Tales from Favignana, Sicily – Part 4 and last

Favignana is famous throughout Italy for its “tonnara”, an arab origin term, which means tuna fishing and processing. Every year during Springtime – between May and June – Favignana islanders engage in Red Tuna fishing. This event attracts a lot of domestic – as well as international tourism – to Favignana since fishing is conducted according to traditional old methods.

Actually, I am not a tuna lover, but I could not leave Favignana without going shopping for (or tasting) tuna specialties in town. In the end, I really had to try this famous tuna all my friends were raving about.

Consequently, our last day in Favignana was spent hanging around the small town and buying some of Favignana’s delicacies. We came across a store named “ La Casa del Tonno” (The House of Tuna). Not only it had all kind of tuna specialties, but it had a wide range of typical Sicilian products.

We began having some tuna tasting (and swordfish also). Beginning from the darker tuna slice and clockwise: tuna salame, tuna roe, smoked tuna, smoked swordfish, and tuna bresaola – a type of cured tuna.

The store had different kinds of capers. Some of them were brought from the Island of Pantelleria in Sicily, which is well known for its excellent quality of capers. When buying capers in Italy, be sure to get “Capperi di Pantelleria”!

Olives!!!!!!! I could eat them endlessly, specially when seasoned like the ones in the picture below: hot peppers, parsley, sweet peppers, dill, extra virgin olive oil, and wine vinegar.

Sun-dried cherry tomatoes…and my mouth was watering.

You could find all kind of nuts, such as almonds, pistachios,  and pine nuts since these are widely used in Sicilian traditional cuisine. Below some tasty almonds.

Tuna buzzonaglia packed in olive oil and tuna packed in water. Buzzonaglia di tonno is the remainings of tuna processing which is the darker tuna flesh near the spine.

Look at all the different and delicious anchovies.

The famous Pesto di Favignana: tomatoes, black olives, hot peppers, olive oil, and basil.

Wonderful, delicious jams from left to right: mandarin jam; oranges and pistachios; mandarin, ginger and cinnamon; oranges and zibibbo wine; clementines.

La Casa del Tonno – Via Roma, 12 – Favignana. Tel.: (39) 0923 922227.