At the foot of the Etna at the Cantine La Counta restaurant, where Sicily is told without saying a word

There is a precise moment, during a dinner at Cantine La County, in which you stop talking. It often happens to the second Chalice of Rosato Etna DOCor the first taste of the Rabbit ragout package with crunchy artichokes, truffle and cooked wine. The conversation is suspended, the phones set out, the eyes meet. And that’s where you realize that we have ended up in a special place, where time bends to the slowness of taste, and the Sicily It stops being a postcard to become a flavor, consistency, memory.

We are a Mascali, on the slopes of the most famous volcano in Europe, Where the lava legacy translates into mineral soils, centenary screws and tomatoes that know of sun and wind. This is where theExecutive Chef Mirko Pappalardo He decided to take root, literally: the vegetable garden that provides a good part of the ingredients is a few steps from the room. Born in 1985, Catania, with a past between starred restaurants and a visceral passion for the cuisine of the origins, Pappalardo has given shape and substance to gastronomic dream of Cantine La County. Its approach starts from the raw material – always local, often cultivated on its own – and develops in dishes that tell the territory without screams, with silent technique and powerful taste. No fashion, no forcing: Pappalardo works on memory, on clear flavors, on seasonality.

The kitchen, write with the lava ink

“Cooking on Etna is like writing with the lava ink,” he loves Pappalardo. And every dish proves it. TO Cantine La County Nothing, in fact, comes from afar, except perhaps the guests, and it is not uncommon to cross fans gourmet who came from Milan, Berlin or New York to live this experience. This is because the county is not a simple restaurant, it is a declaration of intent. The estate, in fact, was born as a wine company, with the ambition to express the most authentic soul of theEtna in the glasses. The step towards the kitchen was natural: here we cannot talk about wine, not to mention what accompanies it. And vice versa. The gastronomic project of Pappalardo is ambitious but rooted. There is no pretentiness in its dishes, but awareness. Each scope tells a story: of the earth, of the seasons, of Sicily that resists tourist trivialization to remain true. “We work with what we have under the eyes “, says the chef,” because it is here that true wealth is “. And what wealth.

The dishes: seasonality, identity, emotionGiorgio Di Gregorio

What is eaten to the county

The menus often change, they change with the climate, the vegetable garden, the moon phases. And high school techniques and creative spirit are intertwined in a gastronomic journey that pays homage to the balance between territory and oriental suggestions. But there is always a constant: the link with Etna. Pappalardo’s cuisine mixes instinct and discipline, tradition and intuition. Three tasting menus: the journey of Ulysses based on fish, the rest of Polifemo based on meat and vegetarian Trinacria.

In these menus an author cuisine is revealed that combines impeccable technique and seasonal sensitivity. La Lasagnetta Primavera It is a delicate prelude: Thin puff pastry, just crunchy vegetables and a lightness built with intelligence. Among the seconds, The Ombrina CBT conquers for precision and depth: Bieta and ricotta stuffing is soft, the perfectly golden ross, while the miso sauce and fish comic gives roundness and umami. There CBT pork cheek, Instead, it is an exercise in balance: very tender, wrapped in one Carruba glaze playing with sweetness without excess with thepea foam and the cape powder give freshness and contrast with the Crunchiness of the black chickpea cragker.

Among the desserts: the Millefeuille with cocoa It is precise and aromatically refined, with the Matcha tea cream and the Kumquat gel to be vertically. But it is the Paprova gourmet to surprise: raspberry mousse, basil gel and wild pepper, mango chutney and black sesame waffle waffle They draw a bold balance, without smudging.

A cultured, measured cuisine that excites gracefully. Each dish is a calibrated story, like the Sashimi di PalaMita with Beauri Blanc al Dashi and Caviale, Which merges the sea and fermentation in a sip of Umami. Or the Vitello Lingotto, with “Mudcica ASSORRURATA and BOTTARGA” waffle “ which transforms the overflow into sculpture. The former are an act of grace: the rosellina of cuttlefish pasta, with colating and red tuna worthy can be seen.

