Maltese food. Malta cuisine

Maltese cuisine and food is the result of various influences from the many civilizations Malta came in contact with during its history. The neighbouring island of Sicily had an especially strong influence over Maltese culinary tradition. Maltese cuisine is rich in fresh fruit, vegetables and a lot of fish. Also, very popular is rabbit meat and the local cheese is made of goat or sheep milk. Worth trying is Maltese bread, made from sour dough from the previous day’s batch and cooked in stone ovens.
Maltese desserts are rather sweet and a lot of dried fruit and almonds are used.
Only a few examples of typical dishes are: Rabbit Stew, Lampuki Pie (fish pie), Bragioli (beef olives) and widow’s soup, which includes a small round of Gbejniet (sheep or goat’s cheese).
Even though Malta is not renown for its wine as other bigger Mediterraneaan countries, it produces some good varieties of wine; the local varieties of grapes are called Gellewza and Ghirghentina.

Maltese food – some recipes

Below we give you some samples of Maltese recipes, so you can try at home some Maltese food.

Aljotta (fish soup)
Ingredients: 800g small fish, pepper and salt, one medium onion, bay leaf, clove of garlic, fresh mint, two tablespoons of oil, lemon, 400gr of rice, six tomatoes.

Chop the onion and the garlic and fry them in the oil until they are soft. Peel and cut into cubes the tomatoes; add to the onions; add the herbs and enough water to make the soup. Wait until the mixture boils and then add the fish. Cook slowly until the fish is done. Strain the whole mixture making sure to squeeze all the juice out of the fish and the herbs. Put the strained liquid back on the stove and add the rice. Cook until the rice is soft. Add a few drops of lemon and serve hot.

Fried rabbit with garlic
Ingredients: one medium rabbit; three glasses of red wine; bay leaf; three cloves of garlic (chopped); 600 ml. of stock; olive oil; salt and pepper.

Cut the rabbit in portions. Marinate it in wine, bay leaf and seasoning. Remove the rabbit from the marinade and dry it with kitchen paper; heat the oil and fry the rabbit on both sides. Add the chopped garlic; remove the rabbit from the frying pan and put it in a baking dish or casserole. Add the stock, wine and seasoning. Simmer in the oven for 60 minutes or until tender.