The popular country traditions and their simple and natural tastes, blended with the customs of the elaborate dishes of the ducal court, give birth to the ferrarese cuisine and its special flavours.
Together with the lasagne and the cappelletti (a local variant of the more famous tortellini), the cappellacci, filled with marrow squash and parmesan cheese, are very popular. There is also a great variety of fresh pasta, i.e. the home-made pasta.
Very popular are also the passatelli, prepared with a dough of bread crumbs, eggs with parmesan cheese passed through a mould with holes. The large and savoury strands which come out of the mould fall down directly into boiling chicken stock, and they are ready after just a few minutes' cooking. Not to be forgotten is the pasticcio di maccheroni (maccaroni pie), a true triumph of the ancient courtesan traditions: a sweet short pastry filled with maccaroni in bechamel sauce and white bolognese sauce, flavoured with mushrooms and truffles.
Among the main courses the salama da sugo is the queen of Sunday tables: it is an unusual mixture of pork meat savoured with wine and spices, left drying for many month in its roundish wrapping.
Pampepato is the name of the most popular ferrarese cake, created centuries ago by the nuns of the convent of Corpus Domini and once made at home at Christmas time: it is a spiced chocolate bread enriched with lots of almonds and candied fruit, topped with a thick layer of melted chocolate.