Sicilian Sunday Lunch with Luigi De Luca Saturday 12 August

Saturday 12 August

Luigi De Luca has spent the majority of time between 1989 to 1994 in Sydney consulting for some of the largest gelato & dessert manufacturers, as well as being the first TAFE accredited Gelato teacher in 1991 and the one who introduced the Gelato & Olive Oil Competition at the Royal Agriculture Society in 1997. Luigi and his family opened Cremeria De Luca in 1995 on Leichhardt's Norton St until 2009 and prior to this time Luigi had a long and deep involvement with restaurants in Italy at the Sardinia Costa Smeralda with his family.

In this class Luigi will share all that we love about Sicilian food. The freshness and seasonality of the ingredients, and the key to almost any delicious Sicilian dish, the simplicity.  Simplicity, today more than ever, is the true luxury, especially in cuisine. Simplicity means unrefined ingredients, so genuine and tasty that they preserve the flavor of the land where they were grown. 

Luigi he will teach you how to make a Caponata. A Sicilian dish that celebrates the world of sweet and sour perfectly, using Melanzane (eggplant), Sedano or Accia (celery in sicilian), Capperi (capers) and green olives are cooked separately and combined with vinegar, capers and raw sugar to really wake up and bewitch the tastebuds. The joy of this recipe is that it works hot, cold or warm, is better the next day and sensational with Pane di Casa (crusty bread).

Pasta alla Norma. There are some dishes of elegance, carried throughout history on a plate of fame, that appear so simple that beautiful complexities may be unknowingly underestimated. One of those dishes, invented in the early 1900s, is this seemingly simple Sicilian favourite. 

Braciole alla Messinese. The name of this dish derives from their origin, Messina. In this area of Sicily, the classic slice of veal comes as a richly stuffed roll. It is a typical recipe: tasty and tasty and delicious!

And a sweet surprise with Luigi papa's Biancomangiare recipe to end the class.

Luigi is a beautiful teacher and brings experience, travels and a deep love of Italian food. "A fond memory of my parents taking us brothers to Calabria from Messina Sicily, were we always pit stopped  in Reggio Calabria at a local working class eatery called "bettola" were we ate sausage cooked in a pan and potatoes fried in extra virgin olive oil. Of course, all accompanied by red wine or sodas. With my mother having married in Messina, she learned many Sicilian dishes that my father liked and which, fortunately my mother found the right combination of the two cuisines/cultures. Calabria and Sicily are perfectly amalgamated. At least for my palate. This is why my motto has always been (roughly translated in English) – "Integration comes with eating".

My mother prepared incredible dishes thanks to her ability to combine different ingredients. Today we could call it fusion. One thing I remember vividly is a burn I got on my right arm at the age of 6. This was due to the overwhelming aromas of clams sizzling in a pan over oil, garlic and parsley. I reached over stove as if I already wanted to cook, only for the pan to topple and barely missing my face and singeing my arm, scars I carry till this day. You can only imagine the pain of boiling oil on me ... but the desire to cook had not passed.

Before I was 16, I worked in a hotel on the Messina seafront and from there, thanks to the head waiter, a friend of the chef, I had the input to develop my culinary skills. I always remember what my first dish was: Parisian Roulette. It was a pulled pasta (like lasagna) which instead of being layered, was rolled up with a filling of mixed meats such as white ragu' of mortadella and provolone cheese. After then, everything just started coming naturally.

In the early 80s I made my way to Sardinia's Costa Smeralda, where I met my wife, Gavina. We spent summers going venue to venue on the coast, learning Sardinian dishes whilst giving them a Sicilian twist, much like my mother's Calo/Sicilian fusion. There, my wife and I opened Cremeria Sicilia, a gelateria in homage to my father's craft in the main city of Olbia. The exposure the Costa Smeralda gave us, took me to various parts of the world, mostly through my work writing for industry magazine Gelateria and Pasticceria Internazionale, which I still write for to this day.

The tradition continues with my own children, Salvatore and Virginia opening up Cremeria De Luca again between 2013-2021. The business now survives online through deluca1937, offering Dessert Catering such as Gelato, Granita, Cannoli and traditional Italian sweets, as well as an Italian Hot Chocolate mix based off my father's recipe."

At the end of the class, we will sit with Luigi around our shared table and enjoy the beautiful food we have cooked with some Italian or Sicilian wine. 

There will be brewed coffee & tea throughout the day along with treats made in the kitchen.

The class runs from 10:30am to 2:30pm and Luigi and the team at Moonacres look forward to seeing you soon.