Pecora Nera

The people behind it

Pecora Nera is the osteria of Raffaella Piccinino and Stefano Rabolini in Albi, in the province of Catanzaro, in the heart of the Sila Piccola. LaC News24, in its October 2023 article on the Calabrian osterie in the Osterie d'Italia 2024 guide, reports Slow Food's verdict: Pecora Nera is run by two resilient cooks who offer an authentic slow experience, wonderful in flavour and atmosphere.

Scatti di Gusto, which had already included it in 2018 among the best restaurants of inland Calabria, presents it as a small, welcoming and relaxing inn in pastel colours, run by a young couple and surrounded by the woods of the Sila Piccola. The two cooks' work, according to the same source, starts from the land: vegetables and salads come from the owners' garden, and the cooking is described as simple yet refined, rooted in local traditions. The sources consulted do not say how the two share the work between kitchen and dining room: this is why the profile lists both as cooks.

Sources: LaC News24 — Le migliori osterie in Calabria secondo la guida Slow Food per il 2024 (30 ottobre 2023) · Scatti di Gusto — I 15 migliori ristoranti della Calabria interna (20 aprile 2018)

What they make

Pecora Nera's offer is mountain cooking built on the traditions of the Sila. Scatti di Gusto describes it as simple yet refined, and lists among its specialities house-cured meats, artisanal cheeses, pasta courses and a dish that sums up the bond with the plateau: pork shank with Sila potatoes.

Alongside the à la carte menu, the same source mentions a tasting menu, designed for those who want to go through the flavours of the house in a single meal. Vegetables and salads come from the owners' garden, which ties the menu to the rhythm of the seasons. The verdict of the Osterie d'Italia guide, reported by LaC News24, stresses the atmosphere as well as the flavour: an authentically slow experience in a small place in the woods. The available sources on the dishes date from 2018: the menu may have changed, and the dishes mentioned should be taken as an indication of the cooking style rather than a menu to look for on the day of a visit.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — I 15 migliori ristoranti della Calabria interna (20 aprile 2018) · LaC News24 — Le migliori osterie in Calabria secondo la guida Slow Food per il 2024 (30 ottobre 2023)

Ingredients and territory

The declared principle of the cooking, according to Scatti di Gusto, is a rigorous selection of organic, local ingredients. In practice this means the owners' own garden, which supplies vegetables and salads, and a larder that makes cured meats and mountain products in-house, alongside artisanal cheeses.

The product that most clearly ties Pecora Nera to its land is the Sila potato, which the source mentions in the pork shank with Sila potatoes. The osteria is in the Sila Piccola, among the woods that, as Scatti di Gusto writes, surround the inn; LaC News24 places it in the heart of the Sila Piccola. The sources consulted do not name suppliers or give marks of origin for individual ingredients, apart from the reference to Sila potatoes: this profile keeps to what is reported, and refers to Apulica's guide on Sila potatoes to learn about the product and its protection.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — I 15 migliori ristoranti della Calabria interna (20 aprile 2018) · LaC News24 — Le migliori osterie in Calabria secondo la guida Slow Food per il 2024 (30 ottobre 2023)

Recognition

The independent recognition is Slow Food's Snail, the symbol the Osterie d'Italia guide awards to places that stand out for cooking, atmosphere and hospitality in line with the association's values. Pecora Nera in Albi is among Calabria's fourteen osterie with the Snail in the 2026 edition, according to the regional lists published on 20 October 2025 by Dissapore and Scatti di Gusto.

The Snail was already listed in the 2025 edition, according to the list published by Dissapore on 15 October 2024. Pecora Nera was also described in the 2024 edition of the guide, whose text on the restaurant LaC News24 reported in October 2023. No public page for the restaurant was found on Slow Food's website, so the source of the recognition is the full lists published by these news outlets. As early as 2018 Scatti di Gusto had included the inn among the fifteen best restaurants of inland Calabria.

Sources: Dissapore — Le migliori Osterie d'Italia 2026 secondo Slow Food, regione per regione (20 ottobre 2025) · Scatti di Gusto — Le migliori osterie italiane della guida Slow Food 2026 (20 ottobre 2025) · Dissapore — Le migliori Osterie d'Italia del 2025, regione per regione (15 ottobre 2024) · LaC News24 — Le migliori osterie in Calabria secondo la guida Slow Food per il 2024 (30 ottobre 2023) · Scatti di Gusto — I 15 migliori ristoranti della Calabria interna (20 aprile 2018)

Going there

Pecora Nera is at Villaggio Buturo, in the municipality of Albi, in the province of Catanzaro: this is the address given by Scatti di Gusto, together with a mobile number. The restaurant lies in the woods of the Sila Piccola, and is therefore a stop for those visiting the Sila plateau who want to call at an osteria working with its own garden, home-cured meats and mountain potatoes.

The practical information available is limited and partly dated: address and phone number come from a 2018 article, and the sources consulted give no official website, opening hours, opening days or any seasonal closures. It is therefore best to check everything before setting off. The Snail confirmed in the 2025 and 2026 editions of the Osterie d'Italia guide indicates that the osteria is in business and has kept the level recognised by Slow Food.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — I 15 migliori ristoranti della Calabria interna (20 aprile 2018) · Dissapore — Le migliori Osterie d'Italia 2026 secondo Slow Food, regione per regione (20 ottobre 2025) · Dissapore — Le migliori Osterie d'Italia del 2025, regione per regione (15 ottobre 2024) · LaC News24 — Le migliori osterie in Calabria secondo la guida Slow Food per il 2024 (30 ottobre 2023)

Products and flavours

The place

Sila

Sila National Park: a plateau of forests, lakes and pastures between Cosenza, Catanzaro and Crotone, and a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Read the guide →

Photo: Ugo Leonetti / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP.

The region

Calabria