Many grapes go to make raisins, another key ingredient in Sicilian dishes, and dessert wine, like Sicily's pride and joy, Marsala. Cannoli are Sicily's most famous sweet, but gelati and sorbetti also find perfection in the region. The island is also famous for its honey.

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