Artichokes and tomato sauce are the principal of these products, of which several dozen million tins are annually exported from Sicily to the Italian mainland, to Germany and to South America.
Add peeled and diced carrots and potatoes, chopped onions, salt, pepper, bay leaf, tomato sauce and parsley.
Huevos rancheros make a substantial breakfast with fried eggs smothered in spicy tomato sauce and served on a flour flatbread.
And for the vegetarian (me) there was home made gnocchi with tomato sauce and asparagus.
Other local specialities include saltfish (traditionally eaten with tomato sauce ), goat water, barbecue chicken and roast suckling pig.
