Street food is a big part of Sicilian cuisine, and Palermo has several markets that make the city feel like the beating heart of street food culture. The Ballarò, Capo, and Vucciria markets are all bustling, vibrant displays of Palermo’s gastronomic character: outstanding local produce, fresh fish, and Sicily’s top-quality ingredients – almonds, pistachios, golden raisins, and tomato paste, for example – are rubbing elbows with the street food vendors selling everything from various fritti and stuffed-to-order sandwiches to offal-meat and sea urchins.
Sampling Palermo’s street food throughout one or all of these markets is a great way to eat, especially on a budget, but this Palermo food guide will help you not only decide what the best market is for specific delicacies but also seek out Palermo’s best restaurants and other eateries for equally delicious dishes.
Arancine: Mercato di Ballarò
Start your journey with arancine – these rice-filled fritters (also sometimes spelled “arancini”) are easily one of the most ubiquitous street foods you’ll see, and a Sicilian favorite. Each arancina contains a filling at its ricey core; a typical one is ragù, but you can also find alla Norma with tomato and eggplant, mozzarella and prosciutto, or peas and TK.
At Ballarò, there are several stands that make arancine and you can’t go hugely wrong, but make sure you’re getting them at a place that makes them fried to order; the arancine should land in your hands piping hot and extra crisp on the outside. Then you’ll understand why these fritters are so beloved – and addicting.
Panelle: Mercato di Capo
The Mercato di Capo is another major market in Palermo with a wide array of street food options, but some of the best things to try here are panelle, or chickpea-flour fritters. Panelle are one of those foods that exceeds expectations – they look basic enough to be a passed hors d’oeuvre at a wedding with mediocre catering, but one bite into the little rectangles will make you close your eyes with delicious appreciation and leave you wondering why we aren’t all eating more chickpeas. (Is it even a fritter if it tastes healthy?)
The perfectly fried panelle should have a custardy interior and a thin, slightly crisp outer layer. Order a plate of them in the Mercato di Capo – there are several great stands along the main drag on Via Porta Carini – and definitely use the accompanying lemon wedge to spritz some juice over them. (At some of the market stalls, you will see panelle being stuffed into a bread roll, which is one of the best panino fillings you might ever encounter.)
DISCOVER: More of the city with our guide to Things to do in Palermo.
Sfincione: Panificio Graziano
Besides the markets in Palermo, there are great bakeries and other eateries where you can try street food specialties, including sfincione (or sfinciuni), a Sicilian style of pizza by the slice. This is not the same as what is often called a “Sicilian slice” in the U.S.; sfincione instead looks a bit like focaccia with a springy, lightly doughy interior and a crisp underside, and is topped with tomato sauce, breadcrumbs, oregano, and sometimes onions, and/or caciocavallo cheese.
Some palermitani also make sfincione with anchovies, either cooked into the tomato sauce or on top of the finished slice. Try the sfincione at Panificio Graziano, which is worth the trek to the northern side of the city.
Pezzi di Rosticceria Siciliana: Nino U’ Ballerino
Even more forms of pizza await you at Nino U’ Ballerino, a grandiose street food stand that specializes in sandwiches as well as the rosticceria siciliana, which is an entire category of specifically bread-based street food. Each item in this category is referred to as a pezzo, or piece, of the rosticceria; the best pezzi to try at Nino are the sfinciotti (sfincioni that have been turned into a thick round, like huge pizzette) and the “pizza a cannolo,”
Nino’s cheeky play on Sicilian cannoli – pizza dough is formed into the same cylinder shape and wrapped around fillings like tomato sauce and olives, ham and besciamella, or even crocchè (potato croquettes) for a double dose of street food.
Caponata: Osteria Alivàru
Alivàru is a quite perfect osteria palermitana, with a well-maintained balance between understated elegance in the food and a laid-back, local atmosphere. The family-run restaurant loves its neighborhood regulars who love them right back, which means you’re getting a real palermitano experience. Chef Carlo Napoli, palermitano-born and raised, is devoted to making joyful, local recipes with equal parts tradition and creativity, and with top-quality local ingredients. In true family restaurant style, it might be his young niece or nephew bringing water to your table, in between soccer-ball-kicking in the surrounding piazza, and that makes everything better.
