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The cuisine of Ravenna offers a great variety of delicacies that you can eat while sipping an aperitivo or before the traditional first and main courses. The queen of the table is undoubtedly the Piadina romagnola. Accompanied by tasty cold cuts and cheeses it is a real pleasure for the mouth.
The cuisine of Ravenna is deeply rooted in the rural tradition of the countryside and finds its highest expression in first courses.
Rigorously prepared with hand-made egg pasta, first courses come with rich meat sauces, delicious broths, cheese fillings and heaps of cheese and nutmeg.
The rural origin of the cuisine of Ravenna emerges even more in the main courses.
Grilled castrato, sausages and all the kinds of local meat (Mora romagnola in particular) are always accompanied by a basket of piadina and pinzimonio – a mix of raw vegetables, usually including fennel, radish, carrot and celery to dip in a mixture of the famous Olive oil of Brisighella PDO and salt of Cervia.
But on the tables of Romagna there is no lack of fish. Many traditional dishes and products directly coming from the Adriatic Sea, such as various kinds of oily fish (saraghina, garfish, sarda and mackerel) and mussels, in particular the one of Marina di Ravenna.
The culinary tradition of Romagna is very rich, and every person living in the city can confirm that Ravenna is an excellent representative of that.
With its pine woods, the vast plains and the valley areas formed by rivers, the area offers many high-quality products coming from a natural ecosystem, with which people live in harmony since millennia.
In Ravenna, celebrations and traditions have always marked the passing of time. And every occasion is a good excuse to prepare a traditional dessert that can be found in each bakery or restaurant.
Besides ciambella romagnola, zuppa inglese or scroccadenti – usually accompanied by a good glass of sweet wine (as Albana di Romagna) – there are also more particular desserts, as Torta Teodora, invented in 2002 to pay homage to Empress Teodora.
As remembered by the many proverbs and traditions related to the use and consumption of the famous nectar of the Gods, wine in Ravenna is closely related to the rural culture and origin of this area.
Beside the traditional Sangiovese, which is known nationwide, there are Trebbiano, Albana, Cagnina, Pagadebit and Bursôn.
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