Trattoria Del Carmine, Noto, Sicily

Antipasto misto della casa

Dinner at Trattoria Del Carmine was one of my favourite meals while we were in Sicily. It was our only experience of a family run, unpretentious trattoria. The husband and wife team were cooking the local food that they enjoyed and I was pleased to be able to taste it.

Although at the start of the night I wasn't sure it was going to be one of my favourite meals. We were given a table in an empty section of the dining room, filled with basic furniture. It wasn't the most promising start, but I definitely warmed up to the place.

We ordered the antipasto misto della casa to share as a starter. Considering it was only €6 what arrived was a very generous place of courgettes, aubergines, roasted peppers, salami, aranchini, fritata and cheese. Washed down with a glass of house white from the carafe we ordered it was a lovely start to the meal.

Veal chop, with an orange and onion salad

By the time our main courses arrived a couple of extra tables had joined us in our dining room and our end of the restaurant had started to develop a bit of welcome atmosphere.

Is was one of the few times that I ordered from the secondi section of the menu for my main course and had the filietto de vitello al romarino (€9). It was literally just a pan fried veal steak covered in a little chopped rosemary and drizzled with olive oil with a wedge of lemon on the side. It was well cooked, but I was pleased that I'd ordered the insalata di arance e cipolla (€3) on the side and we had a basket of bread that I could chomp through too.

Pasta with Sicilian pesto and tomatoes

Becks ordered the pasta el pesto Siciliano (€9). The Sicilian pesto is made with almonds instead of pine nuts and (I think) has a local alternative to parmesan cheese in it too. It was a generous bowl of what looked like handmade trofie pasta and I was very happy to help Becks out with a few mouthfuls.

Cannolo for dessert - pistachio and chocolate

Having had an ice cream stop that afternoon, we certainly didn't need dessert, but I couldn't resist the cannolo and at only €2 they surely had to be small? They certainly weren't small, but they definitely were delicious and probably my favourite cannolo of the holiday.

With wine the bill came to an unbelievable €37. We thanked our host, left a small tip and headed back to the hotel happy.


Trattoria Del Carmine
Via Ducezio, 1,
96017 Noto, Italy
+39 0931 838705