Pisan cuisine Guide

Pisan cuisine is an excellent combination of land and sea recipes. But when you are in a restaurant, it is quite difficult to choose what to eat in Pisa. The typical Pisan cuisine is formed from recipes deriving from land, sea and fresh water, with minor variations being applied from one locality to another. Many Pisan dishes are easily prepared with simple ingredients, and delicious. So after visiting the leaning tower and other beauties of the city, what to eat in Pisa?

There are lots of first course soup dishes during the winter months, which are always accompanied by slices of stale bread: really tasty bean or farro soup, Pappa al Pomodoro or Pisan style cabbage soup, while lots of fish soups derive from the sea. Another typical dish is Panzanella, a poor man’s dish based on stale bread, tomatoes and onion. Pasta dishes worth a mention include Pappardelle with duck or hare sauce. Pallette, little balls of polenta in meat sauce, are also really tasty. Pisan cuisine incorporates lots of types of meat. You can taste typical Pisan beef, wild boar with olives, lamb fricassee, rabbit and lots of game: hare, pheasant, deer and wild boar, prepared in various ways. Obviously, fish is also very much present: there is lots of dried cod, which you can eat “alla Pisana”, fried or in a sweet and sour sauce. The coastal stock farms provide eels, mussels and clams; the Cozze Ripiene, mussels filled with secret ingredients, are excellent. Try them and you’ll believe us!