Ligurian gastronomy reflects the character of the region and the ingenuity of its people. Eating in Genoa means enjoying a cuisine mainly based on legumes, fish and wild herbs.
Reflecting the geomorphological characteristics of its territory, you will find both sea and land-based recipes.
But that is not all. Genoese dishes have also changed throughout history in relation to the social status of the diner.
With simple ingredients, vegetables, herbs and an abundant use of olive oil, they created genuine, tasty and extraordinarily attractive dishes. Among the herb-based condiments, pesto stands out. The various savoury vegetable pies, such as the famous torta pasqualina and the stuffed pies, are worth trying. Not forgetting the delicious focaccia.
If you are planning a trip to Genoa, here are the dishes to try and the best places to find them.
1 - Pesto
This is one of the must-haves of typical Genoese cuisine.
A condiment made with basil, pine nuts, garlic, oil and parmesan cheese, it is used not only to season pasta (trofie, trenette, gnocchi and testaroli in primis), but also to add flavour to minestrone, soups, focaccia, savoury pies, bruschetta and even as a base on pizza, in place of tomato puree.
In short, the Genoese really put it on everything!
The traditional recipe for pesto as a pasta sauce calls for it to be enriched with potatoes and green beans.
Pesto is now a world-famous sauce, but its origins are specifically Genoese, and only in Genoa does one eat the real pesto, the one made with basil from Prà.
Recommended for: as a condiment
Average cost: from €8.50 per kg
Main ingredients: basil, oil, cheese, pine nuts, garlic
2 - Pansotti with Walnut Sauce
Pansotti (from the Ligurian word pansa, meaning belly) are a stuffed pasta similar to ravioli, filled with wild herbs and served with a walnut sauce usually made with prescinseua, slightly acidic fresh cheese and chopped walnuts.
Since they contain no meat, it is one of the cheapest and most characteristic dishes in the Genoese tradition.
The filling consists of a mix of fresh herbs, the so-called Preboggion, made from herbs that grow wild on the Ligurian coast. Given the difficult availability of these herbs, chard, spinach, borage, chicory, lettuce, rocket, etc. are generally used.
The cook's skill lies in balancing the vegetables in the right proportions to neutralise the bitter taste of chicory and catalogna with the sweet taste of lettuce and escarole.
For the walnut sauce, kernels, pine nuts, seasonings, extra virgin olive oil and bread soaked in milk are used. A cheaper and simpler alternative is oil or melted butter and sage. A dish that is definitely not light but worth trying.
Recommended for: lunch, dinner
Average cost: €9.00
Main ingredients: vegetable-filled pasta, walnut sauce
3 - Torta pasqualina
Vegetable pies are one of the specialities of Genoese cuisine, stemming from a'cucina povera' aimed at exploiting local produce and using leftovers.
It is a savoury pie made with puff pastry and a vegetable filling, in different versions. The most classic version is made with a filling of Swiss chard, peas and artichokes, but very often it is found made only with Swiss chard and prescinseua, a type of fresh, creamy cheese with a slightly sour taste. A distinguishing feature of torta pasqualina are the hard-boiled eggs inside!
The name of this savoury pie suggests that it is a dish that is eaten during the Easter period, and indeed it is a classic of the Easter Monday picnic. However, especially for Ligurians, it is a dish that is eaten all year round.
Recommended: lunch, dinner, snack
Average cost: from €18.00 per kg
Main ingredients: puff pastry, Swiss chard, eggs, cheese
4 - Fried anchovies
Floured fried anchovies are very tasty. They are a classic and appetising dish that can be served as an appetiser. They are also often sold as street-food, in characteristic paper cones, by fryers and waterfront kiosks. In this case they become a tasty appetiser with which to treat oneself before dinner, or to be eaten as a snack to break up a meal or as a frugal lunch.
The best fried anchovies can be found in the historic harbour fry shops that cook them to perfection, with a crispy, light and dry fried fish.
Anchovies are the most common fish in Ligurian cuisine. Besides fried, you can also find them salted, green, stuffed, marinated, in meatballs. In the old days, it was said:'U pan du ma' (the bread of the sea).
Curiosity: in the sea of the Cinque Terre, the magic day of anchovies is 29 June, St Peter's Day. And the season continues to be good until mid-July.
