Ferrara Food Guide: What to Eat and Where to Find It

Ferrara sits between Bologna and the Po Delta and has its own food identity that belongs fully to neither. It shares the region’s love of fresh egg pasta and aged cured meats, but the Este court’s taste for the theatrical — sweet-and-savory combinations, elaborate pastry casings, spices from the medieval trade routes — produced dishes that exist nowhere else in Emilia-Romagna. Cappellacci di zucca, pasticcio di maccheroni, pampepato: these are not variations on dishes you will find in Bologna. They are specifically Ferrarese, and the only place to eat them properly is here.

Cappellacci di Zucca

The signature dish of Ferrara. Cappellacci are large fresh pasta parcels shaped like a peasant’s hat — the name means “little ugly hats” — filled with a mixture of roasted pumpkin, Parmigiano-Reggiano, nutmeg, and mostarda. The squash used in Ferrara is the zucca mantovana, a dense, low-water variety that roasts to an intense sweetness without becoming watery. The filling is the hardest thing to get right: too wet and it makes the pasta dough soggy; too dry and it loses the sweetness that balances the Parmigiano.

They are served two ways. With burro e salvia — browned butter and sage — which lets the filling dominate. Or with a meat ragù, usually pork-based, which is the more traditional Ferrarese way and makes a heavier dish. Order both if you are eating with someone willing to share. Cappellacci should be made the same day — ask whether the pasta is fresh; in any decent trattoria in Ferrara it will be, but it is worth checking.

Coppia Ferrarese

The bread of Ferrara, and one of the stranger-looking things in any Italian bakery. Coppia ferrarese — “Ferrara couple” — is made from two dough rolls twisted together to form a four-pointed shape that looks like a very small and aggressive star. It has PGI status, which means the designation is legally protected: coppia ferrarese can only be produced in the province of Ferrara using the specific lard-enriched dough and the traditional shaping technique. The crust is shattery-crisp, the interior dense and slightly chewy, with a faint flavour from the lard and the long cold proofing. It has been documented in Ferrara since at least the 16th century.

Buy it from any bakery in the historic centre to eat with the other things on this list. It holds for a day and travels well, which makes it one of the better things to take home from Ferrara. The covered market in Piazza Trento e Trieste usually has several producers selling it fresh in the mornings.

Pasticcio di Maccheroni alla Ferrarese

The strangest dish in Emilia-Romagna and worth ordering at least once. Pasticcio di maccheroni alla ferrarese is a short pastry crust — sweet, crumbly, glazed — that arrives at the table looking like a small golden dome or a deep-dish pie. When you cut into it, you find pasta: maccheroni dressed with bechamel, chicken livers, porcini mushrooms, and black truffle. The sweet pastry and the savory filling are not a mistake. This is how it was always made.

The dish originates in the Renaissance Este court, where sweet-savory combinations were a mark of sophistication rather than confusion. It was served at Este banquets in the 15th century and has not fundamentally changed since. Today it appears on the menus of traditional Ferrarese trattorias as a first course, though it is substantial enough to eat as a main. It is served on Sundays in particular — if you are in Ferrara on a weekend, this is the thing to order.

Salama da Sugo

A cured and cooked pork sausage specific to the province of Ferrara, made from a mixture of pork cuts — neck, tongue, liver, cheek — ground together with red wine, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cloves, then stuffed into a pig’s bladder and aged for at least six months, sometimes years. It is cooked by simmering in water for several hours, after which the bladder is cut open at the table and the contents — soft, intensely flavored, almost spreadable — are served over mashed potato. The combination of spiced slow-cooked offcut pork and the starchy potato base is the point: each needs the other.

Salama da Sugo has PGI status. It tastes of the thing it is — aged, spiced, deeply porky — and is not for everyone, but anyone interested in the older traditions of Italian cured meat should try it. It appears on menus in autumn and winter more than summer, and is harder to find as a restaurant dish in the heat of July and August. Specialist salumerie in the city centre sell it to take home.

Pampepato

The Ferrarese Christmas cake, though now available year-round. Pampepato — “peppered bread” — is a dense round cake made from cocoa, almonds, candied citrus peel, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, and dark chocolate, coated in a thin shell of bitter chocolate that sets hard. It dates to the 15th century Este court, where spices were expensive and their presence in a cake signalled wealth. The flavour is complex and not particularly sweet — the bitterness of the chocolate, the heat of the pepper, the perfume of the candied citrus — and it keeps for weeks, which made it a practical gift in the days before refrigeration. Buy it from a pasticceria rather than a tourist shop; the handmade version is considerably better than the packaged one.

Where to Eat

Ferrara’s restaurant scene is concentrated in the streets of the historic centre within a few minutes’ walk of the Castello Estense. The city has a strong tradition of family-run trattorias that have been serving the same menu for decades — cappellacci, pasticcio, salama da sugo, grilled meats from the Po plain — and these are consistently better value than the more tourist-facing places on the main piazzas. Look for handwritten menus, rough wooden tables, and a short wine list featuring Bosco Eliceo DOC — the sandy-soil wine of the Po Delta, made from a local Fortana grape, tannic and slightly fizzy in the Lambrusco tradition.

Avoid eating at restaurants immediately facing the castle — they trade on location. The streets of the Jewish Ghetto (Via Mazzini, Via Vittoria) and the area around Via Carlo Mayr have a better concentration of honest trattorias. Book ahead for Sunday lunch, when pasticcio is on the menu and tables fill early.

Where to Shop

The covered market in Piazza Trento e Trieste — the loggia running along the south side of the cathedral — sells fresh pasta, coppia ferrarese, local cheeses, and seasonal vegetables including the zucca mantovana in autumn. Open Monday to Saturday mornings. This is the best place to buy food to take home and the best place to see what Ferrarese cooks actually shop for. Specialist salumerie on the main streets of the centre sell salama da sugo, pampepato, and coppia vacuum-packed for travel.

For what to see in the city before or after eating, see the Ferrara visitor’s guide. For the broader Emilia-Romagna food picture, see our Emilia-Romagna food guide. For a full day itinerary from Bologna, see the Ferrara day trip guide. For cycling routes between meals, see the Ferrara cycling guide. Our Ferrara guided tour includes a food tasting of the key local dishes. For the walking route through the city, see the Ferrara walking route.