Mushrooms and chestnuts are the main ingredients of many traditional dishes. The visitor can be delighted also by the organic production of honey and by the cultivation of berries.

These are the traditional dishes using agricultural and wood produces:
- "Ravioli", fresh pasta filled with vegetables and meat, seasoned with minced meat or mushroom sauce;
-"Croxetti", small disks of pasta, stamped with floral patterns and seasoned with walnut or pine kernel sauce;
- chestnut flour  "tagliatelle" seasoned with pesto or fresh ricotta cheese.
- Meats, especially lamb and rabbit, flavoured with herbs; vegetable pies covered with a pastry rolled out by expert hands using a rolling-pin and the traditional sweets like the "buccellato", the "pandolce" and in winter the "castagnaccio" prepared with chestnut flour, pine kernels and raisins.

Traditional dishes are cooked using some characteristic tools, such as the "ciappa", a slate put on the fire to cook the meat and the earthen saucer used to prepare the "figassetta" made with corn flour and the "testaieu" prepared with wheat flour.

Varese Ligure, furthermore, is located in the heart of the high Vara Valley, called "the organic valley" thanks to the presence in this territory of more than forty organic farms, partners of the two local cooperatives producing organic meats and cheeses.

The river Vara, on its hand, offers the fish fans the chance to catch trout and heels.