Sorrento Food: Traditional Dishes to Try

Sorrento's cooking draws on the sea and the kitchen garden, built on a handful of first-rate ingredients: sun-ripened tomatoes, fior di latte from the Lattari Mountains, extra virgin olive oil from the peninsula, basil, lemons and fish from the gulf. The dishes not to miss are gnocchi alla sorrentina, spaghetti with courgettes, stuffed baby cuttlefish, mozzarella in carrozza and, to finish, babà and delizia al limone.

Gnocchi alla sorrentina

This is the dish that carries the town's name around the world. The gnocchi are made with boiled, mashed potatoes, flour, eggs and a pinch of salt; the dough is rolled into finger-thick ropes, cut into small pieces, and each piece is pressed down the prongs of a fork so that the little grooves hold more sauce. As soon as they float to the surface of the boiling water they are drained, dressed with tomato sauce, topped with diced fior di latte and Parmesan and baked, often in individual terracotta dishes, until the cheese melts and turns golden. They are served with a leaf of fresh basil.

Ingredients for the traditional recipe (serves 6)

• 1 kg floury potatoes, 200 g flour, 2 eggs, a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil or butter, salt
• for the topping: tomato sauce, diced fior di latte, grated Parmesan, basil

Seafood and garden dishes

Spaghetti with courgettes is a summer classic: the courgettes are fried over a high heat until just golden, left to rest with salt, cheese and basil, then tossed with the pasta, a ladle of cooking water and a stretched-curd cheese, which on the peninsula is often provolone del Monaco. The most famous version is linked to Nerano, a hamlet of Massa Lubrense overlooking the bay of Ieranto. More rustic is spaghetti with walnuts: kernels toasted in garlic-scented oil, an anchovy melted into the sauce and plenty of chopped parsley.

From the sea come stuffed baby cuttlefish Sorrento-style: the pouches are filled with eggs, Parmesan, diced mozzarella and sultanas, sewn shut and cooked with the tentacles in a lightly spicy cherry-tomato sauce. In the trattorias around the gulf you will also find linguine and scialatielli with seafood, fish in acqua pazza and fried or marinated anchovies. For a snack there is mozzarella in carrozza: slices of bread dipped in milk, flour and egg, filled with mozzarella and fried until the cheese melts into the bread.

Desserts: babà, delizia al limone and cannoli

Babà came to Naples from France and became a symbol of Campanian pastry-making: a feather-light yeasted dough, baked in a mould and then soaked at length in a syrup of water, sugar and lemon peel with a glass of rum. Delizia al limone, on the other hand, is a Sorrento invention: pastry chef Carmine Marzuillo created it in 1978, a small dome of sponge cake soaked in limoncello, filled and covered with lemon cream. Home tradition also includes Sorrento-style cannoli, thin pastry wrapped around small tin tubes, fried, filled with custard and dusted with icing sugar.

Where and how to taste it

Sorrento's cooking is at its best in family-run trattorias, in the restaurants of Marina Grande, where the fish comes straight from the village boats, and in the pastry shops of the centre between Piazza Tasso and Corso Italia. A few practical tips: gnocchi should be eaten piping hot, straight from the oven; for fish, always ask what the catch of the day is; in spring and summer look for dishes made with garden vegetables, which have a full flavour on the peninsula. End your meal with an ice-cold glass of limoncello or nocino, the liqueurs described on the page about typical products. Many dishes also accompany the feasts and religious occasions described in traditions and events. To choose the right place, browse our list of restaurants in Sorrento and the peninsula.