Pisa Food
Olive oil, ripe tomatoes and homemade bread. The traditional Tuscan menu is alive and well in Pisa, where you can eat as heartily or as delicately as you wish, safe in the knowledge that you would have to go a long way to sample better produce.
As elsewhere in Italy, pasta and pizza dishes are omnipresent on Pisan menus and are uniformly wonderful. It may surprise many first timers that the majority of spaghetti dishes avoid large portions of minced meat, with fish and cheese sauces the typical topping, although don't tell the Bolognans.
If arriving in winter, expect to find a good range of hearty meat dishes on the menu, when the locals head out of the weekends on large hunts. Game stews are a particular favourite with Pisans and wild boar is becoming increasingly popular now that stocks are returning. Pasta with a wild boar ragu is a much loved among locals.
Before you arrive at the main course, however, you will have the option of the primo piatto, with fish soup or a ribollita, a thick soup containing beans, bread, vegetables and cabbage, the big favourites.
Tuscan wine, particularly Chianti, Vernaccia and Brunello, is justifiably famous and the region offers a huge variety of grapes to try, none of which you'll have heard of and all of which will be excellent.
For those unaccustomed to eating out in Italy, the array of different types of establishment can be quite daunting.
A tavola calda, or hot table, combines a restaurant and take away element and often serves a large variety of dishes. A rosticceria is similar except that it specialises in roast meat and poultry. Usually your meal is priced per portion and is often an inexpensive option.
An osterie is a basic restaurant, serving filling meals, typically populated by locals on the way home from work and fairly inexpensive. A trattoria is the next step up. Often a family run restaurant, serving local cuisine cooked in a homely style. The decor of such establishments can sometimes be a little below par and the menu limited but the food is often superb. News of a good trattoria spreads quickly and the prices, although a step up from an osterie, are significantly lower than in a ristorante, where extensive menus, classy waiters and up market decor are matched by the prices.
So where to go in Pisa?
Those in need of a hearty Pisan lunch should try the Osteria I Santi on Via Santa Maria. It's popular with the locals and a great option if you're out in town and needing to fortify yourself before the long slog up the leaning tower.
If it's something thoroughly local you're looking for by way of an evening meal, try the Antica Trattoria Il Campano. It offers great, hearty Tuscan cuisine at decent prices.
However, if after an early evening stroll along Pisa's waterfront and Ponte di Mezzo, you're up for treating your other half to a wonderfully romantic evening meal, try Bruno on Via Luigi Bianchi, which provides visitors with a superb Tuscan menu and a hefty dent in your holiday money.
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Eating & Drinking
