One of my favorite parts of visiting the little village of Prizzi was our dinner at Blue Games, the best meal of our trip! Don’t let the ambiance fool you! From the front, it was a deli with cases of cheeses and meats. In the back, are modest tables. There was a familiarity about the restaurant and people, I felt like I was visiting my cousins in Long Island, New York. It was Friday night and the teens were out in groups getting their hamburgers and French fries.
Our waiter Giuseppe was very genuine and spoke to us how he grew up in Prizzi, but was moving in a week to Milan for work as an electronic engineer. He was already melancholy about leaving his hometown. He was very excited to serve us his favorite dishes. He pointed to a set menu for โฌ20/person. He then chose the options for us “instead of french fries, I’ll give you the antipasto dish…and instead of steak, you should try the 3 meat trio since the lamb and sausage are local.” We could not believe when course after course kept coming (note that the photos are only 1 portion, NOT for the entire table to share).
Antipasto: The antipasto was my favorite part of the meal, since it was filled with a variety of Sicilian cuisine, a few which I was trying for the first time: panella (chick pea/garbanzo bean fritter, tasting similar to polenta), caponata (also known as ratatouille, like an eggplant vegetarian stew in stewed tomatoes), slices of parmesan cheese, fried eggplant, marinated mushrooms, olives and bread.
Primo piatto: The pasta was in a tomato sauce with a hint of cinnamon, mushrooms and local sausage from Prizzi.
Secondo piatto: The meat trio included steak, local sausage and local lamb all over rucola. I usually don’t like lamb, but to my surprise, this lamb was delicious and was actually my favorite of the dish!
Dolce: Call me crazy, but I have never particularly liked cannoli in the US since, to me, it tasted like a stale cookie filled frosting. This all changed when I went to Sicily and became obsessed with cannoli!! When you walk into the Sicilian bakeries, you will see empty cannoli in the case. That is because they only fill them in the spot once they are ordered. They are filled with ricotta cheese, which is not particularly sweet, but decadent and rich. The shell isn’t hard and stale, but instead fried to a light crisp. Cannoli is now my dessert of choice!!
If you happen to find yourself in the small hillside village of Prizzi, definitely enjoy a meal at Blue Games.