Umbrian cooking is earthy and unfussy: cured meats, lentils from Castelluccio, black truffle, and roast meats. Perugia also has its own baking tradition — try torta al testo (flatbread grilled on a stone slab, stuffed with greens and cheese) or torta di formaggio, the leavened cheese bread that appears at Easter. The city's most famous export is chocolate: Perugina's Baci pralines have been made here since 1922.
For fresh produce, the covered market in Piazza Matteotti runs daily. An open-air market sets up in Piazza Europa on Tuesday and Saturday mornings.
The university presence keeps prices reasonable and the range of small trattorias and osterie wider than you'd expect for a city this size. Corso Garibaldi, running north from the centre through the student quarter, has a good concentration of cheap, honest places.