Sicilian cuccina essentials

If you were to chose a cuisine to teach someone to cook I reckon it would be Italian. It's elemental and instructive, yet non nerve wracking approach will also reinforce to the beginner that they can cook after all. Which is what you want, right? That is, for someone to cook without instruction, for the love of it, time and time again.
The place we are staying in Palermo has a great kitchen set up. All ready to go and it has a dominant piece of cooking equipment; one great, big large non stick frying pan. Almost too big for the stove top. This looked odd to me until I realised what it was used for.
Sicilians love simple pasta. Lots of fresh, seasonal ingredients. I have yet to see a bolognese sauce on any menu at any of the dozen places we have eaten. And creamy sauces are rare, too. What you get is a lot of tomato based sauces with the addition of sardines, anchovies, swordfish or tuna (they love their fish, these Sicilians and all these varieties are caught locally). It sounds odd, but currants and pine nuts feature, too. As too does eggplant or melanzanne, which is also base ingredient in caponata.
But I digress. My point is, and I do have one, that the big frying pan is used here to combine the pasta with the simple, simple sauce. The spaghetti, and it is mostly spaghetti, is cooked, drained and thrown into the large frying pan which has waiting in it some tasty bits and pieces cooked off in lots of olive oil. Too easy? So easy I had my in house beginner cook lunch in a few simple steps.

1. Gently heat lots of olive oil in the large frying pan.

2. Add seasonings to flavour the oil; garlic, chilli even anchovies.

3. Add your vegetables, meat  or fish. You don't need much. Here we used some prosciutto.

4. Cook enough spaghetti for four people. Drain well and add to the big frying pan. Top with parsley and parmesan.