Wines

The combination, of course, is a separate chapter. The signed wines The county surprise for precision and elegance. The Class 3 rosé, from Mascalese Nerello grapeshe is the ideal companion to open dinner: fresh, mineral, with a savory closure that encourages the second sip. But it is with the reds that the volcano really makes itself felt. Lava drops refined in tonneaux, It has a structure as a great European wine but with a deeply Mediterranean heart. Or the Sicania Matador and the white summit, which tell the Etna with citrus fruits, Mediterranean herbs and persistent flavor. Cantine La County First of all, it was born as a bottle vision. Here, between 600 and 800 meters above sea level, The rows climb the slopes of Etna as green embroidery carved in lava stone. The thermal excursion, the brackish wind that comes from the sea, the volcanic soils: everything contributes to a rare, vibrant balance, which is already felt on the first sip.

These wines, Between long and raising rifermentations, they are pure expression of the Etna identity: vertical, volcanic, sharp such as the lava that generates them. A coherent, refined selection, designed for sensory travel from myth to the glass. They do not accompany the kitchen: they challenge it, raise it. Here, the wine is always in the foreground. The internal room of La County, elegant but without excess, dialogues with the outside through large windows. On summer evenings we move outdoors, overlooking the rows that at sunset are tinged with copper. The impression is to have dinner in a postcard, but with the intimacy of the house.

The room

The county, the place where we return

The county is the dream that has become a feat of Pippo Turrisi and Pina Capizzi, A couple united by a deep love for Etna and for everything that grows on it. Behind each label there is a family story that tastes of land and tenacity. It is in 2008 that Pippo decides not to limit himself to producing wine for a few close and friends: it is born like this the “class 39”first official label, tribute to its roots and the desire to leave an imprint. From that moment, The company grows in notoriety and quality, thanks also to the guidance of the daughter Maria Grazia Turrisi, today an elegant and concrete soul of the project. Next to her, Her husband Domenico Lombardo and the young Ludovica, the new generation ready to give voice to a tradition that looks to the future. Nothing is left to chance: from the care of the vineyards to the selection of grapes, from the cellar to the tasting room, everything responds to an idea of ​​full quality, sustainable, deeply linked to the territory. The grapes come mainly from the Santa Venera district, in the municipality of Mascalion the eastern side of the volcano. It is here that the earth speaks, and they listen to it.

One of the dishes with impeccable technique and seasonal sensitivity

Giorgio Di Gregorio

Cantine La County is a place back. Because each dish leaves an imprint, each glass tells a microclimate, a harvest, a choice. There is nothing stereotyped, nothing that seems to be built to amaze. Here it is surprised with the authenticity, with the honesty of a broken cannolo that does not pretend to be anything else except the dessert we all love, but made as it should, with just mounted ricotta and candied orange zest at home.

The location: a dream that has become a feat

Giorgio Di Gregorio

The beating heart of The county It’s the cellar: A place where oenology meets geology, and time becomes an ally. The rooms of the cellar are sober, functional but suggestive, with French wood and steel barrels that keep the wines up to the right maturation. Productive philosophy is respectful of grapes and terroir: Minimum interventions, spontaneous fermentations, maniacal attention to detail. Guided tours – by reservation – allow you to discover the production cycle, from the bunch to the bottle, and end with tastings that reveal the soul of each label. A journey into the lava heart of Etneo wine.

The service in the room is punctual, never intrusive. A note of merit goes to the direction, which manages to maintain a perfect balance between luxury and authenticity: you are satisfied, pampered, and with the feeling of having discovered something precious. Cantine La County does not want to be a trendy restaurant but is destined to become a classic. A place where time stops to leave room for taste, memory, true Sicily. There are restaurants, even excellent, who forget and then there are those who become a reference, a story to share, an emotion to be chasing. Cantine the county belongs to this second, rare category.