APT 1 parte mare gaeta_inglese 3-08

GASTRONOMY - GASTRONOMIE
Simple ingredients and a tradition passed
down from generation to generation
make Gulf cookery, based on both the
fruits of the sea and the land, a further source
of wealth in this area’s heritage.
The sea provides the main ingredients of
typical fish soups and seafood risottos as well
as various types of fish, such as sea bream,
bass, langoustines, which are cooked in a
thousand different ways.
The wonderful smell of fish-based “tiella” - a
savoury pie made according to an ancient
recipe, full of vegetables, anchovies or little
octopus and other seafood as well as the little
black Gaeta olives found in abundance in
nearby Itri (the village from which they
originate) - can often be smelt as the pies are
turned out of baker’s ovens in large quantities
in centre of Gaeta. The islands provide
excellent lobster, crab, eel, weaver fish as well
as octopus, barber fish and pezzogna, while
visitors to Ventotene should taste the rich
flavour of the local lentil soup made with
miniscule homegrown lentils. Furthermore
the long hours of sunshine mean locally
grown tomatoes are full of flavour and the
wild rocket from Ventotene is not to be
missed. Vegetable gardens are to be found all
along the coast and the green houses in the
area of Sperlonga provide the best quality
produce of all types. Inland, the cookery is
more traditional in character - egg pasta,
homemade sauces, soups made with erbe
pazze (a mixture of herbs, borage, chicory,
fennel and many others plants which grow
wild in the area, local cooks having learnt the
art of how to choose them from previous
generations), chicory soup, pasta and beans
(“fasogli” soup with “ventrisco” - a must for
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visitors to Castelforte and other hillside
villages), tasty omelettes filled with wild
vegetables (“gliu’ zeppolone” from Spigno
Saturnia) as well as salami and other
ingredients (“frittata campagnola” from
Campodimele), and knowledgeably chosen
and simply cooked greens (“scarola ripiena”
from Itri). Local meat is flavoursome with a
preference for kid and lamb (“ragù di
Caprettone” from Campodimele) while the
local delicacy from S. Onofrio is “ciammotte”
(snails). The traditional desserts of both hill
and seaside villages are simple, traditional
and tasty sweets whose origins can often be
traced back to ancient times - “piccelatielli”
from Castelforte, “sciuscelle” from Gaeta,
various Easter specialities, “pigna” from
Formia, cakes similar to Neapolitan sweets
from Gaeta and Castelforte, sweet and
savoury “casatiello” from Ponza and other
places and chocolate “naspro” from Gaeta.
Local wines were known even by the
Romans: Caecubum, a dry, ruby red
produced in the vineyards of
Formia, Gaeta and Sperlonga is
the perfect accompaniment for
roasted red and white meats.
Falernum, straw coloured yellow
with green reflections produced
between Formia and the
Region of Campania should be
drunk with local fish.