Southern Italy: Best Food

As life slowly creeps back to normal, I've been thinking about travel more and more. I simply cannot wait for the day that I get back on a plane and fly out of this country! A little over 2 years ago, my mom and I were in Southern Italy together, one of our many mother/daughter Rick Steves trips. Anyone who knows me knows that I love Italy - the landscape, the art, the people, the food. I took Italian in college 70% because I love Italian food so much.

I've been to Italy several times, the most recent being this tour of Southern Italy which took us to Rome, Tivoli, Vieste, Alberobello, Matera, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, and Napoli.* The food I ate on this trip was both delicious and surprising. Southern Italy's cuisine really has its own personality and style - it was unlike other Italian food I've had before and certainly different than Italian American food.

*Click here for our full Rick Steves itinerary

Here is my favorite food from Southern Italy:

La Focaccia

Our first night in Rome we stayed in a hotel right next to Antico Forno, a famous bakery with excellent breads and pastries. The two days that we were in Rome, we got these pizza things that were essentially marina sauce on top of a piece of fresh focaccia with a variety of toppings (fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, arugula, prosciutto, olive oil, and eggplant). The line outside of Antico Forno was always popping and I can see why.

La Sfogliatella

Ah sfogliatella! To be honest, this entire post could have been dedicated to sfogliatella. This beautiful little pastry is popular in the Campania region of Italy. It is made from layers and layers of very thin dough that is shaped into little "lobster tails" and baked until it crisps up. The filling varies, but traditionally the filling is made of orange flavored ricotta or almond paste. "Sfogliatella" means small, thin, leaf/layer which is definitely fitting.

I ate about one of these a day while I was there because they are just so delectable. I've had difficulty finding them in the United States as they are less popular/well-known to Americans as something like cannoli, so if anyone knows of good Italian bakeries in NYC that might have these let me know...

La Pizza

You can't go to Italy and not have pizza! It's hard to go wrong with pizza and none of the pizza I had in Italy was bad, but below are my favorites from Southern Italy:

1. Dar Poeta (Rome)

The wise Rick Steves recommended this in his guide book so of course we took his advice. Italy does individual pizzas as opposed to slices and we were hungry, so we ordered two pizzas - cheese and a zucchini sausage with white sauce. Both were absolutely delicious and is at least top 3 pizzas I've ever had if not the top.

2. Lo Guaranccino (Positano)

I found this peaceful restaurant in Rick Steves' book as well. It was perched off to the side on a cliff, a short walk away from the center of town. This turned out to be such a blessing as the main part of Positano can be very crowded and overwhelming. We had a such a lovely, peaceful dinner outside, looking out at the ocean.

The Amalfi coast is known for its lemons, so we ordered their lemon pizza. The lemon pizza turned out to be just as intriguing and refreshing as it sounds. The lemon flavor was quite subtle; it mostly just tasted like fresh cheese pizza with a wonderfully bright, citrusy aroma.

3. Unknown Naples pizzeria (Naples)

Our tour guide brought us to this Naples pizzeria which supposedly has "the best pizza in Naples" (a claim that I think almost every pizzeria in Naples has used). I sadly cannot remember the name of it, but it was in the Spanish Quarter in a small piazza with a church (every Italian piazza ever - I apologize!) The pizza was quite good though. Naples is thought by some to be the modern home of pizza, so if you go it is essential to try some!

La Pasta

Even more so than pizza, I love pasta. It's one of my favorite things to make and to eat. I love how easy and versatile it is. While in Southern Italy, I was really introduced to all the shapes that pasta can be made into. Americans typically know the big ones (spaghetti, penne, linguine, etc.), but there are so many more! We attended a pasta-making demonstration and they showed how to make all these different shapes including orechiette (meaning "small ear") and strozzapreti, and trofie.

Spaghetti al mare (Ravello)

Pesto paccheri (Positano)

Strozzapreti (Matera)

Linguine al mare (Positano)

Pici with marinara (Vieste)

Linguine with clams (Matera)

Orechiette with pesto (Vieste)

I Dolci

I am definitely a dessert person, and Italy with its gelato and many desserts (i dolci) speaks to my soul.

Gelato

Gelato is my favorite. I love how creamy and rich the cream-base scoops are, while the sorbets are unbelievably light and refreshing. One of my favorite flavors is stracciatella (cream with chocolate pieces). On this trip I also tried buffalo milk gelato which was AMAZING and somehow even creamier than normal gelato. I also tried my hand at making some gelato (on a professional gelato machine that cost €20,000) and had the best caramel gelato at Casa Infante in Naples.

Buffalo milk gelato

Homemade lemon sorbet

Caramel gelato (Casa Infante)

I Dolci

Dessert in Italy goes far beyond gelato. I also tried two different lemon tiramisus. One was in Sorrento at a woman named Theresa's house. Theresa and her husband had made us so much food that night and I was stuffed by the time dessert came along, but this tiramisu was still so good that I finished the whole thing. The other was at Lo Guarrancino in Positano.

I also enjoyed biscotti several times throughout the trip. I'm not a huge biscotti person, (I find it too crunchy), but some of the Italian biscotti was just undeniably tasty - perfect for dipping in espresso or a glass of dessert wine.

Theresa's lemon tiramisu

I Tarallini

A huge shoutout must be made to my biggest food discovery of Southern Italy: tarallini. Tarallini are little crackers that are very popular in Southern Italy. They are the small version of taralli which are bigger circular crackers. Tarallini can be flavored in many ways with olive oil, salt, herbs, and spices. There are even sweet tarallini topped with bits of sugar.

I think they are possibly the most perfect snack in the world. They have the right amount of crunch, savoriness, and melt-in-your mouth quality. Tarallini are great for accompanying wine tasting, as an addition to a charcuterie board, as a side at a meal, an appetizer during cocktail hour, or really any snacking you want to do. I will be eating these for the rest of my life.

You are now probably hungry after looking at all this amazing food. Go, pour yourself a nice glass of vino, snack on some tarallini, order some pizza or pasta, and enjoy some gelato for dessert! As you might say in Italy, buon appetito!

- Evan