Raw minced horse meat seasoned with oil, salt and lemon, eaten cold with bread or torta fritta. Parma's frankest dish, still a lunchtime staple the city refuses to give up.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Horse butchery took root in Parma's Oltretorrente in the 19th century as cheap protein for the working quarter, and pesto di cavallo, hand-minced and simply dressed, became its signature. The dialect name caval pisst means pressed horse. Where much of Italy dropped the tradition, Parma kept dedicated butchers and put the dish on modern menus, from sandwich counters to bistrot reinterpretations.
Tip from the editors. This is a raw dish: buy from an equine butcher the morning you eat it, or make the beef version with the same respect for freshness.
Osteria Virgilio is Oltretorrente Parma at its most honest: 36-month prosciutto, anolini in brodo and horse tartare in a small room with natural wines.
Signature: Salumi platter, Anolini in brodo, Tartare di cavallo
Order: The cured-meat board with 36-month prosciutto, then anolini.
Tip: The room seats very few, so call ahead. Gazzetta di Parma's February 2026 review called it a modern osteria of local tradition and a posto del cuore.
Borgo 20 is Parma's contemporary bistrot near Piazza Duomo, pairing 30-month prosciutto with risotto alla parmigiana and a serious pastry counter.
Signature: 30-month Prosciutto di Parma, Risotto alla parmigiana, Cavall pisst
Order: Risotto alla parmigiana with caramelised onion.
Tip: Gambero Rosso lists it among Parma's essential tables and the kitchen runs unusually precise plating for a bistrot. Book for dinner.
Pepen keeps Parma's best-value lunch on Borgo Sant'Ambrogio: the 6 euro Spaccaballe and the 2.50 euro Carciofa, from a counter that began as a dopoteatro.
Try: Spaccaballe roast-pork sandwich
Tip: Prices sit under 7 euro across the counter; the Carciofa plus an espresso is the cheapest legendary lunch in Parma.
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