A Trip to Albenga Beneath the Ancient Towers, Between Legendary Tales and Authentic Flavours - Part II

Today, anyone arriving at Bastia finds a pretty spot immersed in flowers even out of season. The yellow mimosa brings spring forward as early as January, and all around is a multitude of greenhouses where the myriad flowers cultivated by the flower growers of the famous western Ligurian Riviera tradition grow.

The cheerful colours of the flowers accompany us at the table too when we decide to stop for dinner at the Ristorante Lì per lì, on via Paccini. From our table we can in fact admire colourful artistic models of some typically Ligurian houses, almost as if we were strolling along the seafront: they are sculptures fancifully created by Mrs Liliana, the owner and cook who runs the place together with her daughter Dalila. The beautiful decorated tiles of the bar counter and the kitchen are also the product of Mrs Liliana's creativity, as are most of the colour photographs depicting Ligurian views that we can admire on the walls, together with numerous period images in which the members of the family that has run this corner of taste for twenty years also appear.

"We opened in 1995 and even though the initial idea was to create a dairy, we soon realised there was instead a great demand for a place where you could eat. So we started the restaurant straight away, focusing on the traditional flavours of home cooking. Before the restaurant was born, there was a bicycle workshop here, and once the Milan-Sanremo race passed right by here," recalls Mrs Liliana.

Art and tradition create a pleasant combination here, also thanks to the warm welcome that immediately puts the guest at ease. Our journey of discovery into the real Liguria thus passes through a feast of authentic flavours, the fruit of the cook's great experience, who creates delicious dishes starting from traditional and so-called poor cuisine, learned in the family from her grandmother, her mother and her mother-in-law, and enriched thanks to numerous studies and courses followed with important chefs. We always stay within typical cuisine, but with a certain versatility that allows everything to be prepared on request, according to the needs of those booking.

We begin with exquisite stuffed sardines, and we also taste delicious vegetable rolls as well as the ever-present torta pasqualina. After this rich starter we taste the typical zemin of chickpeas, but we cannot resist the very good pumpkin or borage ravioli either, and we also taste the typical trofie with pesto made with local basil. We also very much like the gnocchetti made with chestnut flour, and when the risotto with blueberries arrives at the table, a speciality originally from the village of Viola, in the Cuneo area, we are literally left open-mouthed: served in parmesan shells and cooked with red wine, it is an intensely fragrant, delicious and refined dish.

We wash down these treats with excellent Ligurian wines such as Pigato, Vermentino or Ormeasco, as well as Nostralino, a light red. The flavours of the area are also enhanced by the exclusive use of extra virgin olive oil, mostly Ligurian, top-quality pasta and zero-kilometre vegetables, coming directly from the small family farm where vegetables of every kind grow beneath the olive trees.

We continue with dishes deeply rooted in local traditions such as buridda, Ligurian-style rabbit, salt cod fritters or brandacujun, an exquisite dish of stockfish and potatoes whose dialect name, which can make the shyest blush, alludes precisely to its method of preparation: long ago sailors cooked it in large pots that they then gripped between their legs to turn and shake the mixture until it reached the ideal consistency.

Besides fish and rabbit, we also taste stewed snails in their shells. "A gentleman from Molini di Triora gave me this recipe, where in September there is a lovely snail festival. Not only was he not jealous of his recipe, but some time later he even came to check whether I made the snails the way he had taught me. He was completely satisfied," Mrs Liliana tells us with a smile.

As our day in Albenga draws to a close, we think that we too will do more or less what the snail gentleman did: we will come back here soon to savour again the delights of these lands immersed in flowers between the mountains and the sea.