Food and Wine

The legendary cuisine of Calabria is defined through its huge variety of traditional dishes, which keep alive the customs of the area. Full of flavour, the traditional food of Calabria can be both spicy and delicate.

Thanks to the ancient olive groves of Geracese cultivar and olive oil mills, a higly valued extra-virgin olive oil is produced. A typical mountain pasta, the Maccaruni, is handmade by women and seasoned with pork or goat sauce.

The delicious second courses are sometimes served as side dish, such as fried courgette flowers, stuffed aubergines and the caponata contadina. In addition, there are the pork “frittole”, the baked goat and the famous Calabrian salami, known for their taste and authenticity: soppressate, sausages, capicollo, lard and ‘nduja, typical only in Calabria.

Delicate fish dishes are served along the coast; the “sardella”, the huge variety of freshly caught fish, the swordfish rolls and stuffed anchoves. It is also worth mentioning the stockfish and baccalà (dried, salted cod) processing with local mineral water which result is a series of tasty dishes: from raw fish appetizers, to the typical “stocco” with potatoes and olives, from baccalà fritters to meatballs and pasta with stockfish sauce. Albacore tuna is famous too.

Calabria is also the capital city of chilli peppers, so much to have an Academy dedicated to them. You can find chilli pepper everywhere, in its varieties, products and sauces.

The infinite variety of vegetables, legumes and aromatic herbs, grown in the wild or in the vegetable gardens of Locride, make the local cuisine rich of delicate and tasty dishes.

Forest ingredients crown the cuisine of Calabria with a large variety of mushrooms from Aspromonte, wild strawberries, blackberries, asparagus and carciofi spinosi (baby artchokes).

The Cuvertà and Palazzi are fine wines as well as the Mantonico. The DOC wines from Locride are Bivongi and Greco di Bianco or Grecanico, as a dessert wine. The production of liqueurs is vast, filled with the aroma and colours of the local fruits (limoncello, nocino, mandarinetto, bergamino, etc..)