Products: Vegetables and Legumes
In the three Park valleys, besides the most characteristic and famous dishes of the Ligurian cuisine of the hinterland, you can also taste other dishes characteristic of each town.
The traditional dishes have been recently rediscovered by the most careful restaurateurs: Baciocca (a cake made with quarantina potatoes, a local variety), Micotti (based on corn meal), rice cake, Castagnaccio or Patuna (prepared with chestnut flour), Puta (a sort of mashed potatoes made with chestnuts mixed together with cold milk), Testaieu (wheat focaccia cooked in special terracotta crocks), San Sté cheese (seasoned cacio cheese, characteristic of Val d'Aveto, produced with Cabannina cow's milk), prebugiùn (prepared with cabbages, potatoes, and field herbs), all tasty dishes characterizing a cuisine poor in ingredients but not in tastes, which are worth to be tasted. As far as desserts are concerned, we should mention Canestrelli and Pine nut pie of S. Stefano d'Aveto, as well as Rotelle of Borzonasca. Cooking in "crocks", used still today in many houses and several holiday farms and trattorias, flavors bread and dishes in a special way. Locations which have more direct contacts with Spezzino, Parmigiano and Piacentino areas, feel the influence of the mountain cuisine of those provinces. A trip and, even better, a stay in the Park should be an occasion to taste and appreciate local gastronomy, a cultural element which is not secondary for a good knowledge of the territory.
In the Park valleys there are still some local varieties of fruit and vegetables, which have been wisely preserved or rediscovered by farmers: among the others, the Zerli red onion, tapparona hazelnut and quarantina potatoes.
In the Park mountain areas, you can still directly buy the main products from producers or collectors of vegetables, potatoes, berries, mushrooms (also dried and in oil), cow's meat, cow's milk cheese (San Sté and Sarasso, in particular) and charcuterie (salami, coppa, beròdi - blood sausages - among the others); in the hills or in the areas facing the coast you can purchase above all sheep and goat cheese (formagetta), oil, grapes and wines (Ciliegiolo, Vermentino, Bianchetta genovese), fruit, hazelnuts. In the whole Park territory, fine qualities of honey, jam, chestnuts, corn (and relative flours), liquors are produced.
