Your essential food guide to Lombardy

Tom Shingler

Having spent years immersed in the world of chefs and restaurants, head of food Tom loves nothing more than sharing the tips, tricks, hacks and secrets found in professional kitchens with home cooks eager to take their food to the next level.

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Discover the food, drink and dishes Lombardy is best known for with our food lover’s guide to the region. We explore which cheeses and wines come from Lombardy, along with plenty of other foods typical of the area and Lombard cuisine.

Boasting huge lakes, vast rivers, towering mountains and the cultural capital of Milan, Lombardy’s cuisine is in stark contrast to the humbler, fresher food of southern Italy. Rich butter and cheese sit alongside luxurious saffron and veal, with rice and polenta a more common sight than pasta (although stuffed egg-based pastas like tortelli are popular). Some of Italy’s most famous cheeses were invented here, freshwater fish from the lakes are highly prized and there’s an interesting sweet-savoury theme running throughout local dishes.

Scroll on (or use the menu below) for a taste of everything that makes the food of Lombardy so special.

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The must-make recipe from Lombardy
What are the traditional ingredients in Lombardy?
What are the famous dishes from Lombardy?
The best cheeses to try from Lombardy?
The best wines to try from Lombardy
The delicious. team’s top food experiences in Lombardy

Get to know the food of Lombardy

Milan is where a lot of the region’s most famous dishes come from, often showcasing luxurious spices, large amounts of meat and plenty of dairy (all things the city’s traditionally wealthy residents liked to show off by serving), but there’s plenty of more humble – yet equally delicious – fare from the surrounding towns and countryside. The Lakes of Como, Garda and Maggiore may now be high-end tourist hotspots (with the fancy restaurants to match) but they too have their own impact on the cuisine, providing fish to the landlocked region.

The cities of Bergamo and Brescia have their own food scenes too, with the former famous for its polenta and cheeses and the latter known for its grilled kebabs and filled pastas. Outside of the cities and lakes you’ll find huge stretches of vineyards to the south and more remote mountain terrain in the north, where the region borders Switzerland. Wherever you are, this is a place where hearty, rich, bold flavours are ubiquitous; you’ll certainly never go hungry.

Our hero recipe from Lombardy

Mondeghili (fried breaded beef and pork meatballs) by chef Naz Hassan

“As a child, I’d visit the beautiful houses of my affluent Milanese friends. Bollito misto, a meaty stew, was a mainstay on the menu, but being from a working-class immigrant family, I always dreamed of the flavourful mondeghili that could be made from the stewed beef the next day,” says Naz.

Born in Bangladesh and raised in Milan – Lombardy’s cultural capital – Naz Hassan has cooked in some of the most loved restaurants in London over the past 14 years. He has been head chef at Anglo, Crispin and, most recently, Pidgin in Hackney. Now, going solo, he plans to focus on the food of his heritage, creating dishes that celebrate a combination of Italo-Bengali flavours.

Make Naz’s mondeghili (fried breaded beef and pork meatballs)

What are the traditional ingredients in Lombardy?

Salumi Most cured meats are made with pork, but Lombardy’s bresaola is a lean beef salami that’s usually served in wafer-thin slices with olive oil, grana padano and rocket. There’s also a salumi made from goose in the town of Mortara along with countless pork-based sausages from all over the region.
Rice Lombardy grows a huge amount of rice, so it naturally plays a big part in the local cuisine. Risottos of all kinds can be found, but other rice dishes which are cooked using different methods are popular too.
GrainsDespite all that rice, polenta and buckwheat are just as popular – the latter often ground and made into rustic, nutty pasta called pizzoccheri.
Pumpkin The province of Mantua is famous for its pumpkins, which are sweeter and denser than other varieties. They’re used in both sweet and savoury dishes (or often recipes that straddle both).
Fish The vast lakes of Lombardy are home to many freshwater fish, with the likes of perch, pike, carp and trout finding their way onto menus. They’re often cooked with an array of spices or stuffed with rice.

Hearty, rich, bold flavours are ubiquitous in Lombardy; you’ll certainly never go hungry

What are the famous dishes from Lombardy?

Risotto alla milanese A dish that proves just how wealthy Milan was (and still is), this simple risotto is bright yellow thanks to the addition of luxurious saffron and enriched with bone marrow.
Cotoletta milanese A veal cutlet is flattened, coated in parmesan breadcrumbs and fried until golden and crisp. It’s almost identical to a schnitzel, although Italians argue that the cotoletta predates the Austrian version.
Tortelli di zucca Originally from the southeastern city of Mantova, these pumpkin-filled pasta parcels also include parmesan, crushed amaretti biscuits and mostarda for a sweet-savoury dish traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve.
Ossobuco milanese The classic accompaniment to the risotto above, this is a dish of cross-cut veal shanks braised in a tomato and white wine sauce until meltingly tender. It’s always finished with gremolata – a combination of finely chopped lemon zest and parsley.
Mostarda di frutta A unique conserve that sees various fruits candied in a mustard-flavoured syrup. Incredible with salumi and cheese, but also used as a cooking ingredient in Lombard cuisine.
Amaretti A world-famous almond biscuit that’s crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy in the centre. More traditional versions are made using apricot kernels for a more bittersweet flavour.
Panettone The sweet bread that graces many a Christmas table in both Italy and the UK, panettone is famed for its tear-apart crumb, rich, moist texture and its long shelf life – making it a great festive gift.

A tall panettone with a slice removed — Panettone is a Christmas favourite

The best cheeses to try from Lombardy

Most Italian regions have one standout cheese they’re known for. Lombardy has three: gorgonzola, taleggio and grana padano (which is produced in other regions, but originated in Lombardy). It’s also the birthplace of mascarpone and the best examples of the soft cheese can be found locally. For something more off the beaten track, try bitto – an Alpine cheese from the north of the region with a mild, herbaceous flavour.

The best wines to try from Lombardy

A lot of really good wine comes out of Lombardy, but its sparkling wines are the ones to get excited about. Franciacorta is the champagne of Italy: made in the same way, but slightly richer and more buttery. It’s a shame it doesn’t enjoy the same international success as prosecco. There are also great reds made with nebbiolo grapes and whites (look out for lugana) from around Lake Garda, and some lambrusco (slightly sparkling red wine) produced in Mantua in the southeast of the region.

The delicious. team’s top food experiences in Lombardy

Helen Bull, Art director
“We took a long weekend to visit a friend’s son at uni there. We ate from designer Armani lounge to street food. My best memory is of a pizza place where people queued waiting for it to open. While you stood waiting on the street, they brought out glasses of prosecco!”