Castiglione del Lago: Lake Charm, Lake Flavors

Pino had been back and forth to Castiglione del Lago countless times during the months his company restored the massive medieval walls of this lakeside gem, often enjoying a lake fish lunch while there.

Castiglione del Lago, surrounded by massive medieval walls

But on a recent outing there, we discovered a winner of a ristorante/pizzeria where lake fish stars: La Capannina. In this “small hut” (“capannina”) – open and spacious, in fact – tall, balding Guido’s in the kitchen grilling fish, frying fish, simmering fish sauces for homemade pasta. When he stopped at our table on a pause from his cooking, he told us about his first love: the restoration, preservation, cataloging of all the traditional Lake Trasimeno fishing boats. Lake conservation is a passione, too. I asked him how he ended up at the burners.

Guido cooks up the lake fish goodness

Guido talks with Pino about his first love, boat and lake preservation

“My mother and father opened this ristorante in the 1960’s and cooked for years. When they retired, we rented this out but a few years ago, I decided to cook here myself. After all, our family has always had a ‘lake fish culture’. I learned how to cook the fish we catch here from Mamma and Nonna, “ he told us as he served up a plate of lake fish he wanted us to try (an “extra” after a full dinner!)

A taste of all the lake fish varieties Guido cooks up

Just small tastes of that fish for I’d already had tastes of two pasta specialties, ravioli stuffed with lake fish and seasoned with saffron and currants and spaghetti with a lake fish sauce. Pino opted for grilled lake carp and grilled seasonal vegetables. Tasty homemade desserts were in the showcase near our table – but who had room?

I chose tastes of fish-stuffed ravioli and spaghetti with lake fish sauce

Grilled carp for Pino

Grilled vegetables, too, for Pino

Pino relishes those grilled vegetables

La Capannina is closed on Tuesdays. A day for Guido’s boats-and-lake-preservation projects….

Read about Pino’s restoration of the medieval walls of Castiglione del Lago
Read about another Lake Trasimeno favorite spot