It is a first course, with the characteristics of a single dish, from which the two main ingredients of Campania cuisine are missing: pasta and tomato. Its history, in fact, is even older than both the consumption of macaroni and the arrival of tomatoes from the New World in Europe.

Yet, despite the important absences, it is allowed on the table precisely on holidays, indeed it is indispensable in the Christmas menu in the Neapolitan tradition, while it also appears in the Easter menu in other areas of Campania, because it is a typical dish which, with some variations, it belongs to the entire region, from Caserta to Cilento, passing through Irpinia and Sannio, where it is mainly enjoyed on Easter Monday.

Still renowned today for its horticultural production, Campania has always been not only a producer, but also a great consumer of vegetables, of many species and varied in every season of the year. Vegetables which, in different versions and combinations, represented the fundamental ingredient of the daily meal of the vast majority of the population, in the countryside and also in the city. The soup, in fact, accompanied by bread which, if dry, softened and was embellished with its flavour. It is no coincidence that, before the "maccarune" broke into the daily lives of even the poor, Neapolitans and Campanians by extension were defined as "leaf eaters" by foreigners.

The plant-based formula of the daily meal changed on holidays with the addition of meat. It was then that the union of smells and flavors transformed the usual soup into “menesta 'mmaretata” (in Neapolitan, with variations linked to the different dialectal forms), also called "fat pignato". A dish with very ancient origins, like many of those in Campania gastronomy. A recipe of herbs, legumes and meats is present, in fact, in "De re coquinaria", in the book dedicated to vegetables, by the famous Roman gastronome Marco Gavio Apicio. Another historical reference is to the arrival in Naples of the Aragonese, with whom also arrived the Spanish "olla potrida", made with vegetables, legumes and pork.

For the marriage of Campania soup, in the recipe books of Neapolitan chefs since the sixteenth century, the less noble but very tasty parts of the meat were preferably used: rinds, trotters, ribs, pig's ears and snout, veal snout. Then, over time, chicken meat, sausages, nobler parts of pork and veal were added. A recipe declined in countless ways, depending on the availability and tastes of each family, within the typical customs of the different communities. And each of those variations has been passed down from generation to generation up to the present day, perhaps with some small revisions linked to the use of fattier meats and herbs that are difficult to find. Liketorzella, the oldest variety of cabbage from Campania.

The basic element of the recipe are, however, vegetables, as varied as possible. The recipe calls for up to sixteen, a part of which should be strictly wild, such as chicory, borage, cardoon, together with cabbage, escarole, endive, chard, black cabbage, the famous torzella and so on.

Although considered simple and popular, the menesta recipe is quite elaborate, at least for the numerous steps it involves: the vegetables to be boiled separately and the meats to be fried separately, based on the characteristics and consistency of the pieces, and then boiled all together for hours, gradually skimming and degreasing the broth, to which cheese rinds and various vegetables will then be added, for the final cooking phase, with which the wedding is officially celebrated

Once cooking is finished, the soup must be left to rest before being served at the table with toasted bread or with the characteristic "scagliuozzi", which are fried polenta triangles.