Typical Recipes of Molise

“Separated from Abruzzo by a formal demarcation”, writes Lelio Porreca, “Molise is a branch of the same lineage. The landscape is gentler and wooded, but it is the same mild air that caresses us and we hear serene people expressing themselves in a dialect very similar to the one in Abruzzo”.

The same goes, more or less, for the foods here too marked, almost always, by the presence, aggressive and characterizing, of the chili pepper. If anything from Molise it is worth emphasizing the excellence of the vegetables and fruits. The large peppers of Boiano, full of flavour, compete for fame in the same country as the cannellini, small white beans.

Montefalcone in the Sannio rivals, in bitter dispute with Castelmauro: which the best fennel and white celery. And the peppers, figs and strawberries are added to it. In Acquaviva Collecroce the zerziza figs are very sweet, small and with black skin. Hornbeam shows off its big black broccoli and melons. Among its vegetables, Isernia boasts spinach, cannellini beans (here called ricini) and onions; apricots and peaches among the fruit. Its supremacy, in terms of fruit, is opposed by Monteroduni which also has peaches and apricots of exceptional goodness. Campobasso remains, the princely city of Molise: its limoncello apples and pears, thorns and small swords are unrivalled.

First Courses