Gastronomy on Ischia
Ischia is a garden bed of natural, rich flavours and fresh food.
If starting your day with a succulent, freshly squeezed juice is what you crave, then Ischia's fruit will thrill and delight. If you don't like tomatoes for their bland, watery base, then Ischia's ripe, red variety bursting with juice and flavour will certainly change your mind. If you're looking for assortment in your seafood menu, then allow Ischia to tantalise with its fleshy shellfish and fresh catch.
Ischia's friendly climate and mineral rich soil provide the perfect combination for growing fruit and vegetables.
Blending taste with tradition, Ischia's customary, must-try dish is 'coniglio all'ischitana', Ischitana rabbit, cooked in a savoury tomato and wine sauce. Ischia's ancient 'fosse' or ditches is an ancient technique for rabbit breeding, allowing the rabbits to grow in a controlled "wild" environment. It long predates our modern appetite and sensibility for free range food and ensures a tastier, better quality meat.
From the sea, 'spaghetti alle vongole', clam spaghetti, with a base of garlic, olive oil and parsley, is another definite Ischian treat.
On the sweet side, 'sfogliatelle' and 'baba' are customary pastries, the first, with its many leaves of delicate pastry and ricotta cream formed to a shell shape, the latter, a soft cake-like texture and rum burst in the middle. Other delicious local pastries include 'pastiera', prepared at Easter time and 'rococo' and 'struffoli' during the Christmas holiday.
To accompany the food on the table, Ischia's viticulture proffers just as worthy and particular an array of wine, from the Biancolella, Forastera and Arilla whites to the distinctive reds of Guarnaccia, Per' e Palummo and S. Lunardo. Along with the fine wine, Ischia's other drinks of choice are the strong after dinner liqueurs. Some of these varieties include the sweet Limoncello made from Ischia's fantastic lemons, or the rather bitter Rucolino, derived from the rucola plant, a variety Romans ate for its aphrodisiac effects.
The island's many 'sagre', or local festivals, devoted to food and popular customs, let the visitor experience Ischia's food culture in each town's outdoor squares or piazzas. Amidst bamboo stalls and barbeque grills you can satisfy your every whim, tasting the many samples of table wines and hand-made sausages. After the 'vendemmia' harvest a month of celebrations follow in the island's town squares, toasting the health of the grape and work well done.
Alternatively, Ischia's restaurants strongly promote the island's culinary traditions. If you prefer meat, including rabbit, head up the mountain; for seafood, the seaside towns are best. Take pleasure overall in the finely tuned rules of Ischian gastronomy. Italian senses are finetuned to subtle details like the glass of water offered at the bar to clean the palate before enjoying the caffe ritual; or the bucatini, a special variety of spaghetti tubes with holes, to better absorb the sauce; or again, the stylish cut of pineapple to help digest your main course.
On this island, food has a holy place. Its freshness, where it was grown, how it should be prepared, eaten and enjoyed all become part of everyday conversation. The flavours born are resplendent. So much so that even with the right recipes, carefully noted and adhered to, the results are hard to recreate anywhere else.
