Il Pozzo Ristorante Sorrento

 Restaurant has served Sorrentine specialities since 1967

In the heart of the historic centre of Sorrento, this excellent restaurant, Il Pozzo, has been serving typical Sorrento dishes to locals and visitors for more than 50 years.

Il Pozzo is on the corner of Via Tasso

Il Pozzo is in Via Tasso, which is a turning off Corso Italia opposite the Duomo. The restaurant at number 32 serves all the popular, local specialities, using the freshest possible ingredients, such as fish caught from the bay earlier that day.

Pizze are cooked in the restaurant’s wood fired oven and many of the pasta dishes use fresh pasta made by hand. For example, there is the scialatielli ai frutti di mare, which is a dish made from hand cut strips of pasta served with a sauce of seafood and tomatoes.

The restaurant is particularly renowned for its gnocchi alla sorrentina, small potato dumplings served with a rich tomato sauce with mozzarella and basil, finished off in the oven.

Il Pozzo, which means ‘the well’, has tables outside under an awning and a spacious room for dining inside with air conditioning.

Delicious gnocchi alla sorrentina

During the winter Il Pozzo is open from 12.00 to 15.00 and from 18:00 to 24:00. During the summer the restaurant is open from 12:00 to 24:00. Its closing day is Wednesday.

To book telephone +39 081 8774876 or email info@ilpozzoristorante.it 

To look at the menu visit www.ilpozzoristorante.it

Gnocchi alla Sorrentina

Enjoy the flavours of Campania back home

Named in honour of the beautiful resort of Sorrento, this tasty primo piatto (first course) on many restaurant menus is also easy to make at home.

The sauce for the gnocchi is created from a wonderful blend of three of Campania’s most celebrated ingredients, flavoursome, red tomatoes, piquant green, basil leaves and creamy mozzarella cheese. When the cheese melts into the tomato sauce covering the gnocchi, it binds everything together to create a satisfying, but simple dish.

Tasty Gnocchi served Sorrento style

The gnocchi di patate (potato dumplings) can either be home made, following the recipe given below, or bought fresh or vacuum packed from a supermarket.

Gnocchi di patate were supposedly introduced into the Italian culinary repertoire after the Treaty of Campoformio was signed by France and Austria in 1797 at Campoformido, a village to the west of Udine in Friuli.

Venice was thereafter given over to Austrian rule and, along with the gnocchi di patate, Austrian beer and sausages were also added to the Italian menu at this time.

In Sorrento, you can try Gnocchi alla Sorrentina in the heart of the historic centre at Ristorante Il Pozzo in Via Tasso, where they are finished off by being baked in a wood fired oven.

Or, you can enjoy a sea view while you sample them down at Marina Grande at Trattoria da Emilia, a restaurant that was established by Donna Emilia in 1954. They are on the menu as Gnocchi della Mamma and are cooked to Donna Emilia’s original, traditional Sorrento recipe. They taste delicious when enjoyed while sitting at a table on Da Emilia’s wooden deck, suspended over the sea with the waves lapping against it.

But when you return from Sorrento to colder weather back home, piping hot Gnocchi alla Sorrentina are wholesome, comforting and a wonderful reminder of your holiday.

Recipe for two people:

To make the sauce, fry two chopped cloves of garlic in olive oil and add 500g of peeled, deseeded and chopped tomatoes, or the contents of a 400g can of tomatoes put through a sieve. (If using fresh tomatoes, sieve the mixture after cooking.} Add a pinch of dried oregano, a few fresh basil leaves torn into shreds and season to taste. When the sauce is smooth and reduced, set aside.

To cook the gnocchi, add as many as you require, (about a dozen per person for a first course) to boiling salted water and they will be cooked when they rise to the surface. 

Divide the cooked gnocchi between two, warmed oven proof dishes. Reheat the tomato sauce, adding a drop of olive oil or water if required, and pour over the gnocchi. Cut a mozzarella cheese into cubes and share the cubes between the two dishes and add a good grating of Parmesan cheese to each dish. Finish off in a hot oven for 10 – 15 minutes until the cheese forms a golden crust. Serve immediately, garnished with fresh basil.

To make your own gnocchi, boil 500g of white potatoes in their skins, then peel and mash them. Mix in 200g flour and one egg yolk into the mash. Knead together to make a ball of dough. Take small balls, one at a time and work them with your hands into sausage shapes and cut into two cm pieces. Roll them in flour and press against a fork to give them grooves, which will help the sauce to cling to them.

Buon appetito!

San Baccolo of Sorrento

A painting of San Baccolo by Carlo Amalfi,
 in the crypt of the Basilica of  Sant'Antonino

Sorrento is today celebrating the feast day of one of their patron saints, San Baccolo.

The saint, who is venerated as a former Bishop of Sorrento, died on August 27, which became his feast day in the Catholic calendar.

His remains were initially buried in one of the city’s ancient walls, but they were later moved to the Church of Santi Felice e Baccolo in Sorrento, now known as the Church of the Rosario.

A book written about the life of Sant’Antonino, the most important patron saint of Sorrento, refers to other saints of Sorrento, such as the bishops Renatus, Athanasius and Baculus, known in Italian as Baccolo.

The saints are described from their appearance in a painting by Luca Giordano showing them surrounding the cross while Christ was being crucified. This painting is now in Palazzo Reale in Naples.

It is thought Baccolo was Bishop of Sorrento at some time during the seventh century.

The Church of San Rosario in Via Tasso

The Church of Santi Felice e Baccolo, known also as the Church of the Rosario, is in the historic centre of Sorrento.

Between the 12th and the 15th centuries the church was the Cathedral of Sorrento.

It had been built by a Duke of Sorrento to make evil spirits, who seemed to be plaguing the area, disappear.

Its origins probably date back to the time of Constantine the Great in the fourth century when a building was constructed over the remains of a pagan temple.

The present day church of San Rosario in Via Tasso is considered one of the most beautiful Baroque churches in Sorrento.

The Church has one nave and on the high altar is a statue of the Madonna of the Rosary. The Church also has a statue of San Baccolo and beneath the altar there is an urn containing his relics.

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