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"Food
is a gift from God, but cooks are surely the work of the devil",
as Oscar Wilde put it with his customary sharp wit. He could well have
been thinking about Italian food and wine. It is certainly true that
Italy -
with its varied landscape of alternating plains,
hills, coasts and mountains, rivers, woods, countryside and rich seas,
and its mild yet sometimes harsh climate
- boasts a wealth of
invaluable natural treasures. But it is equally true that what gives
life to a culinary tradition, and what creates the history of food and
wine, is the work, passion and imagination of man. If Italy is home to
such an extraordinary variety of flavors, tastes and aromas, it is
because Italians have known how to make the best of nature's gifts and
to transform them by taking inspiration from nature itself. This is as
it should be, for the art of gastronomy is mimetic, and imitates nature.
 The process relies on a shifting between different systems, and cookery
is its ideal medium. We could produce an endless list of products which
might seem unimportant, but which are actually vital elements of Italian
cuisine. All over Italy, from the Alps to the Mediterranean, we find the
products of a thousand years of tradition, and specialties which exist
only here. The desire to taste the country's cooking would in fact be an
excellent reason for people to come and visit. An extraordinary
adventure
-
die discovery of die flavors of Italy
- would await them, in die
great restaurants of die cities of art or major cities, but also in the
thousands of small trattorias, to be found in every village and along
every road, in die mountain logis, "agriturismo"
(farmhouses offering food and accommodation), and wine
bars. There are two sides to Italian cuisine: tradition and innovation,
and in recent years cookery has increasingly meant, on one hand,
performing a cultural activity, by creating new versions of traditional
dishes and rediscovering the use of local agricultural products, and on
the other, caring for our health, by cooking tasty yet at the same time
simple food. The natural backdrop to all this is a landscape on which
man has left clear signs of his presence. It is no coincidence that in
the last two years
75 new "Food and wine
trails" have been inaugurated in Italy, along with
5 "Olive oil trails". Over
500
wine bars have also been opened, most of them promoting locally
produced wines. Moreover, in the same period, a number of associations
have been set up, bringing together "Flavor towns", "Slow food towns",
"Chestnut towns", "Seafood towns", and "Bread towns", alongside the
existing "Wine towns", "Olive oil towns" and "Truffle towns", involving
a total of over 600 Italian council districts. Throughout the
Italian peninsula a capillary network of tourist facilities is being
developed which revolves around the "food system" whilst promoting
awareness
 and protection of the environment. In Italy more than hardly
anywhere else in the world it is possible to satisfy the hunger for
culture and good food at the same time. A good meal may in itself be a
cultural experience, offering a whole range of insights into the
history, traditions and everyday life of the area in which it is eaten.
Browsing through the extraordinary Italian atlas by sitting down to eat
may thus become an interesting experience for the mind, and not merely
for the taste buds. As the USA's best selling
Karen Brown Guide
points out: in Italy "gourmets will find the best food in the world",
and "the miracle of Italy is that all these gastronomic and cultural
treasures are found together in a magnificent country". Italian
restaurants offer both the new and the old: the classics (pasta, pizza),
but also locally produced wines (well worth having one's fill on a visit
to the winery), cheeses, salami and hams (preferably purchased where
they are produced), and extra virgin olive oil made from rare
traditional varieties (to be bought directly at the olive press).The
fantastic, indissoluble marriage between the landscape and its
extraordinary generosity in terms of wines and other gastronomic
delights inspires a journey around the food and wine trails of Italy.
The gastronomic tourist is encouraged to foster a fruitful relationship
with the land and its inhabitants, and is rewarded with concrete
satisfaction and pleasure. It is an exciting adventure, and well worth
the experience.
1. Valle d'Aosta: a
synphony of Alpine pastures
top
This
is a region where history has been influenced by its mountains and
national borders. The traditional cookery of the
Valle d'
Aosta revolves around the flavors of
milk and cheese, meat, and the products of the land and environment. These
flavors are the essence of a harsh yet beautiful land, and take us back
to the origins of an ancient civilization.
With an extremely high average altitude (much higher than
that of the other Italian regions),
Valle d'Aosta's culinary
traditions are those of a border people, inevitably influenced by
landscape and history, and by contact with the Swiss and French. The
cookery is based on local products (cabbage, rye bread, chestnuts and
milk), but is nevertheless varied, and uses a whole range of ingredients
from further afield. Since ancient Rome, many of the influences on the
region's food have been related to its history and geographical position.
For example, the closeness to Switzerland and France accounts for the
region's famous fonduta
(fondue) , a dish which anyone visiting the
Valle d' Aosta
should try. The Roman legions brought vine-growing
and their culinary traditions based on hunting and the use of barley in
soups. These soups -
which the local people prepared with rye bread and
seasonal vegetables - also abounded on the tables of the lords, where
they were enriched with meat stock, cheese and butter. Still today, a
favorite dish is seuppa valpellinentze,
a soup of white and Savoy cabbage,
fontina cheese and rye bread. The local
bread has always been made in two
varieties: white and black. In the past, the former was eaten only at
feast day banquets and was consumed fresh; black bread, meanwhile, was
prepared only once per year in an activity which involved the entire
community. It became very hard, and to cut it use was made of a "copapan",
a type of iron knife that can still be found in craft shops. While the
discovery of America brought corn and potatoes to the rest of Europe, in
the Valle d'Aosta polenta (maize
porridge) was introduced only in the
18th
century. Today it is the most characteristic dish, to be enjoyed in Alpine
hostelries. It evokes the tastes of a bygone age, and is served with
butter and fontina
cheese, or with meat and a variety
of sauces. Meat for centuries was a rarity, eaten only in winter, when the
climatic conditions made its conservation possible. Still today, livestock
are slaughtered just before Christmas and soon afterwards restaurant menus
offer a whole range of foodstuffs which otherwise would be impossible to
conserve, such as teteun,
dried cows udders preserved in salt and flavored with herbs.
