Your essential food guide to Molise
Discover the food, drink and dishes Molise is best known for with our food lover’s guide to the region. We explore which cheeses and wines come from Molise, along with plenty of other foods typical of the area and the local cuisine.
For Italy’s youngest and second-smallest region (only beaten by the Valle d’Aosta in the far north), Molise has had to fight hard to establish itself on Italy’s culinary stage. But international interest is growing; tourism is on the up, and those who do choose to visit realise they’ve just stumbled on the country’s best-kept secret.
Scroll on (or use the menu below) for a taste of everything that makes the food of Molise so special.
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- The must-make recipe from Molise
- What are the traditional ingredients in Molise?
- What are the famous dishes from Molise?
- The best cheeses to try from Molise?
- The best wines to try from Molise?
Get to know the food of Molise
Not many tourists visit Molise, a tiny region that only split from Abruzzo in the 1960s. But for such a small area it boasts some dramatic scenery – snow-covered ski resorts in the mountains are only a stone’s throw from sandy coastlines, with much of the hilly, verdant landscape in between the two relatively untouched. Its food, naturally, shares many similarities with its neighbour Abruzzo; simple and rustic with a large focus on pasta and bread. But Molise has some culinary greatest hits of its own.
This is where fusilli comes from, the spiralled pasta shape that’s now a supermarket staple. Often paired with a lamb ragù – the meat of choice in the region – or the more spectacular Molisan ragù (which contains three different meats), there’s also a local taste for offal and diavolina (the local chilli variety), which are used to flavour the salumi and sizzling pampanella (spicy roast pork) sold from street food carts.
Our hero recipe from Molise
Fusilli con ragù d’agnello (fusilli with lamb ragù)
For such a small region, Molise is the birthplace of many famous pasta shapes – including fusilli – and lamb is the meat of choice locally. There are dozens of ragù recipes in Molise (some with tomato, some without), but this one keeps things simple and allows the lamb to take centre stage, with rosemary, sage and celery adding a lovely herbaceous base note.
Make fusilli con ragù d’agnello
What are the traditional ingredients in Molise?
- Pasta Molise is an agricultural region, with wheat fields covering the majority of farmable land. This, naturally, means pasta is the carb of choice – and has been for centuries. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact origins of many pasta shapes, but fusilli – the spiralled pasta – most definitely came from Molise, as did cavatelli (handmade shells made by rolling strips of dough, a little like a longer orecchiette).
- Legumes Borlotti beans and lentils are very popular in Molise, but the bean of choice is the Molise eye bean, a type of white kidney bean with a black spot (the ‘eye’) on one side. Legumes of all kinds are cooked into rustic soups and stews.
- Salumi Molise’s cured meats are known for their rustic charm, particularly the local cappofreddo (a coarse cooked sausage made from various pork cuts and lard, not too dissimilar to Calabria’s soppressata). Guanciale, known locally as vrucculare, is popular too, and the fantastically named signora di conca casale is a real treat. Made by just a single producer in a small village, it can weigh up to an incredible 5kg and was traditionally made from the best cuts of pork to be given to wealthy merchants, doctors and mayors.
Molise may be small, but it's mighty. It's to thank for popular pasta shapes fusilli and cavatelli
What are the famous dishes from Molise?
- Fusilli alla molisana Molise’s famous pasta shape is often paired with its most famous ragù, a combination of lamb, veal mince and sometimes sausage in a tomato sauce.
- Pampanella A typical street food of the region, these strips of slow-roast pork are turned bright red with plenty of chilli powder made from the locally grown diavolina chillies. They’re eaten as is or stuffed into bread.
- Composta molisana The local answer to crostini, this dish sees crunchy round flatbreads known as taralli (which are bigger than the Puglian taralli) softened in salted water, then topped with anchovy fillets, hard-boiled eggs, peppers, olives, tomatoes, celery and cucumber. Simply drizzled with plenty of oil and a little vinegar, it’s a bit like a deconstructed version of the many stale bread salads found across Italy.
- Pezzata di pecora A very traditional lamb or mutton stew, containing potatoes and tomatoes which are flavoured with rosemary and chilli (although, as with all rustic dishes like this, many variations exist). The meat and potatoes are chopped very roughly and the sauce is simmered until it has almost completely reduced, making this quite a dry dish rather than a stew.
The best cheeses to try from Molise
Most southern regions of Italy produce their own version of caciocavallo, a semi-firm cow’s milk cheese with a unique teardrop shape, but Molise’s caciocavallo di agnone is considered one of the best. It’s sold either mild (aged up to three months), mature (up to eight months) or reserve (over a year, usually in caves or cellars made with local stone). There are also plenty of sheep and goat’s milk cheeses, thanks to the pastoral traditions of the area.
The best wines to try from Molise
Being such a small region, what little wine Molise produces can be tough to find outside the area – and the vast majority of the area’s output is sold as table wine. But there is a small collection of winemakers in the area striving to put Molise on the map. Tintilia del Molise is the wine to look out for, made with the native tintilia grape – it’s a dark, juicy red with plenty of spice and cherry flavours.
Browse wine editor Susy Atkins’ pick of the nine best Italian wines to buy right now.