A Turri, Ricadi, Calabria: Capo Vaticano’s towering presence

And if you’re lucky, free pizza!

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If you’ve been fortunate enough to follow this gem of a website over the last year or so, you’ll probably recall that we published a couple of features on Calabria, Italy’s southwestern-most region, and home to arguably the country’s most beautiful coastline. Naturally, it’s also home to some great restaurants, one of which – Bratirro‘s La Tavernetta – we ran a review on. Now it’s the turn of A Turri, situated in the nearby town of Ricadi.

It had a tough act to follow, but its Italian Stallion of a proprietor, Ignazio, was surely the right man to steer the evening to greatness. After all, as well as the restaurant and pizzeria also being a hotel, he also runs one of the town’s local legends, Café Ricadi.

The latter is his latest venture, a project he took on late last year and promptly turned into a roaring success. This is something I can testify to myself, but my parents are in an even better position to pass judgement, having lived in the town for a little over a decade. Just for this, we received a free pizza not long after we ordered – God bless you mum and dad! More on that soon. As for Capo Vaticano, Ricadi’s premiere coastal resort, it’s a truly stunning sight, so in the unlikely event of a disappointing meal you can always marvel at the scenery, sunlight permitting. Either that or chat with Ignazio about football, a subject he’s crazy about even by Italian standards.

The venue is within a more traditional-looking setting compared to many in the area, which is some feat considering that A Turri isn’t exactly the smallest of establishments. The usual friendly utterances of “prego” (Italian for “your welcome”) from our waitress ticked the checklist in next to no time, but would the food blow us away with such effortless charm? As if to provide some kind of insurance policy in case this didn’t come off, along came this completely free pizza. Disclaimer alert: please don’t get your hopes up. As already mentioned, my folks are something approximating local legends themselves, and also happen to be two of Ignazio’s best customers at Café Ricadi. You may well get lucky, but it’s best to sit at your table with an open mind.

But to be fair, the pizza’s so good that you wouldn’t begrudge payment one cent. We were given the n’duja topping, and it was a knockout combination of soft-ish crust and spicy-ish spread. The three courses we did actually order weren’t gratis as it turned out – even Ignazio’s generosity knows its boundaries, plus he’d surely like to stay in business.

Do you suffer from chronic anchovy-avoidance? If A Turri’s starter of ‘Tris di Alice marinati’ (trio of marinated anchovies) doesn’t change your mind, nothing will. Like a posh version of sadines-on-toast, the essence of balsamic vinegar and citrus fruit added the kind of kick last seen from Ignazio’s left boot during his playing days. Next up, ‘Tagliata di manzo’ – which consists of sliced beef with porcini mushrooms, rocket cherry tomatoes and parmesan flakes, with a red wine reduction and pink salt. Sounds rather too busy, but you’d never have guessed there was so much going on just by eating it. Whether it was the wine or pink salt that took it to the next level is unknown, but I never even knew the latter existed.

Despite the free culinary education and pizza, plus the starter and main courses to savour, the highlight was dessert, although this was slightly unfair, as will soon become apparent. I went for the tartufo, which is basically a ball of ice-cream with melted chocolate in the middle. Somehow it manages to be both solid and spectacular, the miracle of all desserts. However, that’s standard in ristorantes the length and breadth of the country, so what could possibly be A Turri’s rabbit-out-the-hat? Step forward the normally innocuous lemon sorbet that I was also able to sample. Why? It was served up in an actual hollowed-out lemon of course! Now why didn’t I think of that? See, I told you it was unfair.

Whether you end up having to pay for your pizza is in the lap of the gods. If you’re also dubious about the name, A Turri actually derives from the Corsican, not Italian, for “The Tower”. That’s enough learning for today, but it’s safe to say this place is in a class of its own.