The typical need in mountain areas to preserve food for long periods led
to the development in the
Valle d'Aosta of
numerous types of high quality sausages. There are also various types of
dried and cured meat, such as the salted beef which is at the basis of the
typical regional dish, carbonade;
also unforgettable is
lardo di Arnad, cured belly
pork flavored with herbs and spices. For all those who visit
Valle d'Aosta,
we advise them not to miss out on one of its most characteristic
rituals: the coppa dell'amicizia
(the "cup of friendship", with a number
of drinking spouts arranged around its circumference). The ingredients are
simple: a region with ancient traditions dating back thousands of years, a
group of friends on holiday, and a relaxing evening after a day spent in
the fresh mountain air. Passing from hand to hand, the "coupe
de l'amitié"
gives everyone a portion of "caffè alla valdostana"
(made by mixing scaldingly hot coffee with grappa, red wine,
sugar and lemon zest), making sure to make enough to allow the cup to be
passed round a good few times. Each time you are likely to drink from a
different spout, and this gives the ritual that touch of intimacy which
helps create a friendly atmosphere.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
The
Valle d'Aosta's most famous wine is the
Blanc de
Morgex
et de La Salle,
also known as "glacier wine" because
it is made from grapes grown at altitudes normally unthinkable for vines,
up to 1300
meters above sea level. The ideal place to taste and buy the
region's best wines is the Enoteca
Regionale ad Forum in
Aosta,
which also hosts frequent food and wine evenings and cultural
events. Spirits and liqueurs are important regional products, with
numerous types of grappa
and
the famous
genepy, an infusion of flowers and
mountain artemisia
berries in
alcohol.
Festival and Country Fairs
One of the region's key food wine
events takes place in July (usually in the third week) in Saint
Rhémy
en Bosses, which hosts the
Esposizione del "jambon de
Bosses",
a festival
celebrating the local raw ham (awarded DOP status), produced a few
kilometers from the Swiss border.This extraordinary ham has a
characteristic flavor, delicate, lightly salted with sweet and aromatic
undertones and a gamey edge. In Arnad
meanwhile, on the last Sunday in August, there
has been held since
1969
the popular Festa del Lardo, a
special occasion to taste not
only the famous lardo
(cured belly pork), but also sweets, cheeses and
local wines.
2.
Piedmont: wines and
truffles
top
The region's food is generous, displaying
the colours of the Piedmont rainbow. A tradition which offers infinite
types of flavors, aromas and tastes. From west to east, from the harsh
rugged mountains to the fertile plains and rolling hills, Piedmont offers
an infinite range of delicacies. Sipping one of its great wines is the
best way to start discovering its many miracles.
The best season for discovering the
secrets of Piedmont at table is undoubtedly-autumn. This is the perfect
time of year to enjoy wine
and truffles,
two of the mainstays of the region's culinary tradition,
which over the centuries has been subjected to French influences, but
which also has unique features of its own. In ancient times, truffles were
known not only for their gastronomic qualities, but also for their
 aphrodisiacal properties. The best way to bring out their aroma is to eat
them raw, sliced thinly. In the area of Alba between mid September and
late December you are likely to bump into "trifulau", the truffle hunters
accompanied by their faithful dogs, which are kept hungry to help keep
their sense of smell keen. Piedmont is a land with a great culinary
heritage, based on strong flavors and subtle pleasures, whose traditional
recipes are best enjoyed in its many restaurants, trattorias and
agriturismos. A Piedmontese lunch is a real ritual, starting with the
ever-present antipasto:
aromatic salami and hams, meat served
with sauces or in salads, stuffed vegetables, omelettes, and cheeses in an
incredible number of varieties and combinations. First course dishes are
extremely rich, such as the country dish of
agnolotti or
ravioli (fresh pasta stuffed with meat). This was
eaten on feast days in the country, and together with other types of fresh
pasta, such as taglierini,
represented an alternative to
rice, which is a
fundamental ingredient in the traditional diet. The king of rice dishes is
"paniscia" from Novara
(the version from
Vercelli is
called "panissa"), a hearty risotto with Savoy cabbage and beans, flavored with salami. The whole region offers opportunities for
unforgettable gastronomic adventures, but the glory of Piedmontese cookery
can be found in the south of the region, between
Monferrato and Langhe.
Here, meat reigns
supreme, despite the fact that the cuisine has humble origins, due to the
poverty of the area in the past. Ox, beef, veal, pork, poultry, rabbit and
game are all cooked in a variety of ways, from the simplest (grilled,
kebabs and barbecues) to the most complex, such as
brasato, braised
meat cooked slowly in wine, or
bollito misto, a
dish of mixed boiled meats in
which the balance of flavors between the various meats is combined with
classic accompanying sauces. One of the curiosities of the Piedmont
cookery, perhaps the typical dish par excellence, is
bagna caoda.
