mainly-volcanic-super-fertile growing conditions, and the never-far-away coastline, the cuisine of Campania would be content to rely on its perfect and varied fresh produce, simply prepared: of course, it's not so...tradition here gives an interesting mix of the really simple and the really elaborate - both extremes inspiring equally purple passion - there's no grey, no intermediate feel to anything here, especially not about food and wine. It's simply essential to eat and drink as well as humanly-possible.
A really great example of how fabulous simplicity can be is the best of the best pizza - when you're in Naples, Ciro a Santa Brigida, Via Santa Brigida, n.73, makes a really wonderful, simple margherita, which you must try before you go on to try all the hundreds of more elaborate versions. Of course pizza is made the world over, but this, this is the real, authentic thing. Pizza crust that is wafery and crunchy, with a tiny hint of yeastiness, tomatoes and mozzarella di buffala, green and glistening olive oil. Simple? Well yes, but impossible to mimic. You can enjoy the life of Naples close-to if you try the Pizzeria Port'Alba, Via Port'Alba, n.18, where the pizza is really excellent, and you can sit outside and be part of the whirl of the city. Naples favours some other delicious but simple dishes, originating in poorer times, but with extraordinarily delicate and subtle flavours, like pasta e ceci, and pasta e cavoli (pasta with beans or cabbage) both of which you can find cooked beautifully at Osteria da Tonino, Via Santa Teresa a Chiaia, n.47.Some of the best wines that you'll find in Campania come from inland, the Cilento, for example, or Fiano di Avellino, and because they're not as easily found abroad as their more northern alternatives, it's fun to discover their variety by tasting as widely as you can, and Neapolitan restaurants offer a good opportunity to be adventurous. At Ristorante Megaris, Via Santa Lucia, n.175, (part of the Hotel Santa Lucia) you will find another extreme, wherein fabulous fresh ingredients are cooked with a refinement and what might seem, but is not, over elaborate: seasoning - linguine all'imperiale for example - fresh pasta and seafood comes seasoned with curry, just enough to heighten the flavours. Or, Mediterranean fish like orata (striped sea bream), baked with almonds. It makes sense to see these rich, somehow ancient flavours together, when you remember that Naples is a city that has embraced the cuisine of its many, some more exotic than other, invaders. She is a city, for example, with a savagely sweet tooth. Even if you are not a lover of sweet things before you come here, by the time you leave, you will have been seduced by the possibility of endlessly punctuating your strolls at wonderful cafes and bars: at the famously lovely Caffè Gambrinus, Via Chiaia n.1, you can sit in mirrored splendour inside, or be mesmerised by the passing world outside, and try Neapolitan sfogliatelle: pastries of a million delicate folds, filled with pastry cream and amarene, or ricotta; you can be spoiled for choice, and go to Pasticceria Pintauro, Via Roma n.275, - do not be deceived by its comparatively modest interior. Naples still embraces the baroque, and its puddings, pastries and sweets seem to echo the spirit of an artistic and decorative movement in which nothing was too much. For Carnevale, the pasticcerie specialise in sanguinaccio, a thick dark chocolate cream with cinnamon and candied fruit, into which you can dip warm wafers, or soft savoiardi (a speciality at the Gran Bar Rivera, Via Riviera di Chiaia, n.186). At Easter, there are zeppole di San Giuseppe, deep-fried puffs of dough, which would once have been fried on 19th century street corners, and ruffoli, iced sponge-cake filled with ricotta, citron, pistachio nuts and chocolate. An infamous Naples tradition is the babà al rhum, an 18th century French innovation which Neapolitans have made their own - exquisite at Scaturcchio, Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, n.19. and Sgambati, Corso Garibaldi, n.387. At Christmas there are dolci natalizi, pink-painted sweets of royal icing, and struffoli, tiny deep-fried balls of dough, held together with local honey and decorated with rainbow-coloured hundreds and thousands. To end a Neapolitan day and string out the pleasure you could take another after dinner coffee with something sweet at Gran Caffè La Caffettiera, Piazza Vanvitelli, n.10b, or ice-cream at the Gelateria Remy, Via Ferdinando Galiani.
From Naples to Ischia by boat, and another pleasurable surprise: even though it is surrounded by sea, the cuisine here shows the influence of the rugged landscape of its interior - the Macchia Mediterranea, or Mediterranean forest. The most famous dish here is not fish, but rabbit: coniglio all'ischitana, prepared in the traditional tegame di terracotta or earthenware pot, hardly changed since Romans took the cure here, baked in the oven with tiny island tomatoes, thyme, rosemary, basil, marjoram, garlic and chillies. Wild herbs and green leafy salads which grow in the island's fields feature in light soups, such as that made with chicory and beans, and stuffings: inland from the coast you reach Forio, where Da Peppina di Renato, Via Montecorvo, n.42, has an authentic Ischian menu: peperoni imbottiti (stuffed peppers), mozzarella ripiena di ruchetta (mozzarella with rucola stuffing) and a delicious second course of moscalizio (stew with aubergines and peppers). Forio is an excellent place to shop for special delicacies - Antiche Specialità di Ischia (Piazza Matteotti) has sauces, jams, honey, smoked hams and cheese. Bar Elio, Via Schioppa, n.27, has great ice-cream.
