chickpeas

, Sicily presents interesting challenges. So many of the ingredients featured in characteristically Sicilian dishes are imports. Arab, Norman,Vandal, Greek,Roman, French and Spanish Occupations of Sicily brought with them many new foods to the cuisine.

Chick peas, are known to have been in Italy since the Bronze age. It is probably fair to assume that they make up a part of the indigenous cuisine in Sicily.

Which allows me a certain liberty in waxing anthropological.

It interests me that basic foods of diets across the globe top the list of food intolerances for those cultures. Wheat and Gluten, for example are common intolerances for Italians. In fact, programs are in place to screen children for gluten intolerances before they reach school age. Gluten is the protein in Wheat, and wheat is the grain nearly exclusively used to make pasta. See where I am going with this?

Why all of a sudden is an "indigenous ingredient" to the traditional diet of Italians causing so many problems? Has the wheat changed and their bodies are no longer genetically predisposed to accept it, or was it really a good land-population match for the inhabitants to start? On the surface we have a huge problem if basic foods that are essential to the cultural integrity of a cuisine are causing physical distress. If it was a bad match to begin, how could generations of Italians thrived with it as such a primary food group?

I am researching this now. I do suspect that it has to more to do with the kind of wheat that is planted rather than a food being essentially dangerous or bad. Overindulgence may be at play. Too much of a good thing can cause the trouble. However, overindulgence's consequences do not exist in a vacuum. The added demand influences the production and the means of production to meet that demand. Farming practices, hybridization, replacement of heirloom strains of wheat by better, sturdier crops may cost us in genetic compatibility. It is my opinion, and only an opinion at this point, that occupants of their original,(call it indigenous if you like) terrain share a compatibility on a genetic level with it that determine the longevity and survival of those inhabitants. Lack of compatibility predisposes the inhabitants to extinction.

Chinese people thrive with chinese food, Italians with Italian food, Irish with celtic foods, Russians with Russian food, etc.

So, back to chick peas: this ingredient native (we can say, perhaps) to Italy. This pulse is part of traditional Sicilian cuisine. It is not eaten as often as wheat, and offers a valuable substitution for gluten based flours. I am intrigued by the inclusion of chick peas in the diet here.

People snack on them, make cakes from them, some pasta and of course panella. At Gaetano's family fry shop near the train station, they make three things. Milza, a curious sandwich filled with sauteed cow's pancreas, lung and spleen; arranicini- fried rice balls; and PANELLA. I have come to love panella. Forget French Fries. These are panels of chickpea paste fried a golden brown. They are also layered into a sandwich. Or can be eaten as I prefer, without the bread but lots of lemon and pinch of salt. MMMM. Don't knock it until you have tried it.