This is a sauce of anchovies, olive oil, butter and garlic,
served boiling hot, together with raw vegetables for dipping: peppers,
cardoons, celery, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes and cauliflower. Those who
wish to discover this western strip of Italy must not forget to try the
great variety of cheeses,
of which there are
170 local varieties. Of
these, at least two have achieved international renown:
gorgonzola,
 a
naturally matured cheese with green and blue veins, typical of the
Novara area,
and castelmagno, produced in limited quantities in
the town of the same name using the milk of the Cuneese
Val Grana
breed of cattle. Last of all, there are the region's sweets
and cakes. Walking around the pleasant historical centres of the towns of
Piedmont, visitors will find a multitude of pastry shops offering
unforgettable specialities: krumiri
di Casale Monferrato
(whose shape seems to imitate the
moustache of Victor Emanuel II, first King of Italy),
biscotti di Novara,
biscuits ideal for dipping in wine or
rosolio (rose-flavored
liqueur), amaretti
biscuits from Mombaruzzo, in the
Asti area, and
torcetti
from Biella. In Turin, the local speciality is
chocolate, the food of the gods.
Torinese
chocolates have created many delicacies, but first
and foremost is gianduiotto, a
delicate cream of cocoa and hazelnut
paste. A perfect opportunity for getting to know and taste the typical
products of Piedmont (and elsewhere) is Turin's
Salone del Gusto
(the Food Show, which takes place in
October), one of the most important food and wine events in
Europe.
FOCUS:
WINES AND LIQUEURS
Piedmont has been a centre of
viticulture since time immemorial. Its leading products have been
appreciated the world over: from the sumptuous and sought-after reds
(Barolo, Barbaresco,
Gattinara, Barbera),
and whites (Erbaluce,
Roero
Arneis, Gavi,
Cortese),
to its sweet and inviting dessert and conversation
wines
(Asti Spumante,
Brachetto, Moscato d'Asti, Malvasia, Caluso
passìto).The
range of the
Piedmontese quality wine is
impressive, with over 40
wines holding DOC (denominazione d'origine
controllata)
status, and 8
classified as DOCG (denominazione d'origine
controllata e garantita). In
the zone of
Asti there is also the
"Asti
wine trail", covering eight routes to help visitors discover wine
bars and trattorias, as well as museums dedicated to food, wine and
country life.
Festival and Country
Fairs
In Piedmont there are numerous
festivals related to wine production. One of the most important is the
Douja
d'or, which takes place in
Asti
between the second and third Sunday of September, with tastings,
dinners and a fair-market In
2003,
the show assumed a more international
flavor, by starting to introduce foreign producers. During
the month of October, Alba hosts the
Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo
Bianco (National white
truffle festival), an event not to be missed by lovers of truffles, wine
and the area's typical products.
3.
Liguria: a triumph of
colours
top
The triumph of Liguria's characteristic products is above
all a triumph of colours and aromas: fragrant herbs, vegetables from the
market garden and hillsides, the infinite shades of green and grey of the
olives and oil. In this region there is the scent of the sea, the fish,
and the fantastic seafood. Colours only have these shades in
Liguria,
and
only in Liguria are
aromas so invigorative.
Anyone who walks through the historic centres of the
cities or down the narrow streets of a coastal or hillside town will
discover that the Ligurians, although renowned for being practical,
communicate with immediacy and vivaciousness through their work and
crafts. Moreover, they express themselves eloquently in the gastronomic
delights produced in their bakeries and restaurants. Ligurian cookery,
'
which is traditionally based on "humble" ingredients, exploits the
flavors of the land and the sea with elegant simplicity. The Ligurian
diet is basically Mediterranean, with olive oil, vegetables and herbs
giving flavor to simple and traditional dishes which are both healthy and
well-balanced. In Oneglia a museum with
18 rooms has been dedicated
to the olive tree and ol ive oil production, the
Museo dell'Olivo. Gourmets
and top chefs have for long considered that the key to success in Italian
cookery lies in exploiting the flavors and aromas of traditional food.
The tradition of Liguria
abounds with unforgettable aromas and colours. What
better place to start than its hallmark recipe,
pesto, the "ambassador" of
Ligurian cuisine abroad. This magical sauce unites in a variable blend,
for which no definitive recipe
exists, the fragrance of basil, garlic,
parsley, pine nuts and cheese, all bound together by olive oil. The
importance of the "superfluous", in terms of taste and appearance, is
testified in Ligurian cooking by the great popularity of sauces. Apart
from pesto, we should not forget
aggiada (garlic and fresh
breadcrumbs, served with fried fish and boiled vegetables) and
marò (finely chopped raw broad beans with cheese,
garlic, oil and aromatic mint). Well-known traditional dishes include
buridda (a fish soup)
and cima
(meat stuffed with vegetables and herbs); salt cod
and stockfish are also used in many recipes. There are unique tastes, such
as that of the simple and popular
focaccia and
farinata,
giving an aroma which fills the air at every street corner
and tempts passers-by to have a tasty snack between meals, not to mention
the delicious vegetable tarts. Inland, where there are chestnut woods,
mushrooms are widely
appreciated: cooked "alia
genovese" (in the pan with
potatoes, garlic and basil) or coated in breadcrumbs and fried, at the
right time of year they are well worth making a trip for, at least to a
local trattoria. On the b order with Piedmont, truffles can also be found. Liguria's most famous cake
is without doubt the
pandolce genovese,
made with butter, candied peel and raisins, found on tables
throughout Italy together with the
panettone from Milan. Equally
well known are amaretti
biscuits from Sassello, gobelletti from
Rapallo and the
biscuits of Lagaccio. Canestrelli, traditional butter biscuits, are found
throughout the province of Genoa, and are particularly good in Torriglia,
Montebruno and Acquasanta, in
the district of
Mele. A version
flavored with fennel seeds is produced in Monterosso. Up to the 19th century,
Liguria was famous throughout
Europe for its confectionery and fondants. In the 15th century, Genoa's confectioners set up the
corporation of the so-called
"nebulari" or
"negiari", i.e.
