• Getting about

    Getting about

    Back
    • Rentals
    • Taxi services
    • Bus services
    • Park areas
  • Stays
  • Eat
  • Sea

    Sea

    Back
    • Beaches
    • Bathing establishments
    • Diving centers
    • Sailing
  • Guided excursions
  • Sports
  • Places to see
  • Special offers
  • Last minute offers
  • Ferries
Infoelba
  • Get to Elba
    • How to get there Getting to the Island of Elba
    • Ferries The shipping companies that connect the island
    • Getting about on the island Public transport and taxis
    • Hire Car, motorbike and boat hire/rental
  • Stay
    • Accommodation that is open all year round Booking a holiday farm centre, hotel or B&B all open in winter too
    • Hotels Hotels to meet all needs
    • Residences For an independent holiday
    • Bed & Breakfasts Always ready to discover the island
    • Apartments Feeling at home in Elba
    • Small villas and detached houses For an autonomous holiday
    • Villas Surrounded by luxury and relaxation
    • Farm holiday centres Nature and flavours everywhere
    • Campsites Socializing and having a good time surrounded by nature
    • Camper and caravan Parking, water tank and facility areas
    • Farm holiday campsites An open air holiday
    • Luxury accommodation For a dream vacation
    • Tourist agencies and realtors Let your holiday be organised for you
  • Eat
    • Restaurants and Pizzerias Typical sea, home or more refined cuisine
    • Food & Wine Experience Experiences of gastronomy and wine tasting
    • Local recipes The best dishes of the Elba cuisine
    • Wines Aleatico, Moscato and Ansonica: Elba wines
    • Herbs and typical products Honey, beer, oil, wild and aromatic plants
    • Typical dishes History and origins of Elba dishes
  • Useful information
    • ElbaOK Insurance The anti Covid-19 policy and much more
    • Useful phone numbers and addresses Public and emergency utilities
    • Weather Temperatures and weather forecast
    • Webcams A window always open on the Elbe
    • Apps for your smartphone Elba on your mobile
  • Visit Elba
    • Beaches and coasts A different beach each day
    • Places to see Museums, ancient monuments, breathtaking views
    • Tuscan Archipelago National Park Seven pearls rising up from the sea
    • Guided excursions Letting others take you round the island
    • Useful advice What to do if...
    • Maps of the Island of Elba The Island in the palm of your hand
    • I am... Elba just as it suits you
    • Recommended itineraries What can we go and see today?
  • Sports and free time
    • Water sports Scuba diving, going snorkelling, fishing, sailing
    • Land sports Cycling, trekking, free climbing!
    • Elba not to be missed The unmissable experiences to do on holiday
    • Outdoor sports Elba: A paradise for lovers of outdoor sports
    • Enjoyment and relaxation Night life, cinemas and much more
    • Courses and study trips Learn while you have fun
    • Shopping Scents, colors and flavors of Elba
    • Special events and exhibitions What shall we do this evening?
  • Discovering Elba
    • How many beaches are there in Elba? 126 beaches of 1000 colours
    • Paths and tracksin Elba 1000 paths to live the island to the full
    • Elba in winter Making the most of Elba all year round
    • Interesting facts A different Elba
    • History of Elba Historical notes concerning Elba and its origins
    • Geology of Elba Geological origins of the Island of Elba
    • Towns of Elba Administration of Elba and its eight Communes
    • Media Gallery Live and feel Elba through photographs
  • Webcams
Infoelba - Dove natura è vacanza
  • 0

History and origins of dishes from Elba

  • Looking for accommodation
  • Accommodation price and availability
  • Last minute booking
  • Offers
  • Ferry tickets
  • Real estate ads
  1. Island of Elba
  2. Elba cuisine
  3. Typical dishes and their origins

History and origins of dishes from Elba

Savouring a typical dish means entering the world of culture, history, customs and traditions of a certain country. The typical Elba cuisine tells us not just about the miners, the farmers, the sailors and the beloved, but also about the Etruscans, the Romans, the Spanish, the Saracens, the soldiers and the emperors.

Although Elba cuisine is made from simple, basic ingredients, the past generation, using skill and imagination, well knows how to turn these dishes into mouthwatering delicacies.

The eastern side

The dishes that require a long, complicated preparation are also the most popular: at the top of the list we have the Rio style stockfish, an exquisite stockfish soup of Iberian-Moorish origin made with salted anchovies, onions, tomatoes, basil, parsely, green peppers, black olives, pine nuts, capers, and , of course, oil, chilli and salt. This dish, along with the cod "burrita" and the gurguglione - a stew made from vegetables, peppers and aubergines, that, due to the Spanish domain, is called gaspaccio in Porto Azzurro, and for centuries was the meal that the miners and farmers took with them to work.

At the top of the cake list we have the schiaccia briaca of oriental origins, that in August 2010 won the first prize in the "Taste Olympics". Made from sultanas, pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, hazel nuts, oil, aleatico wine and alkermes, no yeast or eggs, it used to be given to the sailors in Rio when they needed something nourishing and filling to eat. Another similar speciality was the "Sailor's Bread" or "Fig Bread", made from dried figs grapes, tomatoes, almonds and walnuts spread out on the walls ("murelle") along the streets and left to dry in the sun.

Another typical cake from Rio is the sportella. It is a cicular shaped type of bread with anise whose two ends meet and cross over, and was exchanged by lovers during the easter period: on Palm Sunday the lovesick men had a basket with"ceremito" (or cerimito) inside brought to the girl they loved; if the girl accepted the gift, which meant she accepted his love, she had a blessed "sportella" sent to him on Easter Sunday. On the following day, during the traditional picnic at the Santa Caterina Hermitage, the two lovers got together to consume their pledge of love. Today this "sportella" celebration is still held every year on Easter Monday at the Santa Caterina Hermitage, now a a place for loving glances.

