The cooking of Crescenzo restaurant is a simple cooking with dishes cooked on the moment. It uses mostly garlic, oil, parsley and fish, with recipes from Mrs Vincenza’s school until to the earth-sea dishes made by our cookers after a careful study. In the kitchen there are young cookers who have acquired several years of experience and study in the hotel-management school. They are boys who have already been working with us for several years and have learnt before my mother’s and then my brother Girone’s cookery, improving it with national cookery courses. Nowadays there is the third generation of cookers: the previous generations, who worked with us for many years, have decided to open their own restaurants on Procida and in other parts of Italy.

But it is not sufficient to be a good cooker to make a good dish, it is also necessary to choose high-quality ingredients. About fish, we are very lucky on Procida  because our seas are still qualitatively and quantitatively abounding in fish. Every afternoon several fishing boats loaded with fish arrive at the Marina Grande harbour, in the morning many boats unload shellfish, while others take their catch of fish to the Chiaiolella harbour or Corricella. So there is a continuous and complete supply for all day. About other ingredients, like vegetables, we always use insular products, but if it is not possible we buy the products from regional fruit and vegetable markets. We use almost only season products.

We do not use butter or other animal and vegetable fats but only virgin olive oil; our oil comes from Puglia or Cilento. Moreover we use “la pasta di semola di grano duro” because it does not become overcooked and mixes with sauce very well; finally all our pasta dishes are sauted in a pan. 

At the beginning we said that our cooking uses only fish, but we cook also several dishes with meat such as the rabbit cooked in the Procidana manner  (il coniglio alla procidana).

The following dishes are only some of our numerous specialities:

• Marinated fish (pesce bandiera marinato), that is marinated fish in vinegar.

• Pignatiello of mussels (pignatiello di cozze) with little rockmussels and tomatoes

• Cicinielli fritters ( Frittelle di cicinielli) with fish, cheese, eggs and parsley

• Spaghetti alla Callìa, that is a sort of “bonne femme” (or puttanesca) with capers, black olives, tomatoes and palamito

• Spaghetti with shellfish and broccoli ( with mussels, clams, taratufi and baresi broccoli)

• Linguine with crab and courgettes (pasta with pulp of crab, courgettes and a tomato to mix the ingredients) 

• Spaghetti with cuttlefish and artichokes (fresh cuttlefish  and artichoke hearts)

• Spaghetti alla Carcara with dentice (fish), tomatoes, onion, basil and capers

• Spaghetti with anchovies and pecorino (with fresh anchovies and middle-seasoned pecorino cheese

The second courses are simple dishes:

• Small squids fry

• Mixed fish fry and anchovies or red mullets fry

• Grilled fish or fish cooked in the Procidana manner with capers, olives and white wine. (We use only fresh fish, so the cooked fish can be sarago, orate, ricciole, luveri, corvine etc.)

In the evening, Crescenzo is also a famous pizzeria which was opened by Girone in ‘60 years. The large wooden oven cooks several pizze such as margherite, napoletane and four seasons, but also specialities made by Girone like the “Corricella” ( a pizza divided in two parts: a part is margherita and the other is ripieno) and by other piazzaioli who worked in the pizzeria.

This list is only a little example of our cooking that changes continuously  because of several seasons and the availability of fresh fish that every day arrives on Procida.