If It's Sunday it Must be Marsala and Menfi

A View from the Bus, heading West to Marsala

In order to see as much of Sicily as we can in 10 days, we are spending 2 nights in each place.  Today we traveled to Marsala, where they harvest salt and distill Marsala wine.  Our tour of the salt pans illuminates how precious this seasoning is.  At one time in the ancient world, salt was considered money.  During the middle ages, the rulers of Pisa cut off supplies of salt to central Italy.  In Tuscany and Umbria, the bakers decided to conserve their salt and not add it to bread.  Later, when the supply lines reopened, Pope Paul III, in order to raise money for the church demanded that Umbria purchase salt from the Pontificate, thereby tripling the price of the salt.   The Umbrians refused to knuckle under to the papal pressure, and continue to bake their bread without salt to this day.  Here in Marsala salt is still harvested by hand, and the process is like many other traditions here in Italy, it is handed down from generation to generation.  

The salt is harvested from the Mediterranean and the thin veil of salt that comes to the top of the salt pans is the Fiore di sale (flower of the salt)  This is the most prized salt, and if it is not gathered immediately, it will sink to the floor of the salt pan, and combine with the other salt.  The process is long and difficult, and worth every step to ensure that the result is a pure product.  

Tools for harvesting the salt

Salt tasting; pineapple on large salt crystals

Fleur de Sel

Tomatoes

After the salt tasting, we headed to the gift shop to purchase some salt and then we headed to a slow food restaurant a few miles up the road.  

Committed to serving the best the area has to offer we were in for a treat

We were served a variety of first courses, by that time I was full, but there was more to come.  (this is Sicily, if you can get up from the table, you aren't full!)

panelle

caponata

Arrancini, round stuffed with meat, triangular ones stuffed with eggplant

bruschetta

cheeses with jam

   

Pasta with eggplant

pasta with sausage

pasta with tuna

The dessert was fried dough encasing fresh sweetened ricotta cheese.  

We sampled the wines from the owner's vineyard, as well. We were so grateful to the owners for opening on Sunday just for us.  We had our own beautiful enclosed patio all to ourselves.

This was the perfect way to end our stay in Marsala.  

After thanking our hosts and our chef, we were off to our final stop of the day, La Forrestiere.

Next stop, Menfi and La Forrestiere.  

Ciao for now.

Getting Salty

Heading out of Palermo in morning rush hour traffic, we zipped west towards Trapani and on to Marsala to visit the salt pans.  This particular salt production area is where they process organic salt by hand.  An interesting process, with dikes that flood the pans, and then the salt concentrates.  As they do in France, the Fleur de Sel is raked before the bigger salt crystals, and is the most prized of the salt here.
At So Salt, they harvest the salt 3 times per year.  Yesterday we were able to see the salt crystals forming on the bottom of the beds.

The main building an museum

Salt pans

When the salt is harvested and stored, it is covered with Roman tiles which line some of the pans

You can see the crystals on the bottom

The curatolo, the man who checks the salt to make sure it has the right amount of water and sun

Tiny shrimp that are pink color the salt, in the summer, Flamingos feed on the shrimp in the lagoon

The only plant that can live alongside the salt

Inside the windmill

We did a salt tasting, with the different types of salt

If you haven't seen the production of salt before, especially this ancient tradition, I highly recommend it.  You are able to walk out onto the salt pans to seen the different stages before the salt is harvested. There is a movie in English that explains the process, and then going out onto the salt pans brings it to life.