ristorazione — Caltabellotta · Sicilia
Caltabellotta looks out over the Belìce valley from a height of medieval rock, and it's here that Giuseppe Schittone tells the double soul of Sicilian cooking: territorial cuisine and the pizzaiolo's craft, in a village that has not forgotten how to eat.
At the top of the medieval village of Caltabellotta, where via Roma keeps the old measure of stone streets, the entrance of Giardino Del Gusto marks the boundary between the silence of the Agrigento hinterland and the threshold of a place that interprets the double vocation of the Sicilian table: restaurant and pizzeria, under the same roof.
The dining room welcomes those in search of the flavours of the Agrigento hinterland: a territorial cuisine that brings to the table the gastronomic culture of the Belìce, that blend of historical memory and local ingredients the village has kept for centuries. Conviviality and a tradition of hospitality meet in a space built for those who want to sit down and recognise the taste of the place.
From the kitchen come both the dishes of Sicilian cuisine and the preparations of the pizzaiolo's craft: two distinct registers that Giuseppe Schittone keeps side by side without letting one blur into the other. Territorial cooking and pizza-making tradition share the same fire, each faithful to its own technique, both rooted in the same valley seen from the heights of the village.
At the finish, a dish that distills territory and craftsmanship into one. The page tells the rest of what the scene has already suggested.
