These are the best sardines I've ever tasted - filleted then stuffed with orange juice moistened breadcrumbs, raisins, pine kernels and fresh mint. It's classic Sicilian cooking - but the orange is a Trapani thing.
The city of Trapani, on Sicily's westernmost tip, has an identity all of its own - and has intrigued me since the day I saw an old photo of it - translucent light bouncing off faded but elegant tenements, the suggestion of the sea on three sides.
The old centre, which is undergoing something of a transformation (thanks to the America's Cup held there last year), is squeezed on to a narrow spit of land that juts out into the sea, the busy port giving it an end-of-the line feel.
But the town's inconspicuous monuments give no clues to its rich history. Trapani flourished as a Phoenician trading centre and was an important stopover in the middle ages, linking Tunis, Naples, Anjou and Aragon.
In fact, the largely flat landscape, dotted by white cubic houses, is more reminiscent of north Africa, which is just 80km across the water, considerably closer than the Italian mainland, and it is these influences that give the region its unique cuisine.
The most famous dish here is fish couscous, where steamed coarse-grained couscous is served with an intensely flavoured fish broth (you actually discard the fish), a throwback either to the days when the Arabs ruled Sicily, or from the island's more recent commuters, fishermen from nearby Tunisia.
There's even a couscous festival (September 19-24, sanvitocouscous.com), in nearby San Vito Lo Capo, which draws aficionados from all over the world, with gastronomic workshops and seminars fronted by top chefs showing you what Sicilian cuisine is all about.
The broth invariably contains eel, grouper, cod and scorfano (which the French use in bouillabaisse and call rascasse), with tomatoes, garlic, parsley, bay and saffron, then thickened with finely chopped fresh almonds.
I lost count of the number of dishes I had in Trapani with almonds, which grow all over the countryside, alongside date and citrus trees. Best was the Trapanese version of pesto which I had at chic restaurant with rooms Ai Lumi - a heavenly mix of chopped almonds, garlic, basil and fresh, partly skinned cherry tomatoes, pounded together in a pestle and mortar before being stirred into trenette, which in Trapani means fat hand-rolled spaghetti, and eaten with a fistful of grated pecorino.
Owner Francesca Adragna let me follow her around the market the next morning. She wanted to show me the lattume (tuna testicles), a delicacy around these parts. Sliced, blanched, dusted with flour, then pan-fried in olive oil, lattume taste a bit like grilled mozzarella, though more jelly-like. Adragna admits that she isn't a big fan. "It's a boy thing," she said.
Her favourite tuna recipe is roasted belly served pink, marinated the night before in a mixture of fresh herbs; and tuna ragu stuffed with pistachio nuts and mint-wrapped almonds, then braised in tomato sauce.
I pointed at a huge beigey-pink slab with a big price tag of €100 a kilo. "It's bottarga - tuna eggs," explained Adragna. It is salted and dried in the sun, and served simply sliced on fresh bread drizzled with extra virgin olive oil (a little goes a long way).
Tuna is Trapani's other claim to fame, along with salt. It was an extremely important producer of both until well into the 19th century, when salt pans and fisheries elsewhere undercut their prices. The fishing industry has mostly gone now, due to illegal over-fishing on the high seas, although Trapani still holds an annual tuna festival, which runs until the end of August. It kicks off during the annual mattanza - the extremely bloody, but licensed, bluefin tuna kill.
The salt pans are still there, and produce a salt highly prized by gourmands. The latter also contributes to the town's intriguing landscape - hot, haunting salt flats dotted with windmills surround the town.
And then, of course, there is the wine. Historically, Sicily is best known for its fortified sweet marsala wine (which also hails from the Trapani region) and robust, dry table wines. But now there's a line-up of other fortified wines and a fast-growing range of new wave reds and whites, many made from grapes grown nowhere else - grapes such as aromatic Grillo and zesty Inzolia, and its red trump card, Nero d'Avola.
Francesca's brother Gofreddo makes a delicious Nero d'Avola, which he blends with a splash of cabernet in his red called Forti Terre di Sicilia Rosso. His Forti Terre di Sicilia Bianco is a blend of inzolia and chardonnay.
You can visit the winery at the Cantina Sociale di Trapani; phone ahead for a tour (+ 39 09 23 53 93 49). And Gofreddo will put you up in style at his family's recently converted castle, the Torri Pepoli, 800m above Trapani in the village of Erice - a welcome escape from the heat.
· Ai Lumi restaurant and B&B, Corso Vittorio Emanuele (0039 0923 872418, ailumi.it), rooms from €90. Cantina Sociale di Trapani (+09 2353 9349). Torri Pepoli, Giardini del Balio, Viale Conte Pepoli, Erice (torripepoli.it), rooms from €200. Forti Terre di Sicilia Rosso and Bianco are both available by mail order from Les Caves de Pyrene (01483 538820, lescaves.co.uk) at £6.80.
