LAKE MAGGIORE - FOOD


The Lake Maggiore area is renowned in Italy and abroad for its wide range of products.

Bellagio, known for its 12th-century basilica, Meat and Cheese plate cobblestone streets and stone staircases, also has many delicious places to eat, often right on the lake. We recommend sampling some of the local cheeses made from goat or sheep milk as well as Parma ham, which is dry-cured and served uncooked in thin slices. If you`d like to try some pasta, this region is known for some heartier dishes like gnocchi and ravioli.
Trout and perch are very common in Lake Maggiore and both smoked and fried options are common at the trattorias on the island.

The local cheeses, like the celebrated Bettelmatt or the tasty Ossolano d`Alpe, are even more delicious eaten with the high quality honey produced in the area.

Specialty cured meats include the mortadella of the Ossola (under the protection of the Slow Food organization), the raw ham and violini di capra (cured goat`s leg) of the Vigezzo Valley. To complement these delectable hams and salamis, the locally produced wines are perfect: full-bodied reds like Ghemme Docg and Nebbiolo from the Novara hills, Prunent and Neuv Bruschett from the Ossola valleys, or the wines of the Angera area.

Finally, the area surrounding the Lake Maggiore offers an equally diversified range of local specialty cakes and biscuits, such as the Fugascine of Mergozzo and the Margheritine of Stresa.

The Lake Maggiore area and the valleys in its hinterland are renowned in Italy and abroad for the cheese produced from animals grazing on mountain pastures, which is a feature of the local culinary culture. The ample lush pastures of the valleys have given the area a long tradition of high quality cheese production.

Classic local cheeses are the Ossolano d`Alpe, a cow`s milk cheese with a tasty yet mild flavor, the celebrated Bettelmatt, with a restricted production in only 7 alps in the Antigorio and Formazza valleys, and Mottarone, with its characteristic straw-yellow colour and many others such as goat`s milk cheese and ricotta. These cheeses are made on the high mountain pastures or in the dairies lower down in the valleys: for example, the Cooperative Dairy of the Antigorio Valley in Crodo.

Cheese is also made on the shores of the lake; an example is the Formagella of Luino, a medium-firm cheese made with whole raw goat`s milk.

And on the subject of superior regional products don`t forget one of the best: Gorgonzola, which is made in the Varese and Novara areas and in the surrounding hills.

Wine
Gourmet visitors to Lake Maggiore will be delighted to sample the full-bodied, fragrant wines that are the perfect accompaniment to the traditional dishes of the area, from the gentle hills of the Novara area to the lake and the high valleys beyond.

Pride of place must go to the wines of the Novara hills, such as Ghemme Docg and Nebbiolo Doc, or Barbera, or Vespolina DOC. But the terraced hillsides of the Ossola valleys also offer wines that encapsulate the flavour of the mountains: Prünent, Neuv Bruschett and Cà d` Matè. Again, the wines of Angera on the lake shore provide a different taste experience.