Recommended: lunch, dinner, snack
Average cost: €6.00
Main ingredients: anchovies, flour, oil
5 - Focaccia
The fugàssa (focaccia) is the most typical dish, a sort of cult which must meet very specific characteristics: a golden/amber colour, well-marked alveoli and a thickness of no more than 2 cm.
It must be crispy on the edges and outside but soft on the inside, never greasy but well oiled.
It can be found in different versions, the two main ones being the classic oil and cheese version. But by now there are all kinds: with potatoes and rosemary, with onions, with vegetables, with olives, with pesto... And there are even sweet variants filled with fruit or hazelnut cream.
Genoese focaccia is really difficult to make at home, the Genoese themselves buy it in bakeries. Apart from Genoa, the entire region of Liguria is teeming with bakeries and focaccerie, especially in the seaside resorts where they are a fixed stop for holidaymakers who stop to buy a few slices to take to the beach.
The ritual of focaccia is not the prerogative of tourists; the Genoese eat it at any time, even at breakfast with caffelatte!
Mention must be made of the delicious Recco cheese version, which has been awarded the IGP seal.
Recommended: snack, snack
Average cost: from €2.00 per piece
Main ingredients: flour, water, oil
6 - Cima
This is a second course, often also served as an appetiser.
It consists of a piece of veal belly meat, cut to form a pocket to be stuffed with giblets, peas, mortadella, egg, mushrooms, pine nuts, cheese and aromatic herbs. Once prepared, it is closed, sewn by hand. Cooking it is quite a delicate matter as there is always the risk of it'bursting', causing all the filling to spill out and thus making all the work done in vain.
It is then served cold and cut with a slicer to a thickness of about 0.5 cm.
Beloved by the Genoese, it is a very tasty and substantial dish.
Originally, cima was a poor dish made with recycled ingredients, made tasty and nutritious thanks to the long work of housewives. Today, it has been transformed into a rich dish, whose slice (called öggiu, i.e. eye) takes on a visually pleasing appearance through the colours of the ingredients combined together.
The Genoese singer-songwriter Fabrizio De Andrè, together with Ivano Fossati, dedicated an entire song to the ritual of preparing the cima:'A cimma', contained in the album'Le Nuvole'.
Recommended for: as a main course for lunch or dinner
Average cost: from €21.00 per kg
Main ingredients: veal, peas, eggs, cheese
7 - Cappon magro
Photo by chefpercaso. This is undoubtedly the most sumptuous dish in Ligurian cuisine. Not so much for its elaborate preparation as for its spectacular presentation.
Basically, it is an appetising cold salad, very rich and elaborate in its multi-layered pyramid shape.
At the base, a base of galettes rubbed with garlic and seasoned with vinegar and salt, and then, fish, firm meat, boiled vegetables, boiled eggs, artichoke garnish, tuna, prawns, capers and olives. Everything is coated in green sauce and topped with lobster or prawns.
Certainly of more sober and modest origins and inspiration, it was originally eaten by fishermen, directly on boats or by the servants of the nobility who reused leftovers from banquets.
Today, it is considered a much sought-after dish, difficult to prepare and mainly intended for the days leading up to Easter and Christmas.
Recommended for: lunch, dinner, especially during important festivities
Average cost: €12.00
Main ingredients: fish, meat, vegetables, boiled eggs, scampi
8 - Stockfish
In Genoa,'stokke' can be found on almost every menu of the old Genoese cuisine, and it is said to have arrived in the port of the'Old Superb' thanks to the trade relations intensively exchanged between the Genoese and the Portuguese at the time of the Republic.
The Portuguese, who have made it a national dish, say that there are 365 ways to cook stockfish.
Indeed, there are many recipes with stockfish. This is perhaps due to the fact that it was once defined as a poor man's dish, whereas today it seems to have become one of the most sought-after dishes, and in almost every restaurant there is a competition to see who can come up with a detailed recipe.
Certainly, the tastiest and most enjoyable version is the simple one that involves stewing with tomato sauce, potatoes, pine nuts and taggiasca olives.
Let's make a clarification: cod that is dried in the sun becomes stockfish, while when salted it is called codfish.
