This modern Sicilian restaurant approaches its menu with scholarly glee, ferreting out regional recipes not normally encountered here. Busiate al pesto Trapanese is a good example — al dente pasta twists flavored with almonds, basil, tomato, Sicilian garlic, and crushed almonds. It comes from the far western city of Trapani, and there are plenty of other quirky pastas, vegetable apps, and big round sandwiches made oncabbuci breadfrom the wood-burning oven. And, not content with a few stray bottles from the triangular island, the wine list at this gem of a spot is all Sicilian.

Pane Pasta (“bread dough”)opened two years agoin Greenwich Village, just off the NYU campus. Though it emphasizes custard-stuffed and chocolate-drizzled pastries, it also offers a plethora of Sicilian snacks and sandwiches, the former including potato fritters and rice balls, the latter panelle-and-potato sandwiches, thick slices of Sicilian focaccia, and anelletti, pasta rings most often baked with tomato sauce. This is a great place to assemble a picnic for nearby Washington Square Park.

In the heart of Soho, Ben’s is a pizzeria founded in 1979 that identifies itself as Sicilian, and though many of its glass-case offerings could be found in nearly any pizzeria, this is one of the few places that serves theclassic rectangular sfinconetopped with sauteed onions and breadcrumbs, called “Palermo” on its identifying tag. Other slices featuring eggplant, broccoli rabe, mushrooms, and zucchini are also baked in the style of Sicily’s capital.

被稱為西西裏的第二大城市,位於at the base of Mt. Etna on the East Coast, this classic Ridgewood Sicilian bakery offers butter cookies, cakes, breads and croissants, doughnuts, and luscious pastries, many bearing fresh fruit and filled with the cannoli cream for which this long-running establishment is justifiably famous. Around holidays like Easter and Christmas, the bakery rolls out special Sicilian and Neapolitan pastries.

When Joe’s was founded in 1982, it was a focacceria, selling sandwiches, bowls of steaming tripe soup, and other old-style Sicilian treats. Then around 2004 it moved north on Forest Avenue into a new and more elegant space and became a full-blown restaurant. Pastas are a strong point, including spaghetti with thin and crisp Sicilian sausages, and linguine with red or white clam sauce. And don’t miss the anchovy and tomato salad as a starter.

This splendid bakery was founded in 1928 when Cobble Hill was a Sicilian stronghold, and is currently occupying temporary digs, but will move back to its original location at the corner of Union and Henry in the near future. It sells all manner of enticing cookies, pastries, and pork-laced breads (the lard bread is legendary), but direct your attention to the Sicilian pizza squares — a paragon of bakery pizzas — with a selection that changes daily.

Amuni is an assertively modern Sicilian restaurant that appeared during the pandemic in Bay Ridge. The setting is an informal cafe, and the old-time Sicilian recipes are often slightly updated for contemporary tastes. The panelle special, a sandwich of chickpea fritters that look like fried ravioli, are now stacked on a large bun, making a very full meal. Tuscan style, the artichokes are fried instead of stuffed, and a wonderful version of the muffuletta is fabricated, as if it had come from Sicily rather than from Sicilians living in New Orleans.

If you could go to only one Sicilian restaurant in the city, Joe’s would be the place. Heralded by a giant mural of an island folk scene, it offers the most complete menu of any restaurant of its type, heavy with the vegetables beloved of Sicilians, displayed in a glass case as you enter the restaurant. Sure there are panelle special sandwiches, caponata, broccoli rabe with garlic, and pasta con sarde, but also find such lesser-known dishes as fettuccine with sea urchin and a tripe-and-potato stew.