Lake Garda Food: What to Eat and Drink Around the Lake

Lake Fish

Visit Sirmione counts about forty fish species in the lake, mostly native, and calls lake fish the base of Lake Garda cooking. The carpione stands out: the tourism site describes it as the most valuable and typical species, one that finds a suitable habitat only in Garda, so it is a fish you cannot order elsewhere. Other names on the lake menu are alborella, lake trout, coregone (whitefish) and pike, often served with local olive oil.

Professional fishermen land whitefish, pike and perch as the main catch. Some supply restaurants directly, and others sell from their own stalls on the shore, so look for the fishermen's stalls on the shore.

Bigoli With Aole and Risotto With Tench

Bardolino names its own lake dishes: lake fish fried or grilled, risotto with tench, bigoli pasta with aole (small lake fish), pike in sauce, and marinated fish en saor, the Venetian sweet and sour cure. These plates come with Bardolino wine. On the south shore, Sirmione's restaurants lean on the same lake fish plus Lugana wine, whose heart of the production area the town claims for itself.

Order the risotto with tench where it is listed, since the town names it among its own dishes.

Carne Salada

Carne salada is the Trentino shore's signature cure, with origins around Arco and Tenno. Lean beef is salted in one piece with bay, pepper, juniper, garlic and rosemary, and it is ready after 25 days. The tradition dates to the 15th century.

Restaurants serve it as carpaccio, thinly sliced raw, or alla piastra, quickly seared, and often alongside warm beans (fasoi) or Torbole broccoli. It appears on menus all over Garda Trentino, so it is an easy order from a base in Riva del Garda or Arco.

Broccolo di Torbole

Torbole broccoli is listed by Garda Trentino among its Slow Food products, alongside Vino Santo Trentino, Bleggio walnuts and Dro plums. It comes from the village of Torbole at the north tip, and Garda Trentino serves it beside carne salada. Ask for it when you see broccolo di Torbole written on a card.

The same shore adds charcuterie worth knowing: luganega sausage, walnut salami and flavoured lard appear in the Garda Trentino produce list.

Tortellini of Valeggio

The tortellino of Valeggio sul Mincio, south of Peschiera del Garda, carries the registered name Nodo d'Amore, the love knot. The Festa del Nodo d'Amore sets a long dinner table on the Ponte Visconteo at Borghetto, the bridge built in 1393 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. No date is published for the next edition, so check before planning a trip around it.

To reach Borghetto without a car, book the Peschiera E-Bike Tour to Borghetto, a 4 hour ride with a one hour break in the village.

Capers of Gargnano

Wild capers grow in the walls of Gargnano's lemon and olive groves on the west shore. The buds are hand picked and salted, and the fruit, called cucuncio, is cured in a wine and vinegar brine and served with aperitifs. They are a small, local product, so expect them in the villages around Gargnano rather than across the whole lake.

Gargnano sits north of Gardone Riviera on the same west-shore road.

Lemons and the Limonaie

Citrus first came to Lake Garda in the 13th century, brought by Franciscan monks of Gargnano, and it was grown in greenhouses called limonaie to protect the trees from winter frost. The one to visit is the Limonaia del Castèl in Limone sul Garda, a lemon garden of 1,633 sq m dating to the early 18th century. The municipality bought it in 1995 and opened it on 22 July 2004.

About a hundred citrus trees grow there, including lemon, citron, orange, chinotto, grapefruit, mandarin and kumquat. Entry is $2.23 (€2), free under 10 and free in winter. From late September to 1 November it opens 10:00-18:00.

Desserts and Cured Pork

Garda Lombardia names three products to finish a west shore meal. Torta Maderno and Torta di Rose are the local desserts, and Salame Morenico di Pozzolengo carries the De.Co. mark, which means it is recognised as the town's own cured product. Pozzolengo sits near the Lugana vineyards south of Desenzano del Garda, so look for the salame on menus around the southern shore.

For a sit down version of the whole region's cooking, the Michelin Guide lists La Tortuga in Gargnano with one star and Villa Feltrinelli, also in Gargnano, with two stars, both in the Spare no expense price band.

What the Label Means

Olio Garda DOP has had Protected Designation of Origin status since 1997. All production stages take place in the municipalities around the lake. On the bottle, look for the numbered seal and the word Garda next to the PDO symbol, because without them the oil may be from elsewhere.

Three cultivars make the oil: Casaliva, Frantoio and Leccino. The consortium describes the profile as light to medium fruity, with gentle bitter and spicy notes and an almond aftertaste.

Where It Grows

The Garda DOP production area runs along the shores across the provinces of Brescia, Verona, Mantua and Trento, so the oil comes from all three regions. Olive growing is documented there from the 7th century, and by the 13th century 4 to 6 kg of oil could be worth as much as a pig. In the Renaissance the shore earned the name Riviera of the Olive Trees.

To see the story up close, Bardolino has an Olive Oil Museum among its indoor attractions, and the consortium lists olive grove walks in Lazise in late October.

Four protected wines cover the lake, and the map matters more than the label. Groppello grows almost only in the Valtenesi on the Brescia shore, Lugana's vineyards straddle Lombardy and the Veneto around the south, and Bardolino and Chiaretto belong to the Veneto east shore. The table compares grape, zone and style using the figures from the wine consortia.

Tasting Them

Three bookable tastings cover the map. The Bardolino Vineyard Tour and Wine Tasting costs $40 for 1.5 hours, capped at 10 people, with five wines, olive oil and local cold cuts and cheeses. The Lugana Wine Tasting near Sirmione costs $39 for 1.5 hours and pairs Lugana wines with salami and DOP cheeses from Brescia. The Lazise Wine and Food Tasting in the Vineyards costs $47 for 2 hours and pours at least six wines, served only to those over 18. Serve Bardolino at 14-16 C, and Chiaretto at 6-8 C for the sparkling version. More in our Bardolino wine guide.

Food and wine events cluster in spring and autumn, and the dates come from the town and consortium sites. Plan around them if eating is the point of the trip, and remember the passenger boats stop running between 2 November and 12 March, which affects how you reach some of these towns in the quieter months.

Markets

Bardolino holds its weekly market every Thursday morning on the lakefront, which is the easiest one to catch from an east shore base. Cisano, just south of Bardolino, has a market on Tuesday mornings in summer. Calmasino holds its market on Saturday mornings and sells local food.

Remember the ferry season if you plan to combine a market morning with a crossing.