The real taste of the sea

Forget the sad little plate of tired shellfish you get served elsewhere. Here the seafood salad comes warm. Warm the way a kind good morning is warm, warm like the scirocco, warm like the hand of someone who knows what they are doing.

Every element — octopus, cuttlefish, prawn and limpets, the shellfish of this coast — is cooked gently and served lukewarm, dressed with nothing but extra virgin olive oil, lemon and parsley. The confidence that less is more.

The result is a chord of flavours that catches you off guard, wins you over with its plainness and leaves you wondering: why did nobody think of this before?

We are at Santa Maria La Scala, a village of lava stone and salted silences. Among the rocks and the sleeping boats there is La Grotta: a small restaurant carved into the cliff, facing the sea. Hidden enough to feel like a secret, known enough that you will find it without a frantic GPS.

At the helm is Saro, son of Carmelo — the founder, a man of the sea, of silences and understandings. Someone who worked out something simple: real flavour does not need to shout.

Go at sunset. If you sit on the right side you can watch the sun kiss the water and think — as I do — that this is what living is.

Santa Maria La Scala, near Acireale. Always book: 095 7648153.