Catania Food Tours & Fish Market
Catania eats under the volcano: La Pescheria fish market shouting from seven in the morning, the pointed arancino, pasta alla Norma named after its most famous son’s opera, horse-meat grills on Via Plebiscito, and granita for breakfast. Compare the top-rated food tours and classes below, then read our notes.
Street food and fish market tours in Catania
Cooking classes in Catania
Formats: street food walking tours through the fish market and the baroque centre; private fish-market-and-centre tours; underground Catania with street food; all-inclusive tours with wine; cooking classes with pistachio ravioli or arancini.
What you will taste: arancino al ragù, cipollina, pasta alla Norma, raw seafood at the Pescheria, horse-meat polpette, cartocciata, granita with brioche, and a glass of Etna Rosso.
Price and time: roughly 55 to 110 dollars for two and a half to three hours.
La Pescheria
The fish market behind Piazza del Duomo runs Monday to Saturday from about seven until early afternoon, best between nine and eleven, and is closed on Sundays and during the feast of Sant’Agata, 3 to 5 February. Swordfish, tuna, sea urchins and the day’s catch are sold at the shout, and around it the produce and cheese stalls spread through the lava-stone streets. Every food tour starts here in the morning.
The food
The arancino, masculine and cone-shaped in Catania in honour of the volcano, filled with ragù or with aubergine alla Norma. Pasta alla Norma, fried aubergine, tomato and salted ricotta, named after Vincenzo Bellini’s 1831 opera. The cipollina, a puff-pastry pocket of onion, tomato and cheese. Horse meat, grilled on the street along Via Plebiscito in the evening, as polpette or steaks. And granita, best in Catania and Acireale, eaten with a brioche col tuppo for breakfast from May to September.
Cooking classes and day trips
Catania’s classes teach pistachio ravioli from Bronte, arancini and pasta alla Norma in three hours, and are cheaper than Taormina’s. Etna is an hour away: see Etna wine tours. Taormina is 50 minutes by train, Syracuse an hour and a quarter; see Taormina cooking classes and Syracuse food tours.
Frequently asked questions
When is the Catania fish market open?
Monday to Saturday mornings, roughly seven to two; closed Sunday and for Sant’Agata in early February.
Is Catania or Palermo better for street food?
Palermo has more of it; Catania has the fish market and the arancino. Do both if you can.
Do I have to eat horse?
No; tours offer it as an option, and the rest of the route is fish, rice and pastry.
Read next: Etna wine explained
How we choose
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