Best Pasta in Amalfi: Local Shapes and Where to Eat Them

What pasta to order in Amalfi

Scialatielli are the shape to know: medium-width, irregular strips, shorter than spaghetti, and at their best with a fish sauce — scialatielli allo scoglio means with shellfish. You will find them on the menus in Amalfi itself, and they are one of the dishes to look for if you want a plate with a local pedigree.

In Minori, the local pasta is ndunderi, small gnocchi counted among the oldest kinds of pasta. Minori is also where you find delizia al limone, the lemon cream cake made with the IGP lemon of the coast, so a lunch there can cover both in one stop.

Cetara, a fishing village east of Amalfi, is the place for colatura di alici, an anchovy essence used to dress spaghetti or to season other dishes. Ask for it as a condiment, not as a main, and expect a deep, salty hit rather than a fish-forward plate. For the fruit that turns up in cakes and sauces all along this coast, see our guide to Amalfi lemons.

Elsewhere on the coast, pasta is the anchor of most menus, whether dressed with fish, shellfish or the coast's own lemon. If you want the wider picture of where to sit down in the town, start with our guide to the best restaurants in Amalfi and work outwards from there.

Trattoria da Gemma in Amalfi town

Trattoria da Gemma sits on Via Fra Gerardo Sasso in the centre of Amalfi, and its cooking shifts between typical local recipes and newer pairings built on the same ingredients. The menu is a good place to order scialatielli and to try the lemon of the coast worked into seafood plates.

The kitchen's calling card is the Gran Crudo, a raw fish selection — the thing to order if you want one plate that shows what the kitchen can do with the day's catch. Skip it if you came purely for pasta; the seafood sauces and the house fish soup are the more direct route.

Ristorante da Ciccio Cielo Mare Terra

Da Ciccio, also in Amalfi, was founded in 1911 and is now run by the fourth generation of the same family, which also farms the produce that reaches the kitchen. That farm connection is why the vegetable antipasti and the fish cooked with lemon taste of the season rather than of a delivery van.

The room is one of the calmer, longer-lunch options in Amalfi, so it suits a slow meal after a morning on the water rather than a quick plate between buses. If you have your heart set on it in high season, ring ahead so you are not turned away at the door.

Ristorante 'A Paranza in Atrani

'A Paranza is in Atrani, the small village a short walk around the headland from Amalfi, on Via Comunale Traversa Dragone. The room is plain and welcoming, and the cooking is built on the freshness of the catch and on balance rather than display.

Order pasta with shellfish or a simple fish sauce, then finish with the house delizia al limone, made in the kitchen rather than bought in. It is the pick here if you want to eat well after a day of walking the coastal path and then get the bus back from Amalfi rather than from Atrani.

Casa Mandina in Maiori

Casa Mandina on Via Casa Mannini in Maiori describes its cooking as simple: good ingredients, handled properly, with elegant surroundings that stop short of fine dining. That makes it a sensible choice for a table of mixed appetites, where some want pasta and others want fish.

Maiori is the practical base of the western end of the coast, with a long seafront and more parking than Amalfi, so a lunch here fits a day when you are driving or taking the SITA bus along the coast road. If you would rather eat in the villages on the mountain side, our guide to trattorias in Amalfi covers the smaller rooms inland.

Ristorante Al Convento in Cetara

Al Convento, on Piazza San Francesco in Cetara, has been run by the Torrente family for three generations, and the menu is built on local ingredients and traditional recipes. It is the natural place to pair colatura di alici with pasta, since the anchovy essence is Cetara's own product.

The rooms are decorated in sea-inspired colours borrowed from the village itself, so the setting is part of the meal. Cetara is small and worth a wander before or after lunch; come by bus from Amalfi and walk down to the harbour.

Hostaria Baccofurore above Furore

Baccofurore on Via G.B. Lama in Furore cooks with local ingredients, mixing tradition with a little invention, and has a view that justifies the climb from the coast road. The cellar occupies an old cistern and holds a large number of bottles, so a glass with your pasta is the obvious move.

Furore sits above the road between Amalfi and Praiano, so this is a lunch to build a day around rather than drop into between sights. It also works as an evening stop if you are staying nearby and want to avoid driving the coast road after dark.

How to read a menu on the coast

Fresh pasta and dried pasta are often listed at different prices, and the fresh one is the dish a kitchen wants you to order. Fish is frequently sold by weight, so the figure on the menu is usually per etto — per 100 grams — and the final cost depends on the size of the fish; ask for an approximate weight before the order goes in.

Coperto is a per-head cover charge that appears on the bill in most sit-down restaurants, covering bread and service, and it is normal rather than a scam. If you want to keep lunch cheap, order pasta as a primo and share a secondi of fish, rather than taking a full menu of antipasti, pasta and main.

Ordering and paying

Book ahead for Da Ciccio, Al Convento and Casa Mandina, and for any Saturday or August evening on this coast. For the smaller trattorias, turning up soon after opening usually works; for the rest, a phone call the day before settles it.

Ask for the conto — the bill — when you are ready, rather than waiting for it to appear, and check the accepted payment method before you order if it matters to you. Tipping is not obligatory in Italy, and rounding up or leaving a few euros per head is a reasonable gesture where service has been good.

If you want to make the pasta rather than order it, the coast has pasta-making options that pair a workshop with a lunch; our guide to cooking classes in Amalfi sets out how these days are structured.

Which village gets your pasta lunch?

Choose Amalfi town for scialatielli and the widest choice of rooms, Atrani for a small, seafood-led kitchen a short walk away, and Cetara if you want colatura di alici where it is made. Maiori suits a driving day, and Furore is the one to build a whole afternoon around.

Wherever you land, order the local shape first and the fish second: that is the meal this coast does best. Our guide to the best restaurants in Amalfi picks up the rest of the sitting-down options once the pasta course is decided.