Bologna's Best Street Foods and Where to Eat Them

Let's say it loud and clear: Bologna is not a city of street food. We prefer to eat slowly and with our legs under the table.
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But how great would it be to walk around the 2 towers with a cone of fried custard in your hands?

​Check out this list of the most popular street foods of Bologna and where to eat them well made.

Gelato

If I say Bologna you may immediately think about mortadella, tortellini, or lasagne.
But some of you, especially if you've already joined our Bologna food tour, will go straight to gelato.

Gelato is the perfect street food: cup or cone, summer or winter, nothing can beat it.

And I can share with you a list of the best gelato places in Bologna to spend a month around the porticoes.

So get your scoop and mouth ready.
It's time to salivate.

Where to eat it
It's hard mentioning just one place so I'd go with the last born. Sablé is a tiny lab with a daily selection of flavors that always look for something different.
An example?
Moss or spruce resin. Yes, you read well. Open your mind and mouth and enjoy it all!

Sablé
Via dei Mille, 3a, 40121 Bologna BO
instagram.com

Ciccioli

Repeat after me: not all that is fat is bad.
In the case of ciccioli (pronounced: tchee-tchee-all-ee), pork fat is nothing else than delicious.

What are ciccioli made of?
It’s better not to investigate further.

Something like dried pressed and spiced lard. All you need to know is that they’re not properly vegetarian, and the chances of getting addicted to them are very high.

Where to eat it
You can find ciccioli in every salumeria, in the shape of a brown cake.
​Stay in line at Simoni and take it away in a yellow paper cone.

Simoni
Via Pescherie Vecchie, 3/b, 40124 Bologna
Tel. 051 231843
salumeriasimoni.it

Piadina

It looks like a taco and tastes like a pita but with a special twist.
Do I have to tell what it is due to?
To the pork fat inside the dough, clearly. But sometimes it can be olive oil or even milk.

Piadina is an easy-made bread born on the beaches of Romagna.
It's the bread of generations of bay watches, the perfect snack to eat at 4 am after a night of dance at Riviera, or just a delicious way to have a fast lunch.

Fill piadina with Parma ham, rucola and scquacquerone cheese.
But if you'd like to try something extreme go with sausage, grilled pepperoni, and onion. It’s THE pre-football match meal.

Where to eat it
Piadina shops are easy to find, but only some of them are remarkable.
One of my favorites is Sfarinà, inside one of the best food markets of Bologna: Mercato delle Erbe. They have a seasonal menu with a magical touch.
​And burrata.

Sfarinà
Via Ugo Bassi, 25, Bologna
Tel. +39 051 269282
www.sfarina.it

Caldarroste (roasted chestnuts)

When summer is over, leaves are falling down, and I need blankets on my bed, only one thing can cheer me up: it’s caldarroste time.

Since October, small roasting kiosks have appeared in the streets, selling roasted chestnuts for a few euros.

It’s hard to resist this temptation. So just don’t. Get a bag of hot caldarroste, eat them on your way home and remember: if you’re burning your fingertips, you’re doing it right.

Where to eat it
Caldarroste kiosks are in the streets around Piazza Maggiore. I love the one in the corner of Piazza Re Enzo and via Rizzoli.
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​If you're lucky you can find other street foods made of chestnuts. Mistocchine and castagnaccio are less popular in Bologna but even more addictive.

Caldarroste da Nicola
Via Rizzoli, 1 40121 Bologna
Facebook page

Fried fish cone

Fish never appears in Bologna's traditional cookbooks.
We’re far from the seaside, so the traditional cuisine focuses on meat and dairy.

But it hasn't always been like that.

I found out there were a lot of fish in the city in the past. It was freshwater fish coming from Bologna's canals. It was so abundant that they called it “the poor’ bread”.

Some fish have never disappeared. Fried small anchovies, for instance, have survived during the centuries.
They’re fried and sold in paper cones.
Eat them with all the head, bone and tail.
And please don't squeeze lemon on it. Please.

Where to eat it
A Marcello, in front of the old fish shops of Via Pescherie Vecchie, is perfect if you’re in a rush.
From the same owners, ​Osteria Bartolini is one of the restaurants where to eat great fish in Bologna. You can relax and snack on a bucket of fried fish under the oldest tree in the city.

A Marcello
Via Pescherie Vecchie, 10, 40124 Bologna BO
051 284 5291

amarcello.com

Crema fritta

Crema Fritta is a small cube of custard cream with a light lemon scent. It’s sprinkled with a mix of flour, eggs and breadcrumbs, then fried in seed oil.

In the big family of salty finger food, crema fritta is the strange creative sibling that never fights with anyone: sweet and a little bit of an outsider.

Only when it’s Carnival time and the craving for fried food intensifies, it’s possible to celebrate it properly by having a whole cone of it.

Where to eat it
Order a fritto misto in Bologna’s Trattorias: crema should be included. It’s a plate that mixes fried zucchini, meat, artichokes and some cheese as well.
​During Carnival time, the best bakeries of Bologna like Paolo Atti always display whole trays of crema fritta on their window.

Paolo Atti & Figli
Via Caprarie 7 , Bologna
Tel +39 051-220425
www.paoloatti.com

Panino with Mortadella

It’s a bit like love: if it’s true, you simply know that.
If you add many things to make it work, there’s something wrong.

Bread and mortadella: best couple ever. The perfect marriage is between a soft rosetta bread and a few slices of artisanal mortadella.

Undermine the couple’s balance with a glass of sparkling Pignoletto and see what happens.

Where to eat it
In Bologna, it is almost impossible not to get a Panino alla mortadella. Pigro, alongside San Petronio church, it’s the modern mortadella temple. You just have to be lucky and find it open: Pigro in Italian means lazy, and they take their name pretty seriously.

Pigro Mortadelleria
Via Dè Pignattari, 1b, Bologna
​Tel +39 366 508 9699
Facebook page

For the best mortadella though, I have to recommend the one served during our Bologna food tours. I promise it's not less than memorable.

Crescentina

Scrigno di Venere