Naxos is a fertile garden in the middle of the Aegean Sea. Za, the highest mountain in the Cyclades, Mount Fanari and the entire area around the village of Kinidaro yield crystalline marble, granite and emery.

Below the quarries, on ground underpinned by limestone, the islanders’ sheep and goats graze on wild greens that grow in the mineral-rich soil and yield creamy milk that is made into six or seven different types of cheese. Below the pastures, the Naxiot livestock farmers have their animal sheds and dairies, dotted around villages such as Filoti.

The plateaus are home to the farms – worked without pause – where the islanders grow citrus fruits, including pomelo, and olives. The meadows below the plateaus are used for ‘sophisticated’ livestock farming, producing wonderful beef that is hard to come by elsewhere. And down by the sea, the land yields potatoes, and especially a local variety of spunta.

Across the length and breadth of this mountainous island, you will see the locals working the land.

Most have two or three jobs: baker and organic farmer; restaurateur, livestock farmer and dairy producer; producer, packager and merchant.
They produce olives and olive oil, fruits and vegetables, raki and more than 10 varieties of grape used for wine or eating. They rear rabbits and chickens and keep bees.

The Naxiots are indeed self-reliant. Their products can be purchased on the island and in a few stores in the country’s larger cities. But their greatest asset is that they are good folk.

The cuisine

Driving back from Koronos and Damarionas to Agiasos, I met a number of locals who said that the island’s cuisine has changed little over the years.

With a few exceptions, I did not discover secret or long-forgotten recipes, but rather fascinating combinations of ingredients in both old and new recipe books.

Most families at one point had home-reared pigs, just as in most parts of the country.

Michalis Krimitzas, a resident of Apeiranthos, recalls that his family “would butcher one at Christmas and the other at Carnival” (before the start of Lent).

“On the last Sunday of Carnival we still make rosto, which we serve with pasta. The fat and skin above the loin was preserved. We would fill our cellars with jars of preserved cuts.”

The cured pork is known as alatsoto on Naxos. It is cooked with broad beans, or a small chunk is added to vegetable dishes such as stuffed vine leaves (dolma) or beans in tomato sauce for flavour.

The cheeks and neck would be made into a delicious rosemary-scented snack called glynero, cured in the fat that the islanders use for butter. The flank was turned into zamboni, ham cured in salt and flavoured with garlic, cinnamon and cloves. This was usually made at Carnival and eaten all the way up to Christmas.

Amathies is another festive dish made with pork belly and stuffed with rice. It is a fiddly dish to prepare but well worth the effort. In the village of Moni, Anastasia Maraki took the time to cook it for us. As she cleaned and stuffed the offal, her mother-in-law, Irene Herouvim, told us all about the varieties of wild greens that grow on the island and how she uses them in the traditional Easter Saturday lamb offal, magiritsa stew, along with mushrooms.

Easter is generally a celebration that is centred on food, and especially on patoudo (or batoudo), a whole lamb stuffed with fragrant herbs.

Most of the locals didn’t start eating beef until the 1960s because it was expensive to rear and they preferred to sell it rather than consume it themselves.

Other foods typically found on the family table are fava dip, a puree of cooked yellow split peas served with finely chopped onions and capers, stuffed tomatoes, goat and bean casserole, and, of course, a slew of dishes involving potato.

On this journey, through the locals’ stories and treats, I realised that the traditional cuisine of Naxos is very much alive. The food of yesteryear is still prepared today, with top-quality local products, cooked for the family but also served to the island’s visitors at its tavernas and restaurants.

* This article first appeared in the June 2014 edition of Gastronomos, Kathimerini’s monthly food supplement.