Regional cuisine is a big trend worldwide, but Sicilian restaurant Il Cappero (The Caper) is taking this one step further with cuisine which focuses on a specific moment in time. From 24 to 30 October the Cape Town restaurant will be serving a special menu based on recipes from the classic Italian novel, now also a feature film, Il Gattopardo (The leopard), written in the 1860s.

Sample rare Italian dishes like timballo del princepe di salina – a pie baked with meat sauce, macaroni and cinnamon custard – the novel’s description of which can be roughly translated as follows: “The burnished gold of the housing, the fragrance of sugar and cinnamon that emanated from them, was but the prelude to the feeling of delight that emanated from the inside when the knife broke the crust: it erupted first cargo of spices and smoke, then could be seen the livers of chicken; eggs hard; the filleting of ham; chicken and truffles in masses of short, hot macaroni; and gleaming meat extract.”

If that doesn’t get your taste buds tingling, try the carciofi ai quattro succhi (artichokes in four sauces), impanata di pesce spada (swordfish pie) or rabbit. There’s also cassatine di ricotta (individual ricotta cheese pies), biancomangiare (blancmange to you and me) and watermelon sorbet for dessert.

Bookings are essential and prices range from R50 to R75 for starters and R95 for mains.
Image: Tristram Biggs