South Italian Cooking

By Kyle Phillips, About.com Guide

La Cucina Calabrese

Calabrian cooking strikes a beautiful balance between meat-based dishes, featuring pork, ovines (lambs, kid, and so on) vegetables, especially eggplant, and fish, all flavored with richly fragrant mountain herbs. With respect to the inhabitants of some other Italian regions, Calabrians have traditionally placed a greater emphasis on preserving their foods, in part because the heat and dryness of the mountains inland make crop failure a distinct possibility -- people plan ahead, packing vegetables and meats in oil, preparing cold cuts, and, along the coast, curing fish as well, especially swordfish.

One of the dishes that sums up the Calabrian philosophy of food is caviale dei poveri, poor people's caviar, made by packing herring roe in oil, and flavoring it with hot peppers. A rich, frugal peasant tradition that combines simple ingredients to make lively, tasty foods.