Making Pollo alla Marsala 🥃

When at home in Sicily it is always such a temptation to eat out in restaurants and trattorias all the time but I do really enjoy cooking in my Sicilian kitchen.

The kitchen is the beating heart of every Sicilian home.

In Autumn in Sicily we cook and eat hearty and cosy
dishes in our Sicilian kitchen like caponata (a tomato, pepper and aubergine sweet and sour stew), zucca agrodolce (sweet and sour pumpkin), pasta dishes with the cream of chestnuts or walnuts, pasta with pistachio pesto and speck, or a meaty Ragù sauce. Dishes using mushrooms from Mount Etna, purple cabbage with garlic and parmesan, fennel dishes, pollo cacciatore (a country chicken stew), chickpea and rosemary soup and lentil soup plus lots of barbecued meats like involtini (meat rolls with various stuffing, coated in breadcrumbs), pork and salisiccia (sicilian sausage) and fish like tuna and swordfish.

One of my favourite cosy autumnal and wintery dishes to make at home is Pollo con Funghi e Marsala (Chicken with Mushrooms cooked in Marsala Wine).

Pollo (Chicken) is not usually a meat that you would associate with Sicily and it is not often seen on menus in restaurants.

I love the English TV chef Rick Stein who is a great lover of Sicily and Sicilian food and his two books Mediterranean Escapes and Long Weekends sit proudly on my shelf in my Sicilian kitchen along with many other Sicilian cookery books.

In his TV series “Rick Stein’s Long Weekends” he spends a weekend in Palermo visiting the cities street food markets and some of its fabulous restaurants picking up tips and recipes for Sicilian dishes and desserts including Pollo alla Marsala (Chicken with Marsala). Whilst back home in the UK he rustles up this dish in his home kitchen saying “Chicken Marsala was ubiquitous in the 1960’s and 1970’s. After that it lost its appeal, just as with Prawn Cocktail, it is time for a revival. It’s a beautiful dish, made more often in Sicily with veal but also found with chicken”. Rick also says that this dish makes him think of the old fashioned Italian restaurants of Soho in London in the 60’ and 70’s with red and white chequered table cloths serving bottles of Chianti enclosed in a basket. Very old school.

I agree with Mr Stein that it really is a beautiful dish and indeed deserves a revival and so here I am writing this Blog post.

Marsala fortified wine was first popularized outside Sicily by the English trader John Woodhouse who was from Liverpool. It is made from indigenous grape varieties and fortified with brandy, similar to Port or Sherry. In 1773 Woodhouse landed at the port of Marsala on the West Coast of Sicily and discovered the local wine produced in the region, which was aged in wooden casks and tasted similar to fortified wines then popular in England.

John Woodhouse recognised that the ‘in perpetuum’ process raised the alcohol level and alcoholic taste of this wine while also preserving these characteristics during long-distance sea travel. John Woodhouse further believed that fortified Marsala wine would be popular in England. Marsala proved so successful that he returned to Sicily and in 1796 began its mass production. Admiral Horatio Nelson popularised Marsala wine by ordering large quantities for the British Navy. Admiral Nelson became a strong advocate for the wine, calling it "worthy of any gentleman's table". Nelson supplied the British fleet with Marsala, he officially ordered 500 barrels a year to be used as a toast for his victories and his ship would dock at the Port of Marsala flying the Union Jack flag ready to be loaded with the barrels. The wine became so closely associated with Nelson that it was famously drunk by British sailors to toast their victory at Trafalgar in 1805, the same year Nelson was mortally wounded. Nelson had a home in Bronte, the Sicilian town known for its pistachio produce, called Castello Maniace nicknamed Castello Nelson. The castle (a former monastery) and the estate were given to Lord Nelson as part of his Dukedom by the King of Naples, Ferdinand I in gratitude for British help overcoming the Neapolitan revolution of 1799 and for bringing the royal family back to safety in Palermo. The Royals were not the only people to be saved, Lady Hamilton was also a passenger and it was in Sicily that she became Nelson's mistress.

In 1806, it was Benjamin Ingham arriving in Sicily from Leeds who opened new markets for importing Marsala wine from Sicily to England.

In 1832, the renowned Florio family entered the world of Marsala wine production when the Florio Winery was founded by Vincenzo Florio. The Cantine Florio still exists to this day.

Culinary wise most people think of Marsala as an ingredient for Tiramisu and Zabaglione, but shhhhhhh, if you ever go on a Marsala Wine Tasting Experience on the West Coast of Sicily NEVER tell your hosts that you use their precious Marsala wine in one of these desserts. A glass of Marsala is to be enjoyed and savoured AFTER a delicious Sicilian meal as a digestive to help conclude the dining experience and to help settle your stomach and aid digestion.

A vital addition to Pollo alla Marsala is Funghi (mushrooms) and to me the best mushrooms grow on Mount Etna.

Autumn is the season for Etna Mushrooms. In the forests of Mount Etna several mushroom species grow. Their taste comes from growing on the volcanic terrain alongside various species of plants and trees from which they absorb their perfumes and aromas, like resin from the pine trees, spicy aromas from beech trees and also wild herbs in the undergrowth of the forests. Etna mushrooms are unique for their perfume and pungent depth of flavour which enhance all kinds of Sicilian dishes. Autumn is a wonderful time to visit Etna when it is mushroom season and as we drive up the roads of the volcano we see locals picking them in the woods but we would never attempt to pick them ourselves as you need to know your mushrooms (pardon the pun) to recognise which ones are edible and which ones are not.

Here is how to make Pollo alla Marsala inspired by Rick Steins recipe …

You will need

4 Skinless Chicken Breasts

Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

40g of Plain Flour

50g Butter

2 tbsp Olive Oil (Sicilian of course)

2 Shallots finely chopped

2 Garlic Cloves finely chopped

160g Etna Mushrooms or Chestnut Mushrooms

250ml of dry Marsala Wine

150ml of Chicken Stock

In Rick Stein’s recipe he uses chicken breasts which he places between clingfilm and beats using a meat mallet or rolling pin until the chicken is around 5mm thick. In Sicily we are lucky that we can buy Pollo Scallopini. “Scallopini” refers to a thin slice of meat like chicken, veal or pork, so we can buy chicken that has already been sliced horizontally into thin cutlets.

Rick seasons the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides, then dips them into the plain flour coating them lightly and shaking off any excess flour. The butter along with 1 tbsp of olive oil is melted over a medium high heat in a frying pan and the chicken is then fried for 2 to 3 minutes each side until golden then set aside.

After wiping the pan with kitchen paper the remaining butter and olive oil is then heated over a medium heat, then the shallots and garlic are gently fried for around 5 minutes until softened. The mushrooms are then added and cooked for 2 minutes, then the Marsala wine is added whilst turning the heat to high. The fragrance of the Marsala wine cooking is absolutely intoxicating. The liquid has to be reduced by half. Then the heat is turned back down, the chicken stock is added along with the chicken which is then cooked for another 10 minutes and then served with sauté potatoes sprinkled with parsley.

Eat and enjoy and then in true Rick Stein style throw your knife and fork down on your empty plate !!!

If you want you can substitute the chicken with veal or pork. My lovely ‘adopted’ Sicilian big brother Gianfranco always makes me this dish using pork in his Steakhouse restaurant in Trapitello which is not far from our house in Giardini Naxos on the road that is the gateway to the Alcantara Valley.

I hope that you have enjoyed my Blog post and I promise that not a drop of Marsala Wine passes my lips when I am cooking this beautiful dish in my Sicilian kitchen (wink wink).