Written by Laura Marzo — Friday, September 05th, 2014

An overview of Pavia delicacies

Set the table with your best glassware, plates and linen and prepare yourselves to this roundup!

Besides its majestic Certosa, this Lombard city has a lot to offer from a food and wine point of view.

Appetizers

Let’s start from something light as a starter: vegetables. You can taste the pink asparagus from Cilavegna, the golden and red onion, respectively from Voghera and Breme. Then, truffles and the Bertagnina pumpkin to finally end with mostarda, that’s chopped fruit immersed in a syrup.

Agnolotti with speck & radicchio

Main dishes

As first dish, you are spoilt for choice! You can have agnolotti or what they call “bata lavar”, two types of pasta folding a meat stuffing. What about rice? Do you prefer Carnaroli, Arborio, Baldo, Roma or Valone Nano? Since Pavia is the largest paddy field in Europe!

Meats and cheeses

Carnivors can indulge themselves in tasting snails, frogs, goose’s liver, goose’s salami and pork meat in all its forms: salami, ciccioli, bacon, cotechino (cooked sausage).

But, that is not all! Gorgonzola, taleggio, crescenza and goat cheese accompanied by some rice bread. You can complete your meal with a slice of Torta Paradiso (Heaven’s cake…that says it all…) or offelle biscuits, even though you would have to soak them in the countless wines produced in the area beyond the river Po.

The final recipe

At last, we won’t leave you without a recipe, a very easy and quick one, to cook when you don’t have much in your fridge: the Süpa Pavesa (Pavia soup).

You just have to put one slice per person of stale bread on a plate. Put a very fresh yolk on each slice. Then, sprinkle some Grana Padano cheese and finally pour hot meat broth. Enjoy!