Pumpkin is a key ingredient in Mantua's traditional cuisine. Highly popular for its versatility, it is used as a base for many dishes (such as the delicious pumpkin ravioli). Grown in Brescia's provincial lowlands, the local variety of pumpkin is characterised by its large size, bright orange colour, firm and compact pulp, with an extremely thick peel with green streaks and high sugar content.

This product has been named a Traditional food product of Lombardy, which recognises this food's important role in the region's culinary tradition.

In autumn, the pumpkin is the protagonist in the kitchen, when its pulp is used in both savoury and sweet dishes, thanks to its ease of use. What's more, every part of the plant is edible: the pulp, the flowers, the leaves and seeds.

In recognition of the quality of the Mantua pumpkin, each year Mantua's consortium of farmhouse inn owners promote an initiative known as Di zucca in zucca, or From pumpkin to pumpkin, to allow visitors to purchase pumpkins directly from the growers and to sample special dishes prepared by participating farmhouse inns.