Potenza's food is Basilicata's food — assertive, peasant, pork-and-pasta-driven. Look for pasta con peperoni cruschi (crispy dried sweet peppers), lagane e ceci (wide noodles with chickpeas), podolico beef from the high pastures, and the smoked canestrato sheep's cheese. The local salume lucanica is the namesake of all modern sausage.
Restaurants are clustered along and just off Via Pretoria. A few that consistently get it right:
- Antica Osteria Marconi — modern Basilicatese cooking by chef Pietro Sinisi, refined but rooted. Tasting menu around 60 euros. Closed Sunday.
- Taverna Oraziana — traditional, cheaper, hearty. Excellent house-made orecchiette.
- Bar Renoir — for an aperitivo with serious cicchetti before dinner.