which translates to ‘cooked onions’ and comes from the Italian for onions, cipolle (pronounced chi-polleh). In Umbria it’s a soup made with tomatoes while the Calabrian version is just onions cooked in olive oil and red pepper. They’re all part of what’s called cucina povere, the food of working people who’ve learned how to coax the most flavor from humble ingredients.

Sicilian cipollata, called cipuddata in the island’s dialect, is jammy with the sweet and sour agrodolce flavor brought from North Africa by the Moors. Often served alongside grilled fish or meat, especially the next day’s room temperature leftovers, it’s just as good heaped onto grilled bread or stirred into a bowl of pasta or beans.