For cookbook author Katie Parla, a great sandwich has only two ingredients

Katie Parla was a rising college senior when she took her first trip to Sicily from Rome, in 2001. “It was all pretty new to me,” Parla said.

Parla, who is originally from Princeton, has spent the last 20 years living in Rome. Like many Philadelphians, Parla counts the Italian islands as part of her ancestral heritage. Her curiosity about her family history as well as the differences between what she grew up eating in an Italian American household and what she ate in Italy, led her to explore the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

At the marina-side Pani Câ Meusa Porta Carbone shop in Palermo, Parla became acquainted with the city’s street food culture. Known for both its lard-poached veal spleen sandwich and its panelle chickpea patty and cazzilli potato croquette sandwich, Porta Carbone became an instant favorite.

Parla was already aware that if a sandwich had only two ingredients on it, it was best to not ask for adaptations — it was meant to be that way. “There’s no menu or prices written anywhere. So you just have to hang back, observe, and then copy what people are doing and hope that you didn’t say something that will make them laugh at you.” (Sound familiar, Philly?)

The recipe for panelle and vastedda rolls ended up in Parla’s seventh cookbook, Food of the Italian Islands: Recipes from the Sunbaked Beaches, Coastal Villages, and Rolling Hillsides of Sicily, Sardinia, and Beyond, she said, because it’s not something most Sicilians would eat at home.

The book includes more than 85 recipes including Catanian grilled horse steaks to Sardinian sos papassino raisin and nut cookies. Parla will host a lecture and tasting during the Drexel Philly Chef Conference on April 18.