makers of waffles and wafers. At the close of noble banquets it was the
custom to serve sweets by placing handfuls in the ladies' cleavages. The
reputation of Ligurian confectionery even reached the Este Court, where it
is recounted that during a banquet the princes were served
"cotognata e persiche alla genovese" (Genoan
style apples and
pears).
FOCUS : WINES AND
LIQUEURS
Liguria
boasts
20
wines which have been awarded DOC and DOCG status. Those with
the oldest reputation are Rossese
di
Dolceacqua
and Cinque
Terre Sciacchetrà.The
former (DOC since 1972)
is a red wine produced in the zone of
Dolceacqua. Rossese is a fragrant, ruby red, with a brilliant timbre even
if light coloured, and is one of the few wines obtained from a single
grape variety as opposed to a blend. Cinque
Terre Sciacchetrà meanwhile,
is a fruity white, ideal as an aperitif or dessert wine. Produced between
Riomaggiore, Monterosso, Vernazza and
La Spezia, it has qualities
absolutely inimitable in its category. A must for wine and food
enthusiasts is the "Wine and olive oil trail", which winds through the
provinces of Savona
and Imperia,
stopping off in historical towns, olive
groves and vineyards, not to mention farms, olive presses and trattorias
where they can savour the unforgettable flavors of
Liguria.
Festival and Country Fairs
The most typical of Liguria's popular
festivals takes place on the second Sunday in May in
Camogli -
the
sagra del pesce (Fish
festival). In the picturesque setting provided by the harbor with the
countryside behind, the largest frying pan in the world (almost
4
meters wide, weighing 26
quintals, and with a handle weighing
3
quintals) is used to fry fish for the local people and
holidaymakers. This classic festival, which dates back to 1952, is the
modern descendant of the centuries-old festival of Saint Fortunatus, the
patron saint of fishermen.
4.1
Lombardy: risotto and so much
more top
Despite its stereotyped image as a centre of industry and
business, Lombardy is Italy's second most productive region in terms of
agriculture.This is a land of intense "forage" cultivation, whose products
feed armies of cattle and pigs bred on the rice plains of the Lomellina
area. The region contains land that is difficult to farm, high on the
mountainsides of the Valtellina area,
and has vineyards in
Oltrepò Pavese,
and around Bergamo and Brescia. This is a universe worth getting
to know and discover.
There is a legend behind the origin of
the most famous dish in the Lombard gastronomic tradition,
risotto alla
milanese, which is known the world
over. In the second half of the 16th century, the construction
of Milan cathedral was in full swing, and had been for the previous two
h undred years. Among the many workers employed was a group of Belgian
craftsmen with the job of making some of the stained-glass windows. One of
them had been nicknamed
Zafferano ("saffron"),
due to his habit of adding a pinch of saffron to the glass, with
surprising chromatic results. The master glazier often made fun of him for
his obsession, quipping that sooner or later he would even start putting
saffron in his food. The young man took him at his word and when the
master glazier's daughter got married, he arranged with the cook to have
saffron powder mixed into the rice at the wedding banquet. He wanted to
play a joke on him, but after initial shock, the guests were delighted
with the innovation. Putting legend to one side, the wine and food
tradition of Lombardy has always been influenced by the historical events
which have marked the region. Dominated over the centuries by the Spanish,
French and Austrians, Lombardy boasts a varied cuisine full of subtle
nuances. Even though the presence of the great metropolis of Milan and its
international outlook has meant that the region has been subjected to the
effects of gastronomic globalisation, there are still many restaurants
where you can rediscover the real flavors of Lombardy. Alongside rice,
there is also room for pasta in the classic Lombard menu. There is a great
tradition of stuffed pasta, with a wide variety of fillings, including
meat, vegetables and cheese. An example is
casoncelli from the Bergamo and
Brescia areas, made with spinach, eggs, cheese,
amaretti
biscuits and breadcrumbs. Anyone who spends a holiday among the
mountains of Valtellina, a
splendid place for winter skiing and for
outdoor activities in summer, must try
pizzoccheri, short buckwheat
tagliatelle served with Savoy cabbage, abundant butter and
stringy cheese, or polenta taragna
(also made with buckwheat flour). From the plains of the
Po
valley to the peaks of the Alps, Lombardy is dotted with dairy
farms, accounting for hundreds of thousands of cows. It is thus no
surprise that the Lombard cheese-making tradition is rich and varied. It
is also no surprise that traditional cookery includes a wide range of meat
dishes. A legacy of Medieval country cooking is cotechino, a
large salami to be eaten
cooked, while Spanish influences are behind
cassouela, a stew which uses the
cheaper cuts of pork and crispy Savoy cabbage. Boiled meats, stews, grills
and roasts, together with chicken, turkey and goose have an important
place, and there are also many dishes of "humble" origins, such as
zuppa di trippa
(stewed tripe) and
ossobuco. For the Lombards,
cake means above all panettone,
a
classic Milanese Christmas tradition which also has its own
fascinating legend. It is said that at the court of
Ludovico il Moro, Lord
of Milan, an enormous banquet was being held on Christmas Eve,
which was supposed to end with a magnificent cake, prepared according to a
secret recipe. By mistake or due to an oversight, the cake was burnt.
