Marta Ambrosino
Editor for cooking, produce and restaurants

Marta Ambrosino

Follows the island's cooking, starting from the lemon pane. Eats where residents eat, and writes up what did not work too.

Island cooking, lemon pane, restaurants, bars and local dishes · 24 pages on this site

Procida lemonLemon saladLingua di ProcidaCorricella restaurantsMarina Grande barsStarza wine

Marta writes the food half of the site: the dishes, the restaurants, the bars and the guide to what to eat in Procida. She has a simple thesis and repeats it: the island's fish is as good as anywhere else in the bay, while the lemon pane — whose sweet white pith is eaten rather than thrown away — exists only here. Everything she writes starts from that.

Her pages carry few numbers, and every one is traceable. She uses public ratings while naming the source and the date she read them, and she does not convert a price band into euros when no euro figure has been published: if an average bill is unverified, the page tells you to read the menu posted at the door. No restaurant on Procida holds a Michelin star, and when someone implies otherwise she says so in plain words.

That honesty costs her extra phone calls. She points out that sea-urchin spaghetti stays printed on menus even when the ingredient is unavailable, because harvesting is restricted; she suggests taking the lingua standing at the counter where table service is criticised; and from November to March she checks who actually opens, given that half the kitchens close or shrink to weekends. She revisits the addresses at least once a season and rewrites an entry when the menu changes, not when the fashion does.

Published work

Recent discover

  • What to eat in Procida

    An honest guide to the island’s food: the lemon as its only exclusive argument, the fish without the hype, and the restaurants split by marina with prices and limits.

Recent best of

  • The best restaurants in Procida

    Ten addresses on the island, ranked: public ratings, prices only where they are verified, and a budget bracket worth as much as the panoramic one.

Recent restaurants

  • Assafà

    Thirty covers on the Piazza dei Martiri belvedere, on the climb to Terra Murata. Budget bracket, and the highest rating on the island. Takeaway and delivery too.

  • Caracalé

    A dining room carved out of a former boat store, vaults and bare stone, on the Corricella quay. About 40 EUR a head, closed on Tuesdays, open in winter at weekends.

  • Da Girone

    The address where the cooking of the limone pane really reaches the table: lemon pesto, insalata di limoni, lemon and aubergine polpette. 20–40 EUR a head.

  • Da Mariano

    The Chiaiolella marina, with a view of the Santa Margherita headland. The dish to order is the pasta with cicarelle, the local wedge clams.

  • Fuego

    In practice the only pizzeria looking onto the Corricella quay. Pizza and unpretentious fish dishes, the lowest price bracket in the village.

Recent bars & cafes

  • Bar Capriccio

    The harbour’s all-purpose bar, open from 6:00 to 2:00 every day: breakfast before the ferry, a quick lunch, a lounge bar in the evening.

  • Bar Dal Cavaliere

    The island’s historic bar and pastry shop, on the harbour front. Lingue di bue and frollicella in the morning, cocktails and live music in the evening.

  • Bar Roma Pasticceria

    The bar named as the birthplace of the modern lingua di Procida. Excellent at the counter, heavily criticised at the tables: take the cake standing up and go.

  • Paname’ Forno Indipendente

    An independent bakery opened in 2023 by two chefs: everything by hand, no ready-made mixes. It does the classic lingua and the chocolate "malalingua", and it does not close in winter.

Recent local food

  • Insalata di limoni procidana

    Limone pane in big pieces with the white part on, garlic, onion, mint, chilli and oil. It started as a sauce for bread and as a side for fried fish.

  • Lingua di Procida

    Hand-rolled puff pastry in a long tongue shape, filled with lemon cream and dusted with sugar nibs. The Procidans’ breakfast, all year round.

  • Carciofo di Procida

    Romanesco type: a large, globe-shaped primary head, smaller and more violet secondary heads, destined for the preserve in oil with garlic, oregano and chilli.

  • Limone di Procida (limone pane)

    The island cultivar: thick skin, barely acidic flesh and a sweet white pith you eat instead of throwing away. All the local lemon cooking comes down from it.

  • Coniglio alla procidana

    Rabbit cooked slowly in terracotta with cherry tomatoes, rosemary, garlic and white wine. A dry, aromatic dish with little sauce: a main course, not a dressing.

Recent articles