What to eat on the Costa Viola: swordfish, Bagnara nougat and citrus
The Costa Viola tells its story at the table too. Between Scilla, Bagnara, Palmi and Seminara, the sea and the hard-won terraced slopes shape an honest cuisine built on a few high-quality ingredients. The star is the swordfish of the Strait, caught according to an ancient tradition and cooked in countless ways, but the list of flavours to seek out is long: Bagnara nougat, extra-virgin olive oil, wines grown on cliffs above the sea and citrus from the Gioia Tauro plain.
This guide gathers the symbolic products and the dishes not to miss during a holiday on the Costa Viola, to help you find your way among markets, pastry shops and village restaurants and to take home, besides the photos, a few memories of taste.
Swordfish and the cuisine of the sea
Swordfish is the gastronomic soul of the Costa Viola. At Bagnara and Scilla its fishing follows an ancient ritual: from the top of the gangway – the “spadara”, today a very tall boat with a mast and a long prow – the spotter guides the harpooner who strikes the fish with a hand harpoon. It is a craft of patience and eyes fixed on the Strait, handed down from generation to generation. In the kitchen swordfish becomes a thousand dishes: the grilled steak scented with oregano and lemon, the involtini stuffed with breadcrumbs, capers and pecorino, and above all the “ghiotta”, a sauce of tomato, olives, capers and onion in which the fish simmers slowly. Alongside swordfish, the restaurants of Chianalea and the Bagnara seafront serve anchovies, sardines, squid and the whole catch of the day, often with the sea right before your eyes.
Bagnara nougat and the sweets
Bagnara Calabra is not only about swordfish: it is also the home of a famous nougat, recognised as a Protected Geographical Indication. It is made with toasted almonds, honey, sugar and cocoa, and comes in two classic versions: the “Martiniana”, coated in glazed sugar, and the “Torrefatto glassato”, wrapped in a dark cocoa crust with the intense scent of spices such as cinnamon and cloves. The area’s confectionery tradition has its roots in convents and homes, where women handed down the recipes for feast days. On a stroll through town it is worth stopping at a pastry shop to taste it freshly cut, perhaps alongside other Calabrian sweets made with almonds, figs and candied citrus. It is also the perfect edible souvenir to take home.
Oil, wines and citrus
Away from the sea, the Costa Viola pantry fills up with the fruits of the land. From the nearby Gioia Tauro plain comes a fragrant, intense extra-virgin olive oil, produced from ancient, centuries-old olive groves that shape the inland landscape. On the steep terraces poised above the sea, held up by miles of dry-stone walls, vines are still grown that yield honest wines of character, the legacy of a “heroic” viticulture wrested from the mountain. Among the citrus, bergamot stands out – the intensely fragrant fruit of the Reggio coast used in liqueurs, sweets and perfumes – alongside lemons, oranges and mandarins from the plain. To these are added almonds, figs, vegetables and cheeses from the inland pastures: simple ingredients that, brought together, tell of the meeting between the sea and the Aspromonte.