Maremma Food

Simple food from a poor existence that tastes sublime... and a few exotic surprises

Maremma food is some of the simplest of Tuscan fare based as it is upon a very poor existence earnt in a hard and unforgiving land, supplemented by fish from the Tyrrhenian and Ligurians seas.

But its very simplicity - prepared from seasonal ingredients to hand - is what makes it some of the very best food in Italy.

And then the surprises happen. For interwoven amongst the traditional peasant recipes from this very special part of Italy lie some "little gems" of exotic cuisine, that upon first consideration appear so out of place, but which their histories tell are as much a part of this unique land as its bread and water.

The tales of each one reveal ancient legends and international power struggles, the marks of which still influence this land even today.

Exploring Maremma's food isn't just about eating well: it is the living history of this wild place. To eat one of Maremma's speciality dishes is to touch a rich Etruscan past of gold, wealth, education and prosperity. To enter into a bloody medieval past between ruling noble Sienese and Florentine families, as well as Papal machinations for control of Maremma's mineral riches and roads. It is to taste the spices of marauding Barbary pirates who devasted coastal villages and took slaves... and to find yourself recalling a flavour of Venezia from the mothers and grandmothers of many a Venetian family who came here to drain and work this land not so very long ago.

There is "Tuscan food" in cookbooks and there is Maremma food. Enjoy the exploration.

The Best Foods to Eat in Maremma

Well, these pages by their very nature have to be subjective as they reflect my own personal favourites and that of my Italian partner. But you are very welcome indeed to add a page of your own as well! Just follow the instructions at the bottom of either of these two pages: 10 best foods to eat and the 10 best foods in Maremma.

Maremma's Speciality Foods

In nearly every restaurant in Maremma you will find antipasti of sliced local cured meats, first courses of "pappardelle al cinghiale" (pappardelle pasta with a wild boar sauce) and "tortelli al ragu" (homemade pasta parcels stuffed with fresh ricotta cheese and spinach or betole, with a slowly simmered meat sauce - see the photo above), and second courses of "Cinghiale alla Cacciatora" (a wild boar stew cooked slowly with tomatoes and red wine), all of which are amongst Maremma's traditional speciality foods and delicious.

But stay a while longer in Maremma and dig a little deeper and you will discover "Acquacotta" soup, "Cacciucco Livornese", and local specialities such as Maremman saffron, "carciofini sott'olio" (a small variety of pickled artichokes), "anguilla sfumata" (smoked eel), "salsiccia di cinghiale" (a small, hard and dark coloured wild boar sausage for antipasti), "castagna del Monte Amiata" (chestnuts from the volcanic mountain Amiata), "Miele di melata" (a sweet honey), Tuscan pecorino cheeses and prosciutto hams...

As well as the "Bottarga di Orbetello" (mullet roe from Orbetello), "Palamita del Mare di Toscana" (a Tuscan Skipjack fish) and the "Razza Maremmana" (the Maremman cattle), all of which are protected foods and belong amonst the "Presidi Slow Food".

Sfratto dei Goym

From the tufa hill towns of Pitigliano and Sovana comes a dessert that is a marriage of Maremman and Jewish cuisines, whose history goes back to the sixteenth century in Maremma's "Little Jerusalem". Sfratto dei Goym.