Mountain gastronomy in
Southern Lazio

Inland, between valleys and hills of South Pontino and on the border of Ciociaria, the cuisine is different in character with stronger taste with egg pasta, homemade sauces, rich soups made with a mixture of herbs, borage, chicory, fennel and many other plants which grow wild in the area. The locals learn from previous generations the art of where to find them, in what season to pick and how to choose and mix their flavours to create the healthy and aromatic local soups.

           Italian Cold Cuts

Dear reader, be ready to follow us in this other gastronomic journey in the Land of Aeneas and Ulysses between chicory soups, pasta with beans, ‘fasogli’ soup with ‘ventrisco’ (bean soup with lard), a must for the visitors to the small village of Castelforte and other hillside villages. Here you will find tasty homemade omelettes filled with local vegetables (‘gliu zeppolone’ from Spigno Saturnia) as well as the mythical salami and other recipes from small villages such as Campodimele, Esperia and Itri. Here, only few miles from the sea, we are already in the land of wild boars, mushrooms and organic Mediterranean field and forest honey.

Puntarelle the tender part of Catalonian chicory shoots are especially tasty and fragrant in this area and are seasoned with a local dressing which locals make with salted anchovies (without bones), garlic, extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, salt and black pepper. Fresh vegetables and salads can be enjoyed with the traditional ‘pinzimonio’, a very simple yet ancient seasoning made with olive oil, salt and pepper. The small village of Campodimele comes again as a protagonist in the local gastronomy with its Laina and cicerchie. Laina is a locally home-made pasta using water, mountain wheat flower without eggs. The pasta is cut in large stripes and seasoned with the soup of cicerchie cooked with one or two small tomatoes, wild onion, garlic, parsley and with seasoned with dry goat’s ricotta cheese.

The chicerchia is a ancient legume native of the middle east and it was surely already used by the Greeks with the name of “lathiros” and Romans who called it “cicercula”. Today this small type of bean of the size of a chick pea has almost disappeared anywhere else other that in some areas of these mountains of southern Lazio, mostly around Campodimele. The colour is almost white with the sweet taste of peas and broad beans.

Each year, in this tiny village, generally on the first Saturday of August, a country fair event is dedicated to the cicerchia. The event takes the name of ‘sagra della cicerchia’; it is an important source of vitamins (B1, B2, PP), calcium, phosphorous and fibre. Meat lovers will certainly notice the difference in taste and consistency and texture regardless of the type of animal. Local meat is mostly the result of small farms or even home-grown animals, often left free to roam in green pastures and fields according to older traditions. Lamb, beef, pork or chicken are absolutely tasty and cooked in many ways. Locally famous is the ragu’ di caprettone, a rich tomato sauce with onion and lamb flavour again from Campodimele.

For mushrooms lovers here could be a paradise with the excellent local wild mushrooms served in their own sauce with different types of pasta or as side dish such as funghi trifolati (sauted mushrooms with wild herbs). In this area according to the season, different very tasty wild herbs such as wall-rocket, chicory and borage can be found, often proposed as side dishes, together with several kinds of mushrooms, picked in the woods. Lovers of particular flavour should not miss S. Onofrio’s ‘ciammotte’, the local snails. Local gastronomy offers superb, fresh vegetables and salads garnished with excellent locally-produced extra virgin olive oil. There are also soups with ‘erbe pazze’ (crazy herbs in the local jargon), chicory, wild fennel and borage, pickled in the fields or with garden peas and fresh onions. Among other fresh produce we find sweet, mouth-watering watermelon and several types of grapes. In the area of Spigno Saturnia, a tiny, lovely mediaeval hill-side village on the Aurunci Mountains slopes, we can taste a traditional ‘gliu’ zeppolone’ a very tasty omelette with fresh eggs and fragrant wild herbs. My Godness the list could go on forever!