Recommended for: as a second course at lunch or a single course at dinner
Average cost: €12.00
Main ingredients: stockfish
9 - Panissa
This is one of the most peculiar dishes, to be tasted in the alleys of the old town centre at the numerous fried-food shops.
It is in fact a kind of polenta made with chickpea flour, cut into sticks and fried.
It can also be found at trattorias, and is usually accompanied by other fried vegetables. It is usually served on its own or more often in a special bun, in the shape of a small, round, flat, white flatbread without a crust and without salt.
A variation of panissa is that, after the dough has solidified, it is cut into cubes and served cold or warm, seasoned with oil and lemon and, if desired, onion.
Thanks to trade relations with Port of Cadiz, this dish also exists in Iberian cuisine under the name of paniza. The Spanish version is prepared by using chickpea flour in a variable percentage of up to 20% together with wheat flour to give it more consistency when fried.
Recommended for: appetiser, snack
Average cost: from €1.70
Main ingredients: chickpea flour, oil
10 - Farinata
Also known as fainè, this is a very simple dish made from a mixture of only chickpea flour, water, oil and salt. Everything is baked, still in its liquid state, in a very hot wood-fired oven (300° C).
The result is a very thin savoury pie soft on the inside with a golden crust.
It is really very versatile. It can be used as an appetiser or main course, accompanied by vegetables and cheese, but a nice slice is also perfect as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack. In Genoa you can find it in all trattorias, cake shops, focaccerie and friggitorie.
In Via San Vincenzo, the street food street par excellence, you go for sure!
Originally from the Ligurian and also Tuscan tradition, in Pisa, Lucca and Versilia it is called cecìna or chickpea cake.
Under different names, farinata is also popular abroad: in France, Argentina and Uruguay.
Recommended for: always
Average cost: from €1.50 per slice
Main ingredients: oil, water, chickpea flour
Where to eat in Genoa: cheap restaurants, typical places and street food
Given the versatility of Ligurian cuisine, you'll be spoilt for choice when it comes to eating in Genoa.
On the harbour, in the city centre or tucked away in the characteristic carrugi, you can find rustic trattorias boasting decades of family management offering typical local cuisine, more elegant and modern restaurants offering somewhat revisited cuisine based on local ingredients, and traditional fish restaurants.
Given the fame of focaccia, you will have no trouble finding a bakery or focacceria, there are plenty of them, especially in the busiest tourist spots. You will recognise them, not only by the inviting smell, but also by the long queue outside: they are usually very small places, sometimes even a counter overlooking the street, where people quickly buy a slice of focaccia and a drink.
By the sea, cones of fried fish are sold from kiosks that use the freshest fish of the day just brought in by the fishermen. Here are the best places to eat in Genoa!
1 - Panificio Mario
Description: this place has been run by the same family since 1969, and has always been a fixed destination for the Genoese not only for the real focaccia genovese (it has the registered trademark) but also for the onion version and over 60 types of bread
Speciality: focaccia
Average price: from €2.00 per piece
Address: Via San Vincenzo, 61/r - Get directions - tel: 010 580619
2 - Ostaia do Castello
Description: small eatery near the harbour with a familiar atmosphere, serving seafood and Ligurian dishes amidst mirrors and vintage kitchen utensils, at very reasonable prices.
Specialities: panissa fritta, trenette al pesto, rabbit Ligurian style, squid in buridda
Average price: from €10.00 for the fixed-price menu
Address: Salita di Santa Maria di Castello, 32/r - Get directions - tel: 010 8602064
3 - Trattoria Rosmarino
Description: elegant, centrally located restaurant, among the best in Genoa. Fish predominates, but traditional dishes are not missing. Modern cuisine, precise and well presented
Specialities: crispy octopus on velvety potato soup, black ravioli stuffed with ricotta and confit tomatoes on fish stew, paccheri stuffed with prawns au gratin, baked amberjack on velvety pea soup, prawn and squid skewer
Average price: from €30.00 per person
Address: Salita del fondaco, 30 - Get directions - tel: 010 2510475
4 - Locanda Pesciolino
Description: modern eatery that explores the world of the sea with an eye on innovation and health. Fresh fish cooked express with modern tricks and technologies to halve fat and salt.
