Signature dish
Italian towns with a dish of their own
Not a regional plate but a dish a single town gave its name to, or made its own. 17 comuni in the catalogue carry one, from Amatrice and its amatriciana to Modica and its cold-worked chocolate. Curated by hand; where a town's signature is uncertain, we leave it blank.
Table no. 60 · Ranked by dish · 17 towns
- 1.SulmonaConfetti di SulmonaL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 405 meters in the Valle Peligna, birthplace of Ovid in 43 BC and home of the sugared-almond confetti industry since the 14th century.
- 2.MateraPane di MateraMatera · BasilicataCave dwellings carved into limestone since the Paleolithic, called the shame of Italy in the 1950s and made European Capital of Culture in 2019.
- 3.Bagnara CalabraTorrone di BagnaraReggio di Calabria · CalabriaA swordfish town on the Costa Viola where boats with lookout masts still hunt the Strait, and the IGP torrone has been made by hand since the eighteenth century.
- 4.PizzoTartufo di PizzoVibo Valentia · CalabriaA tuff-cliff town over the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia, where a king was shot in 1815 and the tartufo gelato was invented a century later.
- 5.CetaraColatura di aliciSalerno · CampaniaThe Amalfi Coast's working tuna and anchovy port, where colatura di alici is still aged in chestnut barrels in the cellars behind the marina.
- 6.AmatriceSpaghetti all'AmatricianaRieti · LazioA 955-meter Apennine town leveled by the 24 August 2016 earthquake, slowly rebuilding the streets that gave amatriciana its name.
- 7.GaetaTiella di GaetaLatina · LazioThe promontory port where a Bourbon kingdom fell in February 1861 and the south of Italy stopped existing as a state.
- 8.
Monterosso al MareAcciughe di MonterossoLa Spezia · LiguriaThe westernmost and largest of the five villages, where Eugenio Montale spent the childhood summers that became Ossi di seppia in 1925. - 9.ReccoFocaccia di Recco col formaggioGenova · LiguriaA coastal town rebuilt from 90 percent destruction in 1943, known for IGP cheese focaccia and Pro Recco water polo.
- 10.TrioraPane di TrioraImperia · LiguriaThe witches' village at 776 meters in the upper Valle Argentina, where the Inquisition put around 200 women on trial between 1587 and 1589.
THREE OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN LIGURIA
- 11.BraSalsiccia di Bra · CUNEO
- 12.ModicaCioccolato di Modica · RAGUSA
- 13.Barberino di MugelloTortelli di patate del Mugello · FIRENZE
- 14.LuccaTordelli lucchesi · LUCCA
- 15.Montecatini-TermeCialde di Montecatini · PISTOIA
- 16.PontremoliTestaroli · MASSA-CARRARA
- 17.SienaPanforte di Siena · SIENA
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