APULICA / MEATS AND CURED MEATS
Ischia pit-reared rabbit
Slow Food Presidium · PAT · Meats and cured meats · Campania
In brief
- Rabbit raised on Ischia in pits three to four metres deep, lined with dry-stone walls of green tuff. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia)
- It feeds mainly on fresh grass, fig and vine leaves, straw and legume pods. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia)
- About a thousand old pits survive on the island, most of them abandoned. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia)
- The Ischia pit rabbit is on Campania's list of traditional products. (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026))
History and origin
On the island of Ischia wild rabbits are recorded as far back as Roman times. Because they breed and grow quickly, by the sixteenth century the rabbit was the most widely raised animal on Ischia's farmland and provided families with valuable food.
The Campania Region notes that, according to documentary sources, from the early eighteenth century farmers dug pits about two metres deep in which to raise rabbits; the animals in turn dug side tunnels to shelter from wind, cold, heat and rain. The openings were closed with simple hatches, which also helped when the time came to catch them.
In the past local types known as leporino and sorcino were raised. This tradition nearly disappeared, but in recent years breeders have revived it: today the pit rabbit is a traditional product of Campania and a Slow Food Presidium.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Coniglio di fosso dell'isola d'Ischia (prodotto tradizionale) · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)
Area and method of production
The rabbits are raised in pits up to three or four metres deep, their walls lined with the island's typical dry-stone walls, the parracine, built in local green tuff. The technique grew out of watching how rabbits behave in the wild, living in groups and colonies: in the pit the animals grow in semi-wild conditions, in groups led by a dominant male.
Their diet is based mainly on fresh grass, fig and vine leaves, straw and bean and broad bean pods, without compound feed. There are about a thousand old pits on the island, most of them abandoned: the Presidium is working to restore them and to develop a diet suited to this way of farming.
Today the breeding stock is mostly Belgian hare bucks, with Vienna Blue and Fauve de Bourgogne does.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Coniglio di fosso dell'isola d'Ischia (prodotto tradizionale)
How to recognise it
The semi-wild life in the pit and a diet of mostly wild herbs show in the meat. The Campania Region describes it as firm, hard to pull from the bone and of very fine flavour; Slow Food stresses that this method yields better meat than more confined systems.
It is therefore not a soft, neutral rabbit like those from intensive farming, but firmer, tastier meat that calls for long cooking. Pit rabbit is available all year round.
Sources: Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Coniglio di fosso dell'isola d'Ischia (prodotto tradizionale) · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia
In the kitchen
On Ischia rabbit is the typical Sunday dish, tied to the island from the very way it is raised. The traditional preparation is coniglio all'ischitana, cooked in the coccio, an earthenware pan, as the Slow Food Presidium's page notes.
Slow cooking in terracotta suits firm meat like that of the pit rabbit, which clings to the bone and slowly releases its flavour. For visitors to the island, tasting it is a way to discover the farming cuisine of the interior, less known than its seafood.
Sources: Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura — Coniglio di fosso dell'isola d'Ischia (prodotto tradizionale) · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia
Where to taste it
Pit rabbit is raised on the island of Ischia, in the province of Naples. The Presidium's breeders belong to an association based in Barano d'Ischia, and the old pits are scattered across the countryside.
The product is available all year, so it can be tasted in any season. Visitors who come to Ischia for the sea can spend a day in the hill villages and among the terraces with their green-tuff parracine, the landscape from which this way of farming was born.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia
Protection
- Slow Food Presidium — coniglio-da-fossa-di-ischia (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia)
- Traditional agri-food product (PAT) — Campania, n. 38, 26th revision (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026))
When
- Production: all year round (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Coniglio da fossa di Ischia)