Sapori di Vasto – Traditional Dishes
Good cooking not only requires organization, attention to detail and patience. Just as important, a good home cook has a desire to bring people together and uses their food to show affection and create a bond among family and friends.

From Nonna to Nonni: Feed the Body, Nourish the Soul

Through years of eating the excellent home cooking of my friends, the “Amici,” I’ve found that there is an emphasis on ingredients, tastiness, and variety, rather than polish and artistic refinement. Improvisation is frowned upon, sometimes quietly and sometimes not. The Amici's cuisine doesn’t wander too far from the past. Mama and Nonna’s cooking are still the golden standard.

The following dishes are a narrow selection of what my friends might serve for lunch or dinner on any given day. They are traditional Vastese with a simplicity that is deceptive. Take the best from the land and the sea and cook it with all one’s heart. That is the true expression of the Italian kitchen and the way my friends prepare a meal.

Time-honored cooking doesn’t mean that the fare is constrained by nostalgia. People feel that family and traditional recipes are perfect as they are and don't need improvement. The recipes are like heirlooms that have been tested and passed down over the decades and centuries. 

Love and respect for food is a thread that is woven throughout the Italian culture. Sit at a table for more than ten minutes, and as likely as not, you will end up talking about food; it’s the vortex that pulls everyone in. When I first heard the expression, “in Italy you don´t eat to live, you live to eat,” I never considered how literally that could be taken.

Still, in different families and villages, it seems that no two dishes are made in the same way, and everyone insists that their version is the right one, but with one thing in common. There is an underlying philosophy that simple food is the best food. Let a few well-chosen ingredients shine through and accent the traditional rather than the innovative.    

With a ten-kilometer stretch of beach along the Adriatic coast, and with a long tradition of fishing, seafood is a common staple in the local diet of Vasto, and the main ingredient in many dishes paired with a variety of vegetables, sauces, and pasta.

Vasto is a place where culinary tradition thrives and people know what they like without any deviation or fancy culinary twists. The following are a few typical recipes for the dishes that you will find on any Vasto table.