Paupisi

The name comes from pau, that is pago, the Roman pagus, and a confirmation lies down below: on the left bank of the Calore Irpino there is a place called i Pagani, where many ruins of the Roman age have come to light. From then on Paupisi changed hands a good many times: it was a feudal domain first of the abbey of San Vincenzo al Volturno, then of that of San Lupo in Benevento, then of the county of Telese, of the barons of Fenucchio, of the Frangipane, of the Sanframondi and at last of the Sarriani. And for a long time it was not even a comune of its own: the source says only that «until the last century» Paupisi and the neighbouring Ponte were a single comune.

The village lies on the northern slopes of the Taburno Camposauro, among olive groves and vineyards, and within a few square kilometres it climbs a great deal: from the 59 metres of the valley floor to the 1176 of the mountain, a difference of 1117 metres. What was eaten up here is told by two dishes. The cecatielli are pasta made strictly by hand with wheat flour, poor food, prepared there and then at the moment of cooking, and the handwork gives it its fragrance; by tradition they go with a meat sauce. The padellaccia, on the other hand, comes from the day the pig was killed, the pig that everyone raised, on the farms and even in the village houses: it was the only meat within everybody's reach, the best cuts went to be preserved, and on that day the less noble parts were fried in olive oil, seasoned with wine, peppers and potatoes to taste.