Lake Como Cuisine

About Lake Como Cuisine

By the ULTIMATE Lake Como Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

What to order on Lake Como, from the lakeside trattoria to the grand hotel terrace, and the mountain food that comes down from Valtellina: our guide to the dishes of the lake.

Lake Como cuisine

The cooking of Lake Como belongs to two landscapes at once: the lake, with its fish and its olive groves on the sheltered shores, and the Alps that close in at its northern end, with their buckwheat, cheeses and cured meats. It is the food of Lombardy, made with butter rather than olive oil more often than not, and served without fuss.

Fish from the lake

The lake gives perch (pesce persico), whitefish (lavarello) and agone, a small freshwater shad. You will find them grilled, fried or in carpione, marinated with vinegar and onions, on menus around the shore.

Fish from the lake, butter and polenta, and from the mountains buckwheat, cheese and a wine made from dried Nebbiolo: the table of Lake Como.

Risotto with perch

The lake’s signature is risotto con pesce persico: fillets of perch, fried golden in butter, laid over a plain risotto. It is a dish of contrasts, crisp against creamy, and the one to order on your first evening by the water.

Missoltini and polenta

Missoltini are agone that have been salted and dried, a way of keeping the summer’s catch through the winter. They are grilled and dressed with oil and vinegar, and eaten with polenta, the maize porridge of the north, which comes to the table soft or set and grilled.

Valtellina: pizzoccheri

From Valtellina, the valley that climbs east from the top of the lake, come pizzoccheri: short, flat ribbons of buckwheat pasta, cooked with potatoes and Savoy cabbage and layered with melted cheese and butter. Pizzoccheri della Valtellina have been a protected IGP since 2016, as Lombardy’s regional food portal records.

Bresaola and the cheeses

The valley also cures bresaola, lean beef air-dried into deep red slices, served thinly cut with a little oil and lemon, and makes two protected cheeses, Bitto and Valtellina Casera; Casera is the cheese of the pizzoccheri.

The Sfursat

Valtellina’s great wine is the Sforzato, or Sfursat: in the Consorzio’s words, the first dry red passito in Italy to receive the DOCG, in 2003. It is made from at least 90% Nebbiolo, grapes dried in lofts until at least early December, and released only after 20 months, 12 of them in wood. Serve it with bresaola, Bitto or a winter stew.

Where to taste it

Look for lake fish on the menus of the lakeside restaurants in our guide, from Varenna and Bellagio to Sorico on the upper lake, and for Valtellina’s wines and specialities at Castiglioni in Como. For the full picture of the valley, see our day trip to Valtellina.

Our advice: order the risotto with perch by the water, and save the pizzoccheri and the Sfursat for a cool evening.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Lake Como Cuisine before you go.