Even though the surrounding Kalsa neighborhood is technically in the geographic center of the city, Alivàru is nestled in a delightfully peaceful piazza away from the typical busy streets. But the best part about Alivàru – which means “olive seller” in dialect, a nod to the chef’s family’s 150-year-old business in Ballarò – is the caponata, the famous Sicilian eggplant antipasto made with olives and tomato. Here it is superlative, so start with at least one order because you’re not going to want to share much.
BROWSE: The Best Places to Stay in Palermo.
Ragù di Pesce: Le Angeliche
Palermo – and Sicily as a whole – has amazing vegetarian pasta dishes, but Palermo’s coastal position also means it’s a great city to try some seafood in (especially if your Sicilian travels are going to take you inland afterward – see our other Sicily guides [here].) At Le Angeliche, a women-run restaurant that gives modern but not too cheffy twists to classic dishes, the spaghettone al ragù di pesce is one of the best seafood pastas you’ll find.
The ragù comes from the days when pescatori (fishermen) would use the day’s leftover fish that hadn’t been sold to cook into a hearty sauce for pasta, along with wild herbs. The fennel fronds in the Le Angeliche rendition add a lovely herby note, which tastes exactly right when you’re eating in the restaurant’s gorgeous back garden, surrounded by plants and greenery. Serendipitously, the ragù di pesce pairs perfectly with the wine list’s “Sketta” grecanico wine from Cantina Marilina in Siracusa – sketta is a Sicilian term for a bold, independent woman, much like the leaders at the restaurant’s helm.
Stigghiola: Mercato Vucciria
Stigghiole are a meat specialty of Palermo’s street food scene, and a favorite of palermitani – they are usually either calf or lamb intestines that are skewered and cooked on the grill, especially in the evenings. It’s especially appropriate to try a stigghiola or two at the Mercato Vucciria, which originally was a meat market entirely (the name is related to the French word boucherie, or butcher).
Granita: Q-Tuppo
Gelato is all very well and good when you’re on Italy’s mainland, but in Sicily, you should shift your focus to granita. This is the frozen treat that reigns supreme here, and it’s really best to submit to the granita’s powers starting at your morning trip to the caffè bar if you really want to eat like a local.
Everyone outside of Sicily seems to think that Sicilians’ penchant for granita at breakfast is an adorable indulgence, but in fact it’s quite logical when you remember how warm it is there all year, and it’s no more indulgent than a pastry after all. (It’s worth noting that granita is not actually made with milk, the way gelato is – it is made by blending water and sugar with the main ingredient, so the final result is like a more voluminous, spoonable smoothie and not necessarily fruit-based.) But in any case, you’re in Sicily, so if it feels like an indulgence… go for it anyway.
The most classic flavors to order, reflecting some of Sicily’s most prized ingredients, are mandorla (almond) and pistacchio. Get a few cups at Q-Tuppo, named for the round tuppo or top of the brioche bun that’s typical to dip in granita; the shop is just around the corner from the Palazzo dei Normanni (Palermo’s Royal Palace), so it’s the perfect stop for breakfast or a snack before or after a tour there.
Cannoli and more Sicilian dolci: I Segreti del Chiostro, Monastero Santa Caterina
You might know that monasteries and convents have for centuries made products like jam, honey, and even wine. But did you know that monks and nuns historically were known for making elaborate sweets and desserts? The Monastero Santa Caterina, in the heart of Palermo, has revived this historic tradition with I Segreti del Chiostro, a bakery inside the monastery’s cloister.
Today, it’s a group of professional bakers making the baked goods, in the name of keeping traditional Sicilian and palermitano recipes – and the Santa Caterina complex itself – alive. It’s impossible to skip a cannolo when you’re there, since it’s one of the best in the city, but make sure to also try an iris, a doughnut-like bun typically filled with sweet ricotta – you can choose either baked or fritta, but remember that fried is usually the way to go in Palermo.
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Lydia O’Brien is cookbook editor, writer, and recipe tester based in Italy. She has lived in Rome, Florence, and Siena and spent a summer cooking at an agriturismo in Tuscany, after leaving the full-time publishing world in New York. Originally from Washington, D.C., she has a degree in English literature and spent a university semester in Rome studying food and art history.
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