You may already be eating Sicilian food without knowing it. What is probably the world’s most popular bar snack — fried calamari — is fundamentally Sicilian, and so is the eggplant relish (or is it a salad?) called caponata. And, of course, the thick, square slices of Sicilian pizza found in nearly every neighborhood pizzeria, more properly called focaccia or sfincione.

Sicily lies at the crossroads of the Mediterranean adjacent to the north coast of Africa, and over the years has absorbed more international influences than most other cuisines — including that of France, Middle Eastern Arab states, ancient Greece and Rome, Turkey, the Venetian Empire, and Morocco, to name a few.