While the head chef was in a state of panic, a kitchen boy called
Toni
took the leftover paste of the burnt cake, added candied peel,
spice, eggs and sugar, and made a new cake. It did not look particularly
appetising, with an appearance rather like a flat bread. Nevertheless, it
was arranged on a large plate and taken to table where, after the diners'
initial perplexity, it turned out to be a great success. Duke
Ludovico
congratulated the head chef and "pane
di Toni" became the
traditional Christmas cake of the city of Milan.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
Lombardy has three main wine
producing zones:
Valtellina, Bresciano (in
particular Franciacorta) and
Oltrepò Pavese, producing
around 60
white, red and sparkling wines in various categories:
denominazione di origine controllata (DOC),
denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG) and indicazione
geografica tipica (IGT). These
include
Franciacorta, Valtellina superiore, Valcalepio,
the various wines of Oltrepò Pavese,
and Garda classico.
A perfect way to try
these wines and typical Lombard products is to follow one of the region's
eight Itinerari
del vino e del
gusto
("Food and wine trails"), where fine wines and food can be
enjoyed to a backdrop of Lombardy's fascinating art and
history.
Festival and Country Fairs
A gastronomic festival which is surely
unique in its kind takes place in Mortara,
in the province of
Pavia, on the
last Sunday in September. At the time of
Ludovico il Moro, the local
people decided to experiment with a goose meat salami.The experiment was a
success:
today, during
sagra dell'oca (Goose
festival), and the unusual Palio
dell'Oca (goose race), the town's streets
are packed with stalls, where you can taste and buy the prized salami and
other gastronomic delights based on goose meat, including delicacies such
as foie gras.
5.
Trentino Alto Adige: mountains and
sun
top
Sunny may not be the first adjective that springs to mind
to describe a region whose main features are valleys and mountain peaks.
But in Trentino-Alto Adige
even the mountains seem to be made of
light, as anyone who has enjoyed its breathtaking scenery and the calm of
its mountain pastures will be only too glad to confirm. Here, two
gastronomic traditions live side by side: one of
Veneto roots in the area of
Trento,
and the other of German origin in
Alto Adige. This is a
gastronomic tradition of particular elegance, in all its forms, even the
most unusual.
Trentino-Alto Adige
is
above all a territory whose environmental and climatic variety make it
unique among the regions of Italy. Here, the culture of the olive is
intertwined with that of Alpine pastures. The land is characterised by
glaciers and streams, forests and meadows, but also by warmer,
Mediterranean scenery. This is a region, above all, in which the natural
environment is safeguarded and protected,
 and which is known the world
over for its splendid mountains, the Dolomites. The local products
-
wine, cheese, honey, fruit and vegetables to mention but a few
-
are, in a word, excellent, not only because of the environment,
but also because of the care and love which the farmers and growers
dedicate to them. Fruit is also the subject of the interesting
Museo della Frutticoltura di Lana
(Bolzano), where visitors can learn
about the history of fruit farming in Alto
Adige from the Middle
Ages to the present day. Tourists will love the experience of walking into
a mountain chalet, sitting down by an open fire and enjoying a steaming
plate of polenta,
perhaps with some melted
casolèt cheese from
Val di Sole on top, served with cep and chanterelle
mushrooms. Or maybe walking along one of the region's many crystalline
lakes, stopping in a restaurant on the shore and tasting
trout caviar spread on lightly
softened toasted bread. Another delicacy is
salmerino, a delicately flavored
member of the salmon family, which is dusted with flour and fried in
butter, or simply steamed and accompanied with boiled potatoes and a
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil from Lake
Garda. In
this friendly and welcoming region, food and hospitality are
closely related. If you happen to see a bunch of flowers on the threshold
of a house in Alto Adige/do not hesitate to go in and ask to taste their
vino
novello: this is Toerggelen,
a country custom which was practised after the harvest, when work in the
fields had stopped and the farm workers had time to rest and go and visit
relatives and friends and taste the SuBer (the grape must), or Nuier (the
new wine), accompanied by Kòstn
(roasted chestnuts). The tradition is
still practised today, from late September until early November. Another
speciality to be found in •
the region's valleys are
sausages, which have
always been an important food resource in the coldest months. Valsugana,
for example, produces unique sausages, flavored with wild herbs and
spices. You are also bound to come across
moretti, matured sausa ges
seasoned with woodland aniseed, and the famous
carne salada,
slices of prime beef, cured in brine
with bay leaves, black pepper, juniper berries, garlic and rosemary.
