Farmers and fishermen. There has always been a happy marriage in our cuisine between land and sea flavours. All local products are DOC, including the renowned muscoli (mussels) of Porto Venere.
Traditional dishes, from Porto Venere to Le Grazie, but also up to Fezzano, include: minestrone with seasonal vegetables; spaghetti with mussel sauce; stuffed mussels (in the filling is usually put a bit of raw mussels, a bit of bread soaked in milk, eggs, cheese, garlic, parsley and a pinch of nutmeg); fried fish (especially mullet). And with the small, unpretentious fish that remains in the bottom of the net, in addition to ending up in the frying pan, locals make scabeccio, a marinade with vinegar and onion, which could be kept for up to a week.
In addition, other traditional dishes are the torta di riso (rice cake) and, at Easter, the Pasqualina cake.
These dishes have not been forgotten by local restaurateurs. It is worth mentioning the main ingredients of the Pasqualina cake: seven sheets of very thin dough, spinach, chard, ricotta, eggs, marjoram and, curiously, an ornament of fresh eggs drowned in the dough and covered by a sheet of it before being cooked.
Dried cod was not a local product, but at the time it was cheap. It was usually stewed and served with polenta. Mes-ciùa (a soup of mixed cereals and legumes, such as barley, spelt, and beans) is also a common dish. Curiously enough, it has also become part of feast days, especially during the celebration of the Madonna delle Grazie.
However, traditional feast dishes were stuffed hen (in broth) and ravioli (featuring a filling flavoured with thyme collected from the stony slopes of the Muzzerone and Castellana mountains).
Dessert is usually buccellato (flour, eggs, sugar, a little butter, a little grated lemon peel; in the dough, if you want, half a glass of Marsala or Vermouth).
Restaurateurs have not abandoned these traditions - on the contrary - the dishes have been refined and enriched by the personal touch of excellent chefs.
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