Traditional Romagna Cuisine
Romagna is famous for its summer nightlife, its endless beaches, its amazing hospitality, its events, and of course, its cuisine! Italian cuisine is one of the most envied in the world, and Romagna’s cuisine certainly contributes to this excellence!
In this first article, we’ll talk about our favorites. Let’s see which typical Romagna dishes you’ve already tried:
Squacquerone
Squacquerone is a typical Romagna spreadable cheese, similar to crescenza, made from whole cow’s milk. The name “squacquerone” refers to its characteristic of being very soft because it “melts” due to the high water content in the curd.
Piadina
Impossible not to know it, a timeless classic of the Romagna Riviera. We imagine ourselves on the beach, in summer, at sunset, with a delicious piadina filled with ham in hand! There are now many variations both in the preparation of the dough (wholemeal, wheat flour, flour with 5 cereals, kamut, with olive oil, with lard, etc.) and in the filling (ham, cheeses, salami, coppa, porchetta, etc.). Each area of the region has a typical variant, for example, the Rimini piadina is yeast-free and very thin (about 3 mm).
Cassone
Surely, this is my typical Romagna dish! When I moved to Rimini, I only knew about piadina; I still remember the day when a Riminese suggested “going to eat a cassone” and my response was “what?” I had no idea what it was, and until that moment, I had surely lived half a life! Il cassone is a lifestyle, similar to piadina but definitely more “indulgent” in my opinion; the filling is cooked directly with the dough, which is closed at the edges, unlike piadina, which is simply folded in half. My favorite is the one with cheese, but the typical ones are “rosso” (only sauce and mozzarella) and “verde” (mozzarella and rosole). But there are really many flavors, even sweet ones (the Nutella cassone is simply mystical!)
Cappelletti
Cappelletti are egg pasta, a typical dish of Romagna, similar to tortellini but different in shape. The filling is placed in the center, and they are usually served with meat broth. In Romagnol, they were called “caplet” precisely because they resemble a “hat” shape.
Wine
We could make an endless list of typical wines from the Romagna area! However, the most famous and historical ones are Sangiovese, Albana, Trebbiano, Lambrusco, DOC Colli di Rimini… so here in Romagna, the barrel will always be empty, and the wife always drunk!
What are your typical Romagna dishes?