The western side

The corollo is equal in symbolic tradition to the "sportella" from Rio,and is a ring shaped risen cake baked in the oven once the bread has been taken out. The origins of this typical cake with its "hole in the middle" seem to date back to the May feast in Campo, when the young men "who didn't have a girlfriend" went under the girls' windows and sang serenatas. The following morning the girls gave the singers a present: the typical cake with the hole in the middle which was slipped onto a pole covered in ribbons stuck on a special cart.

Another typical cake from the western side of the Island is the schiacciunta decorated with small circles on the top made by pressing a wedding ring or a thimble. Then there are the frangette, a typical Mardi Gras cake made from thin dough shaped like a bow that is then fried and covered in sugar; the potato bread is typical of San Piero, as is also the bread cut with an iron slicer, an Eastertime bread in the shape of a nest with birds on top made by very skilled hands; and finally the Easter schiaccia, that in the past was left to rise for 100 hours and flavoured with aniseeds, Vin santo and orange blossom water.

Chestnuts are the basic ingredient of the cakes that come from Marciana, the mountainous side of the island: here we have the castagnaccio, the chestnut fritters, and boiled chestnuts with wild fennel.

Before tourism arrived, goat farming was very common here (the many granite goat huts on the hills are proof of this), so the milk was used for making cheese and cottage cheese, eaten mainly by the family or used for exchange; needless to say the meat was eaten too. Another typical dish, the "ventrazzino", or stuffed goats' belly, was usually prepared by the men who ate it as a snack and no doubt downed it with red wine.

Coastal towns

Fish dishes are typical of coastal towns like Marciana Marina and Portoferraio, where the numerous recipes made from plain fish, or even just the heads and tails, become "richer" when products of the land are added, and vice versa. This is how the following dishes came about: tattler with Swiss chard, stuffed tattler< or simply alla diavola (fried with garlic, oil, rosemary, white wine and lots of chilli), stockfish with chickpeas and stockfish with potatoes (typical "eve" dishes), octopus with potatoes , or simply boiled and eaten using "only a fork", a recipe known as Elba style octopus" a typical Portoferraio custom (those older than twenty will no doubt remember the "octopus seller" in Portoferraio who stood at the corner of Via del Mercato Vecchio, selling boiled octopus "tentacles" on a fork from a big pot he carried with him, to be downed with a small glass of wine, or "topino di vino" from the nearby "Castagnacciaio"). And we mustn't forget the more elegant spaghetti alla margherita (the common name for the spider crab), or the stuffed sardines or the cabbage with anchovies.

[page id="814"The cacciucco[/page], a fish soup made from the leftovers in the fishermen's baskets at the fish market (they say Napoleon absolutely adored it), is another typical dish, as is the squid ink risotto, or the panzanella, made from day old bread dipped in water (which originally came from Portoferraio where there was the only biscuit factory on the Island, now the Town Council Building), then onions, green peppers, tomatoes, leftovers of tunafish and anchovies are added to it.

Request a free quote 0 My choice
ElbaOk

Ensure your holidays with ElbaOK: the first insurance policy against any unexpected outcomes caused by the Coronavirus emergency, and much more.

Read more

You might also like...

Herbs and typical products

Further reading

Traditional recipes
  • Get to Elba
  • How to get there
  • Ferries
  • Getting about on the island
  • Hire
  • Stay
  • Accommodation that is open all year round
  • Hotels
  • Residences
  • Bed & Breakfasts
  • Apartments
  • Small villas and detached houses
  • Villas
  • Farm holiday centres
  • Campsites
  • Camper and caravan
  • Farm holiday campsites
  • Luxury accommodation
  • Tourist agencies and realtors
  • Eat
  • Restaurants and Pizzerias
  • Food & Wine Experience
  • Local recipes
  • Wines
  • Herbs and typical products
  • Typical dishes
  • Useful information
  • ElbaOK Insurance
  • Useful phone numbers and addresses
  • Weather
  • Webcams
  • Apps for your smartphone
  • Visit Elba
  • Beaches and coasts
  • Places to see
  • Tuscan Archipelago National Park
  • Guided excursions
  • Useful advice
  • Maps of the Island of Elba
  • I am...
  • Recommended itineraries
  • Sports and free time
  • Water sports
  • Land sports
  • Elba not to be missed
  • Outdoor sports
  • Enjoyment and relaxation
  • Courses and study trips
  • Shopping
  • Special events and exhibitions
  • Discovering Elba
  • How many beaches are there in Elba?
  • Paths and tracksin Elba
  • Elba in winter
  • Interesting facts
  • History of Elba
  • Geology of Elba
  • Towns of Elba
  • Media Gallery
  • Webcams

Infoelba non si assume alcuna responsabilità per l'uso di marchi e slogan usati dagli inserzionisti e per eventuali errate indicazioni.

Informa inoltre che i listini prezzi, orari, date o altro materiale informativo pubblicato su questo sito è suscettibile a variazioni.

:: Siete quindi invitati a chiedere conferma alle strutture interessate ::

Infoelba

©1999-2023 Infoelba s.r.l. Unipersonale - Viale Teseo Tesei, 12 - Centro Servizi Il Molino - 57037 Portoferraio (LI)

P. IVA e C.F. 01130150491 - capitale sociale €10.000,00 i.v. - registro imprese numero 01130150491 - REA: LI - 100635

infoelba® it is a registered trademark - all rights reserved - Accesso all'area riservata - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy