I'm not quite sure why I cook like a Sicilian; I'm not one ounce Sicilian, for one thing. My family tree is half Irish, the rest German and Croatian. Nor had I ever visited Sicily, the volcanic island jewel just off Italy's southern coast, until this summer. But somehow I've cobbled together a home-cooked diet over 39 years that mirrors that of many Sicilians: lots of tuna and oily fishes in starring and supporting roles, a love of minimalist pasta- and grain-based dishes, nutty pestos, capers, and savory uses of dried fruit, of slow-cooked squashes, tomatoes and eggplant.
A few of these tendencies I can explain. I cook eggplant parm sort of like a Sicilian because my German immigrant grandmother had an immigrant neighbor from southern Italy with whom she swapped recipes. My grandmother also cultivated a massive garden that forever imprinted a love — ahem, compulsion? — to incorporate seasonal produce into every meal, which she passed to my mom. I started tossing tinned sardines with pasta and oil-fried breadcrumbs around 2010 because Mark Bittman did, for "The New York Times" dining section. Soon enough, this led to topping things like braised veggies and pan-fried oily fish with breadcrumbs too.