Specialities: fish tartare with purple cabbage and Taggiasche olives, muscle soup in puttanesca sauce, calamarata with Cantabrian anchovy beet sauce and tuna roe, seared tuna with Mediterranean pesto, fisherman's fried fish
Average price: from €20.00 per person
Address: Vico Domoculta, 14 - Get directions - tel: 010 5532131
5 - Voltalacarta
Description: an intimate place with wooden floors and transparent chairs that offers creative fish tastings.
Specialities: capppon magro and tasting menu
Average price: from €60.00 per person
Address: Via Assarotti, 60 - Get directions - tel: 010 8312046
6 - Ostaietta
Description: This is a classic osteria, with a small, cosy ambience. The specialities are almost all fish, very fresh.
House speciality: tuna tartare with pistachios
Average price: €14.00 per person
Address: Via Canevari 280R - Get directions - Tel. 345 982 9289
7 - Gran Ristoro
Description: Historical sandwich shop, a true institution in the city for lunch breaks but not only. You can recognise it by the ever-present queue of people waiting their turn to grab a sandwich. It offers no less than 150 different types of sandwiches
House speciality: porchetta sandwich with walnut sauce
Average price: €10.00 per person
Address: Via di Sottoripa 27/R - Get directions - Tel. 010 247 3127
8 - La Locanda degli Adorno
Description: inn that promises its guests typical dishes prepared with genuine ingredients and excellent value for money.
House specialities: brandacujùn (potato and stockfish pie), octopus salad and spaghetti with anchovies.
Average price: €15.00 per person
Address: Vico Adorno 50 R - Get directions - Tel. 010 256695
9 - Zimino
Description: Take-away trattoria specialised in stews and traditional poor dishes, such as fish soups, baccalà accomodato and minestrone di verdure. There is some seating but it offers more of a take-away
House speciality: cuttlefish in zimino
Average price: €10.00 per person
Address: Vico Delle Scuole Pie 4R - Get directions - Tel. 010 403 0321
10 - Antica Friggitoria Carega
Description: Fabrizio de Andrè's favourite friggitoria and considered by all the best in town. Here you can find all the fried food imaginable, in full respect of Ligurian tradition.
House speciality: fritto misto with pignolini, cleaned anchovies, prawns and squid
Average price: €9.00 per person
Address: Via Sottoripa, 113r - Get directions - Tel. 010 247 0617
11 - Sa' Pesta
Description: This restaurant offers a quick and popular cuisine, one of the most charming taverns in town, whose speciality is farinata.
Speciality ofthe house: farinata
Average price: €20.00 per person
Address: Via Dei Giustiniani 16 R - Get directions - Tel. 010 246 8336
12 - Da Franz & Co.
Description: This is the perfect place for pizza and farinata lovers! In addition to the classic one, there are a number of variations available, including accompaniments such as sausage, spring onions, gorgonzola and stracchino cheese or salt cod.
House speciality: farinata with salt cod
Average price: €12.00 per person
Address: Via Struppa 81/83r - Get directions - Tel. 010 830 1025
13 - Cavour 21
Description: trattoria with a popular character, both in the setting and in the menu, which offers as specialities pansotti with walnut sauce and the classic trenette (trofie or lasagne) al pesto
Speciality ofthe house: pansotti with walnut sauce, trenette al pesto
Average price: €22.00 per person
Address: Piazza Cavour 21r - Get directions - Tel. 393 851 1140
14 - Osteria Sopra Il Mare
Description: From starters to main courses, every dish at this osteria will win you over. The fish used is really fresh, the atmosphere homely and the prices more than fair.
House speciality: tagliatelle with pistachio pesto and prawns
Average price: €20.00 per person
Address: Vico Cicala 5 - Get directions - Tel. 010 275 8188
15 - Trattoria da Maria
Description: Good-naturedly called Trattoria da Maria "la zozza" (the dirty), due to its not very refined ambience, this is one of the most appreciated and frequented typical restaurants in Genoa.
Specialities of the house: pansotti with walnut sauce, Genoa vegetarian meatloaf.
Average price: €18.00 per person
Address: Vico Testadoro 14 r - Get directions - Tel. 010 581080
