Saffron, pistachio, and a tube of pasta
The Paccheri Zafferano e Pistacchio is the most Sicilian thing on an otherwise northern menu, and the shape is doing more work than it looks.
Paccheri Zafferano e Pistacchio is the dish people photograph. It arrives yellow, which is startling on a menu of reds and creams, and it is worth understanding what is actually on the plate.
The sauce
A creamy saffron sauce, and a pesto of pistachio from Bronte. Bronte sits on the slopes of Etna in Sicily, and its pistachios are greener, sweeter and more resinous than the ones you find in a bag. They are also expensive, which is why most kitchens use them as a garnish rather than as a sauce.
Saffron and pistachio is an old Sicilian pairing and a genuinely odd one: one ingredient is floral and slightly bitter, the other is fat and sweet. They work because neither wins.
Why paccheri
The shape matters here more than usual. Paccheri are wide, short tubes, and they come from the dry list, which means they hold their edge. A cream sauce gets inside a tube in a way it never does with a ribbon, so every piece arrives loaded rather than coated. It is also why the dish eats richer than it looks: you are getting sauce twice.
Eat it with a spoon under the fork if you want the honest experience, and do not chase the pistachio around the plate. Drag a tube through it instead.
What to put beside it
Something sharp. The Insalata di Arance e Finocchio, fennel and orange with oil and a touch of red vinegar, is the best thing on the menu next to this, and the two together are the closest this room gets to Sicily.