The Pint Sized Palate — A Kid’s Take on New York Food

When You Want a Taste of Sicily

By Churchill Stone

Ficuzza • 121 Seventh Avenue

Ficuzza, a Sicilian restaurant, is located right next to its Italian sister–a pastry shop named Realmuto. The owner, Francesco Realmuto, who is very nice, is Sicilian. He named the restaurant after his favorite village near Palermo.

We sat down for a Sunday dinner before five o’clock, and the tables were almost full and people were also eating at the bar. While I looked at the menu, they brought us Sicilian focaccia which is a mini slice of pizza, for free. It had marinara sauce, tomatoes, and grilled scallions. My sister loved it and she is the pickiest eater.

The menu included a pasta with sardines and raisins, Fusilli alla Trapanese, and another pasta with fried eggplant and ricotta, Rigatoni alla Norma. But those were not for me. Instead, we ordered my favorite pasta, Linguine alla Vongole (clams). We also ordered meatballs and a Caesar salad. The meatballs were amazing with lots of tomato sauce, yum. You could also dip the toasted bread from the Caesar salad into the tomato (“al sugo”) sauce, double yum.

On Saturday nights, my family has a tradition of making Linguine alla Vongole. Because this is my favorite food (aside from sushi of course!) my dad makes it pretty well. So I know a little about this dish and I have even helped to make it.

At Ficuzza, the clams were small which I know are best for the dish, and the linguine was perfect, not too al dente, and not too soft. The sauce (everyone’s favorite part) was very lemony and thick which is perfetto, as the Italians say. They chopped the parsley so much that it was like thousands of the tiniest green speckles everywhere. This was a very simple pasta which is the way they make it in Sicily. My little sister was so happy slurping linguine with me.

The one part that could have been better would be the “sea” quality — the pasta should have tasted a little more like the sea. But that’s a hard thing to do.

They make the Caesar salad with the center of a Romaine lettuce so you get the whole leaf with some nice creamy dressing. I had never tried a Caesar salad before and I honestly think I will have it again. Oh, by the way, Caesar salad is not even Italian. It was invented in Mexico by a guy whose name was Caesar (not by the ancient Roman Caesar who got stabbed on my birthday, March 15).

Ficuzza has Sicilian pizzas too. They have Strucola with prosciutto, Quattro Formaggi (four cheeses), Diavola (spicy salami), and of course Margherita and Marinara. We did not try the pizza but the table next to us had two different pizzas and they looked excellent.

The desserts on the menu were too adult for me and my sister. But that was not a problem because after dinner, we just walked over to the Realmuto (desert/pastry) side of the room, where we had gelato (ice cream was invented in Sicily). They also have tiny lemon tarts, cheesecake, profiteroles, eclairs, and so many cakes. The dessert side is much bigger than the restaurant with lots of chefs in their high white hats!

Both Ficuzza and Realmuto are molto buono (very good!). Ficuzza serves lunch and dinner (Tues.-Fri.) as well as brunch and dinner on the weekends.