In Benevento we sat down at the table full of curiosity and got up wanting to come back. Sannio cuisine is a cuisine of the land: handmade pasta, pulses, vegetables, meats and mountain cheeses. Here is what we recommend you taste.
Homemade pasta
The symbol of the Benevento table is cicatielli (or cecatielli), a fresh pasta shape similar to cavatelli, made with durum wheat semolina and water. Its rough surface holds sauces well: we found it with ragù, with pulses and with seasonal vegetables.
Another classic is handmade fusilli, rolled around a thin iron rod and served with Sunday ragù, slow-cooked with meat braciole. At home people also make pasta with pulses and vegetables, dishes born to feed those who worked in the fields.
Soups and festive dishes
In winter Sannio cuisine is at its best with its soups. Minestra maritata, in which vegetables are "married" to meats and cuts of pork, is a rich, convivial dish. At Christmas many families prepare cardone, a soup of cardoons cooked in broth and enriched with small meatballs, eggs and cheese.
Meats, cured meats and cheeses
Among the main courses, the most characteristic are ammugliatielli: rolls of lamb offal bound with the intestines and flavoured with aromatic herbs, cooked over embers or stewed. A dish from the shepherding tradition, bold and authentic.
Among cured meats we recommend Pietraroja ham, produced in the mountains at Pietraroja, in the Matese, where pig farming has a long history. The province also falls within the production area of Caciocavallo Silano DOP, a stretched-curd cheese whose flavour changes with ageing.
Sannio cuisine follows the seasons: vegetables in spring and summer, pulses, soups and meats in autumn and winter. We always suggest asking what the dishes of the day are, as they are often the ones most closely tied to tradition.
Sweets and liqueurs
Finishing a meal in Benevento without torrone would be a mistake: we tell you about it in Benevento torrone and, for the Fortore version, in The torrone of San Marco dei Cavoti. Then, at the end of the meal, a small glass of Strega liqueur, born in the city in 1860 and coloured yellow by saffron, whose story we tell in our article on Strega.
In the surroundings
To pair the dishes with the local wines, from Aglianico to Falanghina, read our guide to the wines of the Benevento area. To walk off lunch with a cultural stroll there is Things to do in Benevento, and to discover the province our guide Benevento and its surroundings. Those who go up to Pietraroja will also find Pietraroja and the Paleolab, the land of Ciro.
Top photo (Benevento): Dэя-Бøяg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
