Besides its architectural beauties, Molfetta boasts a rich culinary tradition, too.
Fish is the king of Molfetta cuisine, together with desserts and first courses. Lent, especially, is the period when the gastronomic delights of the city are plentiful.
The pizzarello, for example, is a long loaf bread shorter than a baguette filled with tuna that generally the confraternities give to their members at the end of the processions.
On Easter Sunday, families in Molfetta embellish their tables with delicious starters and sea-food first courses, such as the ragù sauce with filled mussels and other traditional dishes: pasta with chickpeas, orecchiette with mantis shrimps sauce or fish soup. Housewives, then, make the typical calzone, a country-style focaccia filled with fish, boiled onion, olives, eggs, etc. Typical of Easter are also the ricotta forte, a cottage cheese with a very strong flavour, local olives, the mille pezzi pasta with meat broth and the delicious ragù.
Among the desserts, one of the most tasteful is the well-known scarcella, a heart-shaped cake.
Molfetta boasts also a great tradition of products in oil: in particular, visitors should taste the peperonata (red and yellow peppers, tomatoes, onion, extra virgin olive oil), the lampascioni, a regional variety of wild onions, aubergines, and artichokes.
Furthermore, in Molfetta a high-quality extra virgin olive oil and a good wine from local grapes are produced.
