For over 50 years, chef Rosanna (yes, that's her in Jamie Oliver's TV series Jamie Cooks Italy) has been recreating her great-grandmother's recipes, including the best pasta alla Norma you'll taste anywhere in Sicily. Service can be slow, but for patient souls this is a rare chance to experience classic Catanian cooking from a bygone era. Closed Mondays from October to April.
Rosanna says her grandmother referred to pasta alla Norma as pasta Mungibeddu in honour of Mt Etna (Mungibeddu being the traditional Sicilian name for Catania's famous volcano): tomatoes represented Etna's red lava, aubergine the black cinders, ricotta the snow and basil leaves the mountain vegetation.
