This little story came from a cookbook copyrighted in 1963, The Art of Regional Italian Cooking, by Maria Lo Pinto. I doubt the book is still in print. The Section on the Region in The South, The Boot, covers Campania, Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria. Here is the story about Calabria:
Our Calabrian Heritage:
Often called the Switzerland of the South, Calabria covers the mountainous toe of Italy. Here one finds the most magnificent forests, and the hillsides are silvered with ancient olive trees.
The Calabrians eat many varieties of homemade pasta, such as macaroni alla
pastora (with ricotta cheese) and other sauces; fusilli (curly spaghetti),
vermicelli in soup and stuffed lasagna.
Eggplant is a favorite of the people of this region and it is prepared most
deliciously in many ways: stuffed, alla parmigiana; with mushrooms; with sweet-and-sour sauce; and with pine nuts. Ciambotta is a one-dish meal, a
mixture of eggplant, zucchini, sweet green peppers, mushrooms, onions,
potatoes, and tomatoes cooked in oil or fat.
Capacolla, similar to Canadian bacon, is made from pork shoulder that has
been marinated in wine or vinegar and smoked. Sometimes it is spiced with
hot pepper seeds. Soprasata, a very thick sausage roll made from pig's
blood with spices and pistachio nuts, is a type of blood pudding. Homemade
spicy sausages are specialties of this area.
As in the Switzerland of the North, Calabria has a wealth of dairy
products, and its maritime position provides seafoods, especially tuna and
swordfish, boiled or broiled, and swordfish soup, a favorite.
The desserts most sought after are figs, raisins, grapes and turdiddi.
These are small cakes made with flour, eggs, and white wine, and fried,
then dipped in honey and chocolate.
Calabria also has its great wines, such as the Lacrima of Castrovillari and
the Zibibbo, dry red table wines produced on the hilly regions overlooking
the Ionian Sea; the Greco of Gerace, a dry white wine, and to name one, the
Moscato of Cosenza, a white dessert wine, produced from the vines climbing
along the hillsides overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Ruth Nreud
St Paul, MN.