Cuisine

When grapevines and olive trees cover the hillsides, wine and oil are a must on our tables. They prove excellent companions for the salted anchovies of Monterosso served in olive oil as well as the many specialty fish dishes, authentic gastronomic delights.

The cuisine of the Cinque Terre almost perfectly conserves the characteristics of yesteryear; the respect for the flavours and fragrances of the primary ingredients.
Troffie is a kind of pasta made from chestnut or wheat flour and is one of the forefathers of modern and more sophisticated pasta. Its condiment is still 'pesto' sauce; an original Ligurian sauce made from basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, grated cheese, pine nuts, and marjoram.
Tagliatelle, a broad handmade pasta, is used with sauces that contain mushrooms, cabbage and potatoes, beans, chickpeas or sometimes with pesto.
The fundamental elements are repeated and interchanged to create different flavours.
The vegetable pies, prepared with a stuffing containing borage (borago officinalis) and other local herbs that grow spontaneously in the Cinque Terre during the end of winter, artichokes, Swiss chard, zucchini, potatoes, and leeks are combined with egg and ricotta cheese or with stale bread soaked in milk or béchamel sauce (depending on each family's traditions), parmesan cheese, Italian parsley, and marjoram. The piecrust is very thin, because flour was a very precious commodity.
Rice was an elegant dish, obtainable only from outside towns. With it, a rice pie was made, following a recipe that is still used today. In Monterosso this rice pie was made even more delectable by adding a bit of dried mushrooms to the filling.
Egg 'fritatte', or flat omelettes, were eaten frequently. Today the frittata has been rediscovered as a tasty antipasto dish.
Another important dish on the tables of the Cinque Terre population was the 'cotoletta di acciuga', anchovies stuffed with a breadcrumb based filling and then fried. The 'fritelle di bianchetti', fritters made from tiny newborn anchovies or sardines were also highly appreciated. Following the seamen's gastronomic traditions, other dishes included stewed cuttlefish, stuffed calamari and spiced octopus.
Oregano is very important in the local cuisine. It is often added to fish dishes but it is mainly used by the inhabitants of La Spezia to enhance the flavour of tomatoes. Oregano is picked in summer at the edge of the woods and tied together in little bunches to dry in the shade. The dried flowers are put into jars and stored for later use.

Wines

The fame of the Cinque Terre is largely due to its products, the dry white wine, simply called 'Cinque Terre' and the 'Sciacchetrà', a prized dessert wine made from prime grapes dried to the point of holding only a few drops of sweet juice.
A colourful addition to the Cinque Terre products is 'limoncino'; a dessert wine made from steeping lemon peels in pure alcohol and then added sugar and water to make a fragrant and fresh liquor. The lemons, another famous product of the Cinque Terre are prominently on display in the many 'limoneti' (lemon groves) and at the annual Lemon Festival held each year in Monterosso during the season of Pentacost.

The Sentieri dell'Uva (Grape Routes) are still as they once were with fig trees planted in strategic positions to give shade during breaks from work, agaves planted to mark boundaries, to line the footpaths along steep, stony steps and to indicate the rail terminals of the recently installed monorails which are the only vertical structures emerging from this seemingly completely, horizontal landscape. Many dry stone walls support this terraced landscape.

The large wicker baskets of grapes (corbe) are arranged along the "pose" (little walls, as wide as tables, built solely for this purpose). These include Albarola (Trebbiana), Biancorotto, Bruciapagliaio, Piccabon (Pizzamosca). To make white table wines the following are used: Fiore di Bosco, Rappolungo, Fogiaccia, Ruspara, and Sesagra. Baskets full of Magnagra (Albarola), from which the famous Black Sciacchetrà is made, are handled with extreme care and set to one side.

The Cinque Terre grape tracks reach down to the sea. In the past, people used to anchor small fishing boats called "gozzi" immediately below the terraced vineyards. Baskets laden with grapes were then lowered from above into these small boats which then sailed round to the otherwise inaccessible village.

Nowadays this method is nothing but a distant memory but by visiting the Cinque Terre you are still able to sample some of the most prized wines of the world that have been created by centuries of backbreaking experience.

Information taken from www.cinqueterre.it