Originally from the alto Garda,
this cured meat has ancient
origins, but is still prepared in the same, patient way. You will find it
accompanied by beans or broccoli from Torbole, sliced thin and eaten raw,
or charcoal-grilled and served with a few drops of vinegar. In this
frontier land, the list of foods ranges from those with evident TyroJese
influences to excellent interpretations of classic Italian cuisine.
Needless to say, the choice is vast, and there are pleasant surprises to
be had both in elegant restaurants and at the tables of Alpine logis.
Delicacies not to be missed include speck
(smoked raw ham), the local cheeses, homemade
bread, weinsuppe (a
soup of meat broth with cream and Terlano or Termeno white wine), fresh
radishes and crisp salad leaves. What better way to finish than with
strudel,
a traditional pastry
filled with fruit.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
The region is characterised by
significant changes in temperature throughout the year, even between day
and night, a phenomenon which is highly beneficial for viticulture. ,White
wines include Chardonnay,
Pinot
bianco,
Pinot grigio, Gewurtztraminer, Miiller-Thurgau,
and Riesling.
The best reds are Teroldego
Rotaliano DOC, Marzemino
trentino DOC,
and
Schiava. And alongside
the great wines, there are also great spirits: above all
grappa, with its long tradition. In
the garden that is the South Tyrol, vines have been grown since ancient
times. And wine is in fact one of the main reasons for the region's
wealth, representing 70%
of the region's entire production. Its
reputation was such that in the
1960s, Provincial Road no.
14
was transformed into the famous "Wine trail" or Weinstrasse, which
runs along the right bank of the
Adige river for around
40
km between Salorno and Bolzano.
Festival and Country Fairs
Every year in the month of May,
Bolzano's picturesque
historical centre hosts the
festa dello speck
(Festival of smoked hamj.There are
folk events and groups of musicians and dancers in traditional costume,
but the heart of the festival is a market, where the producers of the
consortium give visitors a chance to taste this characteristic smoked ham,
accompanied by fresh bread, baked in a stone oven.
6.
Veneto: from the Adriatic to the
Dolomites
top
A vast land full of atmosphere with an ever-changing
landscape, ranging from lagoons and coastal areas to wide plains and soft
rolling hills, right up to high mountains.
Veneto gastronomy is
dominated by four elements: polenta, rice, beans and salt cod, all of them
imported. The success of Venice and its past power are also expressed in
its cookery by the use of spices, which the Venetians did not only trade
in, but adopted in their cooking.
A mixture of history, art and tradition in a setting
without equal, whose mere memory evokes yearning. Venice is a jewel known
by the whole world, with the Rialto,
San Marco, the Grand Canal... And then
there is the Venice of the "calli"
and
"campielli" (the local
names for the streets and
 squares of this urban universe unique in
the world), with its shops and
restaurants. Venetian food means above all the
fish of the north Adriatic. This is
of exceptional quality, and thanks to local creativity, is used in a wide
and often surprising variety of dishes. The
spider-crab, for example, becomes a
delicious antipasto:
it is thrown into boiling water and,
once cooked, is served with olive
oil, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon
juice. A dish which demonstrates the oriental influence of local cooking
is sarde in carpione
("in
saor"), which consists of braised sardines marinated in a sauce of
onions, sultanas, candied peel, pine nuts and vinegar, in a characteristic
marriage of sweet and savory ■
flavors.
Frittura veneziana (mixed
fried fish) is another internationally famous dish, as is baccalà mantecato,
in which salt cod is
made into a soft mousse with a surprising flavor. But the Venetians do
not only eat fish. Among the dishes which have made their cookery famous
are recipes such as fegato alla
veneziana, probably Venice's best known
specialty, which you can find practically anywhere in the world. The dish
consists of slices of calf's liver cooked with oil, onions, butter and
parsley, and is something that any visitor to Venice should try. Another
famous dish is risi e bisi
(rice with peas), which was the
traditional first course of the Doge of Venice's lunch on the feast day of
St Mark. Veneto
cooking in general is based on
rice and
polenta. Rice, grown mainly in the
province of Verona, is prepared in dozens of different ways and each local
community tries to give a touch of originality to their recipes. It is
said that in Veneto
there exist forty different dishes based
on rice, which is combined with a wide range of other ingredients: meat,
fish, and above all vegetables such as courgettes, cabbage, asparagus,
peas and cauliflower, produced in the region's highly fertile land.
Polenta, meanwhile, is used by the
Veneto inhabitants like
bread. Particularly well-known is Vicenza's
polenta e osei,
polenta served with small game birds
sautéed
over a low heat, flavored with fatty bacon, sage and olive oil.
