Calabria
Overview
Stretching between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas, the narrow region’s beaches rise quickly into mountain ranges. This rugged terrain naturally created pockets of isolated societies, many of whose culture continues to reflect Calabria’s leading role as part of Magna Graecia. In fact, several mountain villages still speak a dialect derived from ancient Greek. The mountains also produce a range of microclimates that run from the sunny coastal hills along the seas and the chilly heights of the Sila and Aspromonte massifs.
This unique cultural and physical legacy has yielded – happily for us – a cuisine that celebrates the local readily-available and boldly-flavored ingredients.
- Calabria is pork
Pork is the region's prevalent meat, preserved as ham, salame, and sausages, including the type that includes bits of liver and lung and is known as 'ndugghia or more commonly as 'nduja (probably from andouille, introduced by the occupying French). Four types of Calabrian salumi qualify for DOP: Capocollo (neck roll), Pancetta (pork belly), Salsiccia (sausage), and Soppressata (a type of salame).
- Calabria is vegetables
Calabrians have an appetite for hefty soups and pastas laden with typical vegetables, especially eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes, but not excluding artichokes, asparagus, potatoes, beans, and peas. The red onions of Tropea, a town on the Tyrrhenian coast, are renowned for aroma and flavor.
- Calabria is Cirò
Within Calabria's complex microclimate, we find many grape varieties that can be traced back to Greek origins. The oldest and most celebrated Calabrian wine is Cirò, which grows in low hills along the Ionian coast between the ancient Greek cities of Sybaris and Kroton (Sibari and Crotone today). Local legend has it that Cirò descended directly from Krimisa, the wine Calabrian athletes drank to celebrate victory in an early Olympiad.
This unique cultural and physical legacy has yielded – happily for us – a cuisine that celebrates the local readily-available and boldly-flavored ingredients.