The Central Market.
What to eat in Livorno
Livorno cuisine is extremely varied and offers the visitor lots of traditional dishes to try out, preferably washed down by some excellent DOC wine coming from vineyards in the Province of Livorno (Upper Maremma area), appreciated all over the world. The various foreigners who have settled in Livorno over the centuries have all influenced the food, as certain dishes testify, even today. The Jews, in particular, brought with them their cosmopolitan, Middle Eastern food, integrating Tuscan food with it.
The quality of the fish is superb in Livorno. For fun, why not go down to the Old Harbour, where fishermen sell their fresh catches. The fish in the Central Market is also super-fresh as well as in the fishmongers dotted throughout the town. Cacciucco, a tasty soup made with “humble” fish, tomato and garlic-coated bread, can be enjoyed in restaurants and trattorias near the harbour and in the Venezia Quarter.
We suggest you try riso nero (black squid ink risotto), pasta sul favollo (pasta with local crab), the classic triglie alla livornese, red mullet cooked Livorno-style [in a tomato sauce], acciughe fritte (fried anchovies), baccalà alla livornese (salt cod, also cooked Livorno-style!) and zerri sotto il pesto (small fish in a spicy garlicky sauce), all typical of traditional “poor” cookery. In the past in Livorno they used to make a soup called minestra sui sassi, pasta cooked in a sea-flavoured broth, in which two or three stones taken from the sea were boiled with some herbs. Today the most traditional restaurants serve minestra sul pesce, a thick, hearty tasty soup made with “poor” fish and broken-up spaghetti-like pasta called “bavette”.
But Livorno is not just famous for its fish. The gallina livornese, the Leghorn chicken [as in the cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn], with its white eggs, was already well-known and appreciated throughout the world in the nineteenth century. There is a cornucopia of local vegetables, such as the friggitelli (sweet green mini-peppers), which are only found this small in Livorno in the summer, while in spring you can taste the delectable carciofi [artichokes] di Antignano and baccelli (local broad beans from local fields, just picked, shelled and eaten raw) along with baccellone (a fresh, lightly-salted cheese on sale in Livorno only at the time of the baccelli harvest).
Another tasty tip: in the Central Market area try the local favourite, the “Cinque e Cinque” [5 + 5], a roll filled with the chickpea pancake, the torta di ceci (the name originated in the 1930s when the bread and the filling cost 5 centesimi each); add a dollop of pickled aubergines and you’ll remember Livorno for the rest of your life. Other things to try are the roschette, pretzel-like donuts for snacking on, and the frate, sugar-dipped mega-doughnuts (get them still hot in the takeaway in Piazza Cavallotti). And to top things off, the celebrated, potent ponce livornese, etymologically related to the English “punch”, an espresso fortified with a special liqueur produced only in Livorno, called “rhum fantasia”.