My favourite Italian Veg Street Food

I often write about the countries I visit, so that more than once some people asked me why I write so little about Italy.

It’s easier to me to write about places more distant from my imaginary, and this is the only “excuse” I can find.
I love Italy and my Puglia in particular, I love travelling my homeland so much and you’ll be sure of it when you have a look at my Instagram profile (in_my_suitcase).
This love is the main reason why I decided that, despite of my wanderlust, I want my life branches to grow close to my roots.

Today I’ll talk about Italy, and I want to take you to learn more about some very good and vegetarian (like me) Italian street food.

By the way, if you are an Italian posts fan, you might also enjoy:

• 3 ways to choose the right place to eat in Italy
• 4 things they won’t tell you abut ‘Puglia’, south Italy
• Green destinations for your spring in Lombardy
• 5 Indie places to have a drink in Tuscany

Pizza al trancio, all over Italy

I won’t spend too many words about this food that doensn’t need any preliminary introduction.

But let me just tell you that the best Italian pizza hasn’t a huge amount of stuffs to fill it, like wrustel, eggs, fried potatoes, old shoes and cars engines like you might find abroad. The best Italia pizza to go (pizza al trancio, where trancio means “slice”) is just with tomato and mozzarella.

Keep it simple, get the best.

Poshy Polenta & Wine in Parma

I was walking down the main and central streets of Parma, looking for something typical to eat and I bumped into the pub/bar Panino d’Artista. As the name says, the main food proposed are sandwiches, or better, panini (the bread used to make panini is different than sandwiches) but I was feeling like something different and the menu proposed me this bruschetta di polenta, a slice of polenta rosted for some minutes, covered with nuts and gorgonzola cheese (ehi, I told this was veg, not light!)
I accompained it with a good local wine, Barbian Ariola of 2010 (50% cabernet, 50% sauvignon from local heels).

It looks like a poshy restaurant, doesn’t it? Well, the service is great, but the prices and speed is the one of street food (4 euros + 3 for theglass of wine).

Piadina, Emilia Romagna

Maybe you’ve already heard about piadina romagnola: it is one of the most renewed italian street food. Made with flour, lard, salt and water, then filled with cheese and typical local ham, you can also find great veg versions. The best is, in my opinion, the one made Da Romano (in Riccione). Olive oil replaces lard and it can be filled with the very best season salads.

Pittule, Salento (Puglia) 

I’ll tell you the truth: it’s easy to find Pittule in Lecce and in the neighboring villages all year round but it’s hard to find the good ones. They are made with fried dough and can be dressed with tomatoes, capers, black olives.
But sometimes the dough has not enough water and they are unedible, mainly when they start becoming colder.
I think the best example of pittule you can find in Salento are those made in summer in one of the billiothousand local food festivals. Let’s say it clear: if you are a fan of street food, folk music, festivals Salento is in summer the right place to be.

Schiacciata, Siena (Tuscany) 

I lived in Tuscany,In Colle val d’Elsa, for about 7 months (yes, I’m a shameless lucky girl) and Schiacciata was often my favourite lunch or dinner.
Locals generally have it filled with mortadella, prosciutto and other kind of salami, but it’s not a rule to enjoy it.
I alsoused to ask for it  in restaurants and pubs instead of the bread since I can’t properly appreciate Tuscany salt-less bread. (Sorry)

Sgagliozze, Bari (Puglia) 

They look like gold! Bright yellow pieces of fried polenta. They are sold in the old city by local women, in the tiny streets or in the crowded squares during local festivals or in summer (but also in november and at Xmas).

Eat them and drink a local chilled Peroni (most popular beer).
Never contradict the women who make them : they are the most powerful local authorities.

Focaccia con il Formaggio, Recco (Genova)

This kind of focaccia, filled with soft cheese, is a speciality of Liguria and Genoval but its best version is, in my opinion, the one you can find in Recco, a village close to Genova.
You can ask it in all bakeries, you’ll smell it from a distance, and you won’t be disappointedby its flavour.

It’s soft and thin (so thin that you must take it with 2 hands… even 3 if possibile, depending on the species you belong to).

Since I love Italian street food, would you recommend me any other kind of veg street food you have experienced? Write in comments or tag me on instagram in your street food pic 🙂 @in_my_suitcase