The cuisine of Avellino is a cuisine of mountains and countryside: handmade pasta, pulses, meats, cheeses and cured meats. We discovered it dish by dish, and here we tell you about the ones that truly represent the Irpinian tradition, leaving aside recipes invented for tourists.
Handmade pasta
The symbol of the Irpinian table is fusilli, made by hand by rolling the dough around a thin iron rod. They are served with a rich meat ragù and a sprinkling of cheese, or baked in the "al tegamino" version, with sauce and mozzarella. All the secrets are in Fusilli avellinesi.
Alongside fusilli you will find maccaronara, a long, square-section pasta served with tomato passata or ragù, and lagane e ceci (lagane with chickpeas), a humble, hearty dish that won us over on cold days.
Traditional soups
The dish most closely tied to the calendar is cicci di Santa Lucia, prepared for 13 December. It is a soup of white maize, wheat, chickpeas, beans and lentils, soaked and then cooked together, flavoured with garlic and pickled peppers. It was once a votive offering to the saint; today it is cooked throughout the winter. We tell you about it in Cicci di Santa Lucia.
Another classic is minestra maritata, with greens and pork, which in Irpinia is often served with pizza ionna, a rustic cornmeal flatbread. And if you like bold flavours, try soffritto irpino, made with pork offal and tomato.
Savoury pies and main courses
At Easter many households make pizza chiena, a savoury pie filled with eggs, cheeses and cured meats. Among the main courses we liked capretto all'avellinese (Avellino-style kid) and baccalà (salt cod), which inland is cooked with crispy dried peppers or with garlic and chilli.
Cheeses, cured meats and mountain produce
Don't leave the province without tasting caciocavallo irpino and pecorino di Carmasciano, along with cured meats such as capocollo. Two excellent products come from the mountains: The Montella chestnut IGP and The black truffle of Bagnoli Irpino, star of the autumn dishes of Bagnoli Irpino.
Sweets
To finish, the most representative sweet is torrone, made with honey, egg white, hazelnuts and almonds. Irpinia is also hazelnut country, and the torrone of Pietradefusi, in the hamlet of Dentecane, has a long tradition.
In the surroundings
Every dish deserves the right wine: discover the wines of Avellino, with its three DOCGs. To plan your food trip, start from Avellino and its surroundings and, if you want to combine good food with walks, read A weekend in Avellino.
Top photo (Avellino): unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
