Ogliarese Pennette Festival

A hillside festival at the gates of Salerno

Ogliara is a small hillside village in the Municipality of Salerno, Campania, nestled about five kilometers from the city center along the road climbing from Fratte toward Matierno. For a few days each year in early July, this quiet hamlet becomes one of the most popular gastronomic destinations in the province of Salerno: the Pro Loco festival area fills with long tables, the scent of sizzling guanciale drifts through the alleys, and the main square lights up with music until late at night.

Ogliarese pennette, a dish that only exists in summer

The dish that gives the festival its name is not a restaurant recipe but a home-cooked specialty, born from the hillside vegetable gardens. The pennette are tossed with zucchini flowers (the sciurilli of the Campanian tradition), fresh zucchini, slowly browned guanciale, and a generous dusting of Grana cheese. It is a seasonal recipe: it can only be made truly well in the height of summer, when the ingredients arrive from gardens just a few hundred meters from the stove. Over the years, the festival has added a theatrical touch that has become its trademark: the pasta is tossed and served directly from a hollowed-out half-wheel of cheese, right before the visitors' eyes.

The terracotta bowl

The second signature of the event is the serving vessel. Portions are not served on disposable plastic plates but in authentic terracotta bowls, which visitors can take home as a souvenir. This choice is rooted in the history of the festival itself and now carries an environmental value, drastically reducing waste produced during six nights of high attendance.

Not just pennette

The food stalls showcase the entire popular repertoire of Salerno. Alongside the signature pasta dish, you will find:

• pizzelle and fried sciurilli, i.e., battered zucchini flowers;
• split eggplants and 'allardate' eggplants;
• local-style caponata;
• sausage sandwiches and spleen sandwiches;
• Cilento cheeses and local cured meats;
• local wine and limoncello;
• the famous Ogliara zeppole, prepared according to a recipe jealously guarded by the Pro Loco.

Every evening, a stand dedicated to celiacs is available, a detail not to be taken for granted at a village festival and now part of the event's identity.

The PennettaMusicFest

The festival is not just about food. After the stalls open, the evening continues with a live piano bar and, later, with the PennettaMusicFest: a concert series that brings a different act to the stage each night, ranging from cover bands and Italian music tribute bands to Campanian folk groups. It is the moment when the crowd mingles, people dance in the square, and the party takes on the typical rhythm of summer evenings in the South.

From the Fusillo Festival to the terracotta bowl today

The event was born in the eighties under a different name, Fusillo in a bowl Festival, conceived by the inhabitants as a gathering occasion for the Ogliara community. In 2006, the event transformed into its current version, centered on Ogliarese pennette, and has since grown to become a fixture on the Salerno summer calendar, attracting visitors from all over Campania.

What to see nearby

The hill of Ogliara is an excellent starting point for those who want to discover the less touristy side of Salerno: from the viewpoints, you can embrace the entire gulf, while in twenty minutes by car, you can reach the historic center of Salerno with its Cathedral and the Minerva Garden, and further south, the Amalfi Coast and Cilento. Those arriving for the festival will find the perfect excuse to stay a few days in the province of Salerno.