Ascoli Piceno local products and food shops

Ascoli Piceno local products and shops: where to go

The local product shops are in the municipality of Ascoli Piceno and cover the main categories of the local table: bread and baked goods, meat and cured meats, sweets, deli food. For bread and baked goods, a place to start is Forno Fazzini or the Forno di Pio Santamaria. For meat and cured meats there are, among others, Macelleria Benigni, Distinti Salumi in Ascoli Piceno, Macelleria Civilotti and Macelleria Clerici. For sweets there is Pasticceria Angelini. The list includes more bakeries, butchers and food workshops, as well as shops devoted to wine and olives. Addresses and opening hours of each shop are on its own page.

To eat the specialties sitting at a table, olives and fried dishes are found in many places in the center. Some businesses also serve them from food trucks around the city streets. The list of restaurants is on the page where to eat in Ascoli Piceno, while to plan the rest of the day the guide things to do in Ascoli Piceno is useful.

Ascoli Piceno local products and shops: the map

The map shows where the listed shops are, all in the municipality of Ascoli Piceno. It helps decide in advance which ones to group in the same round and to plan the route from one shop to the next.

Ascoli Piceno local products: what to taste

Olive all'ascolana. They are the city's gastronomic symbol. Olives of the Ascolana Tenera variety are pitted and filled with a cooked mixture of pork and beef, cheese, eggs, white wine, onion, carrot, celery and nutmeg. They are then rolled in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs, and fried. The Oliva Ascolana del Piceno DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) covers both olives in brine and stuffed olives. For stuffed olives, the production rules require the finished product to contain at least 40% pitted olive by weight. Once a refined appetizer, today they are the city's favorite street food, served hot in a paper cone.

Fritto misto all'ascolana. Besides the olives it includes cremini, cubes of pastry cream breaded and fried, as well as zucchini, artichokes and lamb chops. It is the dish of holidays and celebrations: it comes at the end of the meal, after the roast and before the salad. Sweet and savory sit side by side in the fried cream, served together with the fried vegetables.

Pasta, cured meats and meat dishes. Vincisgrassi are the first course most tied to peasant tradition: layers of pasta with a ragù of mixed meats, chicken giblets and béchamel, made above all on holidays. Among cured meats, ciauscolo stands out, a spreadable salami rich in pepper, served with appetizers. Among main courses, grilled agnello scottadito (lamb chops) and coniglio in porchetta (rabbit cooked with wild fennel) dominate.

Sweets. Local tradition includes frustingo, a rustic cake with figs, dried fruit and spices, and funghetti all'anice, spiced anise cookies linked to Christmas. There are also ciambelle al mosto (grape must ring cakes) and zeppole di San Giuseppe. Many pastry shops in the historic center offer typical Marche sweets made to traditional recipes, which may vary with the time of year and the holidays.

Anisetta Meletti. It is an anise-based liqueur linked to Silvio Meletti, who perfected its recipe in 1870. It is still produced today. The Caffè Meletti, on Piazza del Popolo, opened on May 18, 1907. In 1981 it was declared a venue of historic and artistic interest. At the café you can taste the «anisetta con la mosca» ("with the fly"), that is, with a coffee bean in the glass. Famous customers remembered at the café include King Vittorio Emanuele, Trilussa, Sartre and Hemingway.