The diet of the coast but especially that of Maiori has one foot on land and the other in a boat, the diet of a fishing fox, that mixes garden produce with the fragrance of the sea: a traditional but eclectic way of cooking that is open to new experiments...

Let us start with the Spring and the first tender vegetables from the kitchen garden: endive, chicory, spring cabbage.. together with nogli, pezzenti (pork sausage) and aromatic herbs in the " menestra 'mmaretata"; another formidable pair are fresh broad beans and thick slices of salami; "casatiello", the typical Easter bread made with pork fat and pepper.

With the arrival of the good weather the cows of Tramonti are put out to grass...and you can taste the difference in the delicate ricotta (cottage cheese) and fiordilatte (mozzarella), in the provole affumicate (smoked fresh cheese), and the caciocavallo and caciotte cheeses or the tasty provolone of the monks...

The fishing is taken up with renewed vigour; the pasta courses mix the produce of the mountains and sea: laganelle with peppers and scampi, tubetti with beans and mussels, scialatielli with capers, black olives and clams, fusilli with shrimps and courgettes.

Second courses of pezzogne in crazy water, squid and potatoes, calamari and peas, endive tossed in a pan with salted anchovies, "purpetielli alla luciana"(tiny octopus), saw-fish in casserole, fantastic sauted seafood, fried fish and leek marinated in vinegar, and the specialities, fritters of tiny fish served on lemon leaves, sea-bass on the grill.

All accompanied by a fresh white wine of the Coast of Amalfi- Tramonti, Ravello, Furore- also the caressing and vivacious Rose or a red wine, dry and full-bodied: "capable of filling one with sun and happiness"... L.Veronelli.

The Summer arrives and when the heat cuts the appetite the fresh products of the kitchen garden come to the rescue, to be eaten crude or with little preparation as in the parmigiane of aubergines or courgettes (sliced, fried and baked in a tomato sauce), stuffed peppers or tomatoes, ciambotte (mixed stewed vegetables), fritters of marrow flowers and the fantastic chocolate covered aubergines...

PIZZA FOR ALL THE YEAR!
Absolutely not to be missed the lemon salad, the famous sfusato lemons of Amalfi sliced and dressed with oil, salt, vinegar and mint... With the arrival of the cold weather the days in the open air are rare, but in compensation the food becomes much richer...

Soups of cereals and beans, of chestnuts, or dried broad beans, chick peas with abundant olive oil and parsley...
First courses: "'ndundari al ragù"(dumplings in meat and tomato sauce), gnocchi alla sorrentina (tiny potato dumplings in tomato sauce), "crespolini" (stuffed pancakes), cannelloni and various soft cheese and moulds, sausages of pork and vegetables.
Second courses: Meat-"alla pizzaiola",in a sauce made with little "piennolo" tomatoes, garlic and marjoram, stuffed spleen, ox-tail Genoa style... the fish- salt cod and potatoes, mackerel with onion and vinegar sauce, stuffed calamari.. And fried eel, that is always on the local menu on Christmas Eve.

The rustic Caponata ( a salad of rusks and vegetables) or the fragrant slices of toast with "piennolo" tomatoes that remind us of Summer...the tuna fillets and salted anchovies kept in typical pottery jars. The amber liquid that collects at the bottom is filtered and mixed with walnuts, pine nuts and parsley and used as a condiment for Vermicelli alla "colatura di alici" (anchovy sauce), another traditional dish eaten on Christmas Eve...

The cakes and sweets also follow the seasons: chiacchiere (fried biscuits) and sanguinaccio (chocolate blood) for Carnival, potato doughnuts for S.Giuseppe; and at Easter pastiere (tarts made with buckwheat and ricotta); fresh fruit tarts in the Summer; and at Christmas susamielli, esse di miele, roccoco',mostaccioli ( spicy biscuits and cakes), lemon cream nougat, zeppole (doughnuts) and struffoli (little pastry ball covered with honey and hundred and thousands)...

All through the year you will find sorbets and delizie (delicious lemon cakes), Capri cake, sfogliatelle di St Rosa (custard in a pastry shell) and also zizze'e monache or "sighs", a typical cake of Maiori....

Before we take our leave we recommend the ancient liqueurs: myrtle, walnut, laurel, strawberry, fennel, concierto, the famous limoncello, maybe you would like to try them all... Buon Appetito!