Tucked into a hillside just above the sea between Marsala and Trapani, La Lumie Ristorante is a hidden country retreat. I went for lunch on a hot summer day and sat out on the terrace overlooking the sea and the Egadi Islands.
In a residential neighborhood just above the Salt Flats, the restaurant has the intimacy of dining “at home” with an outside terrace on the right…
…and inside dining on the left.
A staircase decorated with local ceramics is the entry way.
The place is charming, but the main event is the food and wine. I ordered “Macco di Fave” (Maccù di Fave in dialect). Typical of Western Sicily and dating back thousands of years, it is a soup, more like a purée, of fava beans, onion, celery, carrots, and olive oil. La Lumie’s chef added modern elegance to the dish topping it with the local white fish, baccalà, wrapped in kataifi (Greek filo dough).
For wine, I chose a glass of Nino Barraco’s organic Zibbibo, 2012. Just a few minutes away with vineyards only one kilometer from the sea, Barraco’s goal is to make wines with “personality”. Zibbibo, Muscat di Alessandria, is an aromatic native variety traditionally used for making dessert wines, but this version is dry. The grapes ferment in stainless steel with native yeasts and go through malolactic fermentation naturally in the fall. It ages in the same tanks until May when it is bottled without filtration or additives. The result is a medium weight, dry wine that, on that summer day, was refreshing, not heavy or sweet.
For dessert, I chose a plate of fresh, local peaches, a perfect ending to the meal.
Chef and owner, Emanuele Russo, uses local, organic ingredients. He has been recognized by Slow Food (and numerous other guides) for excellence in 0 km cuisine. Still in his early thirties, he opened the restaurant when he was only 26. He started cooking with chef Giovanni Torrente in the nearby beach town of San Vito Lo Capo when he was only 13 and by the age of 18 was the chef in one of the top hotels there.
(Photo Credit: La Lumie)
For more information or if you’re interested in traveling in this area, contact Eleanor at info@uncorkedinitaly.com.
Ristorante Le Lumie
Contrada Fontanelle 178B
Marsala
+39 0923 995197
+39 334 9385512
info@ristorantelelumie.it
Open for lunch and dinner (closed Wednesday except in July and August)
March 9, 2016