Birds, in fact, and above all poultry, are the basis of most of the meat
dishes. Mention must be made of the
gallina padovana, a
wide-breasted breed of
chicken known the world over, and which features in many regional dishes,
such as Vicenza's paeta
al malgaragna,
in which the chicken is covered with pork fat, cooked on the spit
and basted with pomegranate juice.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
Veneto
is a land of
ancient winemaking traditions, and boasts Italy's largest production of
DOC wines. There are in fact 17
DOC
production areas with marvellous whites, reds and sparkling wines. The
major wine-producing areas are around Verona, home to wines such as
Valpolicella, Recioto, Bardolino
and
Soave, and the area around
Treviso, with its Prosecco,
the best examples of which are
the
sparkling wines of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. One of the
places where vines have been grown since ancient times is Colli Berici,
south of Vicenza. The barrier formed by the high land allows the district
to enjoy a particularly mild climate, and it is here that we find one of
the region's
12
wine trails, the "Colli Berici DOC wine
trail", which starts in Vicenza
and heads south-east between
splendid villas, wineries and picturesque towns. A fantastic event for wine lovers is
Vinitaly, the show
held in Verona in April, which attracts around
4000 exhibitors
from all over the world. The Veneto
region is also renowned for its
particular expertise in distillation and liqueur production. Alongside the
extraordinary grappas,
the most famous from Bassano, were is a vast array of
liqueurs flavored with fragrant Alpine herbs.
Festival and Country Fairs
One of the oldest popular gastronomic festivals ofVeneto
takes place on 8 September in
Rubbio di Conco, a small town in the province of VicenzaJhe festival celebrates the
locally grown white celery, which has been appreciated since Roman times.
On the occasion of the sagra del sedano bianco
(Festival of white celery), visitors can have the
chance to try traditional local dishes.
7.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia: a cultural
crossroads
top
What is most fascinating about
Friuli-Venezia Giulia and its
gastronomy is the extraordinary way it brings together widely differing
traditions and cultures. In little over an hour's drive it is possible to
pass through three completely different environments: the mountains of
Carnia, the green hills of Friuli,
and
Carso with the bay of
Trieste. Here, the customs, culture and gastronomy of thousands of years
have been superimposed to bring us a wide range of superb
delicacies.
Flavors, aromas, colours
-
and foods which bear the marks of different cultures and
traditions -enrich this region's gastronomy, which has always been marked by
the passage and meeting of various peoples.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where
three important linguistic areas converge, also reveals its Austrian, Slav
and Veneto
influences at table. The region's cookery also expresses the
simple, strong, at times brusque, but always hearty character of its
inhabitants. Beans are one of the main ingredients, and are included in
two of the most typical dishes:
 iota
(a soup with beans and sauerkraut) and
zuppa di fagioli
(a bean
soup in which the beans are cooked twice in water with the addition of
milk, pasta or rice, and then seasoned with butter). Tasting these hearty
mountain soups in an Alpine farm in the Carnia district, which are open
from mid-June onwards, when the flocks are taken to the Alpine pastures,
is a unique way to experience personally the essence of
Friuli and its
traditions. Most of the specialties of the interior have simple strong
flavors, such as gulasch friulano,
derived from Hungarian goulash.
Here ravioli are called cialsons,
little pasta parcels with a sweet and savoury flavor, and
are based on a centuries-old recipe; they are a specialty of Carnia. A
trip to Friuli-Venezia Giulia
also represents a chance to discover the
famous prosciutto crudo di San
Daniele, a
mild raw ham, which owes its exceptional aroma to the Alpine
air. This product of international renown has ancient roots (evidence
shows that the conservation of hams dates back to the Celts), and is
widely used both in country cooking and in sophisticated modern cuisine.
As elsewhere in northern Italy, polenta
accompanies a whole range of dishes, and is
often used instead of bread. Particularly appetizing is polenta
"pasticciata", a meal in itself in which the polenta is cooked
with various meats, such as mutton, pigeon or pork. Among the sweets,
however, pride of place goes to gubana,
a millefeuille pastry with walnuts, liqueur and
spices, a specialty of Cividale del
Friuli. Before being served,
it may be soaked with eau de vie
or grappa. While the tradition of the
inland areas has much in common with other mountain regions, the cuisine
of the Adriatic coast is instead characterized by a tendency towards the
fusion of combining Veneto,
Austrian, Slav, Jewish and Greek
recipes. It is thus not unusual to find in the restaurants of Trieste
dishes
 such as riso alla greca
(Greek rice),
sanguinaccio alla boema
(Bohemian blood sausage) or
costoletta alla viennese
(Wiener schnitzel). As a the first course dishes,
gnocchi are
particularly popular, such as
gnocco di pane al prosciutto
(a huge dumpling of dried bread fried in a mixture including
ham) and gnocchetti
di fegato, liver
gnocchi
of Austrian origin. The many types of risotto, meanwhile, show the
influence of Venetian cuisine. Fish cookery is also highly developed, as
you would expect, and local specialties include brodetto, a
sauce based on vinegar, tomatoes
and wine, with the addition of mantis shrimps and crabs. On the
Friuli
coast there are a number of different versions of the dish, the
most traditional of which is from
Grado, with toasted
garlic. The many sweets and cakes of Trieste are influenced by the
Austro-German tradition. There are struccoli
(strudels), chifeletti
(walnut cakes) and
krapfen
(doughnuts) with various fillings. But pride of place goes to
presnitz, a puff
pastry spira
stuffed with dried fruit, nuts and spices. At the
extreme edge of Friuli, on the border with Austria, the district
of Carnia is a vast area of woodland, with typical steepled bell-towers,
stone houses and wooden balconies. It is the ideal place to relax in a
natural environment and dedicate time to walking, riding or mountain
biking.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
Only recently have wine enthusiasts
discovered the quality of Friuli's wines. Yet
the
wines of this region have great personality, starting with
whites such as Sauvignon, Riesling
and Tocai,
which have not surprisingly been some of the best-selling
wines in Italy for some years. Reds include
Merlots and
Cabernets which are able to satisfy
even the most demanding connoisseurs. Nor should we forget the
exceptionally smooth and aromatic grappa.
