In Sferracavallo, Into the Sea – and the Seafood

The aquamarine waters off Sferracavallo (frazione di Palermo i.e., a suburb) will tempt you for a swim.

And if you have an appetite for local seafood after your Mediterranean Sea swim, head to the port area of the village of Sferracavallo.
A dark-haired young man rapidly splitting open sea urchins for sea urchin pasta on the restaurant seaside deck hinted to us that Trattoria La Perla del Mare could be the right choice for a post-swim lunch.
And this trattoria did live up to its name: “the pearl (of the sea).”

Sea urchins cleaned right on the restaurant deck

La Perla del Mare

Nothing like eating top seafood alongside the sea

Right from the seafood antipasto: swordfish balls, fried baby calamari (“cappuccetti“) and steamed mussels.

Swordfish balls

Steamed mussels

Cappuccetti

And on we went to the pastas: with sea urchin sauce and with clams and bottarga (tuna fish eggs). Grilled swordfish, oysters, too for our table. A crisp Sicilian white accompanying all.

Pasta with sea urchin sauce

Pasta with clams and bottarga (tuna fish eggs)

Oysters, too, at this lunch

And then our waiter showed us a hefty, just-caught octopus.

Our waiter offers us a just-caught octopus

Octopus, a Sferracavallo specialty

Our table of five decided we could take it on.

Good eating for all of us in Sferracavallo

We decided to share in the octopus

At nearby tables, other vacationers – many in wet bathing suits – feasted on seafood, too. They’d found the magical combination: in Sferracavallo, from the sea to the seafood.