Sapori Perduti

Osteria dei Sapori Perduti — literally 'the osteria of lost flavours' — is the Modica-family-run dining institution on Corso Umberto in Modica Bassa, three streets from the Bonajuto chocolate shop. The Modica family have run the kitchen since 2002 and the menu is built around the lost-and-found Modican-Sicilian recipes that the family matriarch researched over twenty years. The space is a converted 18th-century palazzo with stone-vaulted ceilings, hand-carved walnut beams, and forty-two covers.

The menu is unrepentantly Modican-Sicilian. Hand-rolled scaccia modicana — a Modican stuffed-bread with tomato and Caciocavallo cheese; ravioli alla modicana — Modican stuffed pasta with ricotta and citrus; pasta col macco di fave — broad-bean pasta in the Modican rural tradition; coniglio alla portoghese — Sicilian-Portuguese rabbit in tomato; the famous 'mpanatigghi' — the 16th-century beef-and-chocolate-filled pastry that the Modica family makes daily.

The wine list is short and entirely Sicilian — Etna DOC, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, Marsala — at the most reasonable Corso Umberto prices. Glass pours start at €4. The cellar holds about 80 references.

Service is family-run — the Modica siblings rotate the floor and the captains have worked the property for years. Osteria dei Sapori Perduti is the dining room that local Modica families, Sicilian university students, and serious-budget travellers all use as a default lunch and dinner address.

Osteria dei Sapori Perduti is the team-dinner room in Modica — the Modican-Sicilian menu is shared-format, the wine list is forgiving on a multi-bottle dinner for eight, and the lost-and-found recipe programme is genuinely conversation-worthy. It is also the easy first-date answer when both diners want Modican atmosphere without precious tasting-menu format. Book the corner four-top.