From Naples to Ischia by boat, and another pleasurable surprise: even though it is surrounded by sea, the cuisine here shows the influence of the rugged landscape of its interior - the Macchia Mediterranea, or Mediterranean forest. The most famous dish here is not fish, but rabbit: coniglio all'ischitana, prepared in the traditional tegame di terracotta or earthenware pot, hardly changed since Romans took the cure here, baked in the oven with tiny island tomatoes, thyme, rosemary, basil, marjoram, garlic and chillies. Wild herbs and green leafy salads which grow in the island's fields feature in light soups, such as that made with chicory and beans, and stuffings: inland from the coast you reach Forio, where Da Peppina di Renato, Via Montecorvo, n.42, has an authentic Ischian menu: peperoni imbottiti (stuffed peppers), mozzarella ripiena di ruchetta (mozzarella with rucola stuffing) and a delicious second course of moscalizio (stew with aubergines and peppers). Forio is an excellent place to shop for special delicacies - Antiche Specialità di Ischia (Piazza Matteotti) has sauces, jams, honey, smoked hams and cheese. Bar Elio, Via Schioppa, n.27, has great ice-cream.
Another short boat trip and you reach the mythologized Capri. Anacapri is a slightly quieter and just as pretty alternative to Capri Town, and Mamma Giovanna in the piazzetta is a lovely place to lunch, which will not be as overrun as equivalently good places in Capri Town, like La Capannina, Via Le Botteghe, n.14. The seafood here is wonderful, and, of course, wonderfully fresh - calamari fritti share the menu with equally fresh tomato and mozzarella salads and are served with unusual breads flavoured with olives, herbs, fennel or almonds. At Limoncello di Capri, Via Capodimonte, Anacapri, you can buy lemon products including the liqueur itself made with Capri lemons, -particularly good to look out for is the lemon marmalade made only with natural ingredients and powerfully pungent, but not sharp.
From Capri back to the mainland, and the Amalfi Coast. Along this pastel coloured coastline life is lived outside - it seems a crime to miss anything by going inside, wherever you are and whatever the time of day; in Vettica di Praiano, is La Brace, Via Capriglione, n.146, where from the terrace Positano seems like the original picture postcard view. Here you can taste really classic seafood dishes, spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clam sauce) and any number of Mediterranean fish, cooked on the grill (hence Brace, which means grill). The most delicious, brushed with a sprig of rosemary dripping with deep green olive oil, has to be fresh sardines, which when caught that morning and cooked for lunch are... so good they're impossible to describe.
Amalfi, along with Ravello just further along, is the most famous lemon cultivating spot; they feature in almost every imaginable dish: nothing is wasted - juice and skin is used to produce Limoncello, that most Amalfitano of drinks, so light and adaptable that you can drink it as an aperitif or a digestivo, after dinner. Lemons flavour the crema di limone, filling for Amalfi's light profiteroles - even the leaves are used to wrap mozzarella before it is roasted on the grill. The Bar Pasticcieria Savoia, Via M. Camera, n.2, has the most wonderful tartine al limone (lemon tartlets) which are an excellent way to start the day, if you're doing lemons for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but you might allow yourself a detour in the shape of their trecce all'amalfitana (braided Amalfi pastries) with hazelnuts and almonds. At the beautiful Hotel Santa Caterina perched on the cliff, with its own lemon garden, you can even eat your way through three courses of lemons, but actually the very good menu and varied wine list offers you a lot of difficult-to-make-choices. Antichi Sapori d'Amalfi, Piazza Duomo, n.39, is another opportunity to shop for delicacies that you can take home - although it's a good idea never to underestimate how many of each thing you'll need to satisfy friends and your own desire to summon up the memories of this place. From Amalfi to Ravello, and if you can engineer it, sunset, when the colours and the gardens radiate stored up warmth and scents - in combination they are overwhelming. Salvatore, Via Boccaccio, n.2, has a beautiful view, and a varied menu, using only fresh local produce: alici marinate (marinated anchovies), scialatielli (great irregular strings of homemade pasta with a sauce of tomato and courgette) spiedini di gamberoni (skewers of grilled crayfish) and all kinds of wonderful fresh fish, caught every day. The local wines are good enough to bring home, and you can find a good selection at Casa Vinicola Ettore Sammarco, Via Civita, n.9, the whites, Ravello Bianco, and the Rebellum, a fizzy white made with Malvasia and Coda di Volpe are both really good, and the Per'e Palumbo, a red from the grape of the same name, is a lovely, light alternative.
The contrast of simple and complex goes through and through the whole region of Campania: the flavours of citrus, of fresh seafood, of perfect vegetables are constantly reappearing in different combinations. Although it seems impossible, Campania has evolved a cuisine which mirrors its amazing, fertile, beautiful, exotic, passionate, southern self.
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