In recent decades, alongside the traditional
version, sweet varieties have been produced, some flavored with fruit or
herbs. Among the region's eight wine trails,
the "Collio
Goriziano wine
trail" is characterized by a series of slopes protected by the Prealps of
Giulia
and stretching down towards the Adriatic. The trail starts in
Gorizia,
climbs up to San Floriano del
Collio, and then descends towards
Gradisca d'Isonzo
then to climb once more through vineyards towards
Cormons and Dolegna del Collio.
Festival and Country Fairs
I n
late August, in
San
Daniele del Friuli, an
important festival revolving around the town's famous raw ham is held
-
Aria di Festa.
The
ham can be tasted in the piazzas, in the local ham producers' shops and in
the town's restaurants. There are also shows, music and various other
entertainments.
8.
Emilia Romagna: an explosion of
flavors
top
Geographically speaking, Emilia
Romagna is composed of two
parts: to the west Emilia, with its sweeping plains and orchards, and to
the east Romagna,
which extends along the Adriatic coast. In terms of
gastronomy, the region is a mosaic of surprises, with no clear overall
pattern. Each city has its own specialities, often real treasures of
Italian cuisine.The traditional food is robust and hearty, and a real
treat for the taste buds.
If we had to elect the king of
Emilia's cooking, there would be no doubt: the
tortellino. Bologna is its
homeland, and it is a real pleasure to taste it in one of the traditional
trattorias of the old town, between Piazza
Maggiore and the
porticoes, near the Asinelli and Garisenda towers. With a filling which
exalts the taste of the mortadella,
tortellini alla bolognese are served
with meat ragù or in a rich chicken stock. According to tradition, the
tortellino represents Venus's belly button. In reality, king tortellino is
surrounded by a whole entourage of courtiers,
 variations on the theme of
stuffed pasta, created in the region's various cities:
Ferrara and the
whole of Romagna
specialize in
cappelletti. In Ferrara,
the filling is made with turkey
or pumpkin (in which case the ravioli are called
cappellacci), while in
Romagna
fresh raviggiolo cheese is used. The
tortelloni of
Piacenza are
filled with ricotta
and greens. In
Modena ravioli
are filled with roast meat, while Parma is the
city of anolini,
served in a ham sauce and covered with grated parmesan. The
traditional cookery of Emilia is a celebration of fresh egg pasta: in
addition to tortellini,
another must is
lasagne (pasta sheets with
ragù
and cheese) and the
various sizes of
tagliatelle,
always served with rich meat sauces. The character of the people
of Emilia Romagna
is a perfect reflection of their gastronomic
tradition: generous, warm, hearty and fun. To discover this tradition,
just follow one of the many "Food and wine trails", which will take you on
a tour of the various provincial specialties and typical products of each
area. You might well find yourself in town and country restaurants, or
"trattorie",
having a chat with the other diners around a
wonderful spread, perhaps including a colourful plate of salami and hams.
Pork specialties are in fact one of the great gastronomic treasures of
Emilia Romagna.
Pride of place goes to
prosciutto crudo di Parma,
excellent for
antipasti and
snacks, superb if accompanied by flakes of
parmigiano reggiano, the
great parmesan cheese typical of this region, well-known, and imitated the
world over. Then there is
culatello, a
raw ham made using pork loin, a specialty of
Busseto, the birthplace of Giuseppe Verdi, and
zampone, which is cooked with
braised lentils in the traditional New Year's Eve dish. In
Modena (where it
was invented, as was the famous balsamic vinegar), it is often served as
part of a dish of mixed boiled meats, along with beef, veal and turkey,
accompanied y a tasty herb sauce. Nor should we forget the highly popular
mortadella
from Bologna, coppa
and
pancetta from
Piacenza,
salami from
Felino
and
many others. The salami
 and hams of Emilia make a tasty snack for
holidaymakers, and are sold in small shops or kiosks on the beach, where
they are used to fill a piadina
romagnola,
a flat unleavened
bread (rather like a tortilla), or
a tigella
(a kind of muffin),
a speciality of the Apennines. The part of this region most known by
tourists from all over the world is undoubtedly the Rimini Riviera, where
beaches stretch along the coast of
Romagna. If we think of
Rimini, the idea of fun immediately comes to mind. In this holiday
paradise, you can experience the region's seafood cooking, with its
delicious warm flavors. These range from the classic
brodetto,
with squid, rascasse and grey ullet, to
fried fish, and
spit-roasted fish, cooked over wood
or vine charcoal, which produce a distinctive aroma. Rimini's specialities
include seppie in umido con
piselli (stewed cuttlefish with peas)
and canocchie alla griglia
(grilled mantis shrimps). In
Comacchio, a coastal town, famous for its marshlands,
eels are a real delicacy, and are
usually cooked on the spit.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
The regional wine par excellence is
Lambrusca, a
sparkling and impetuous red, produced in both dry and
sweet versions, from grapes grown in the wide plains. There are four
different varieties. There is also
Gutturnio and
Malvasia,
from the hills around
Piacenza and Parma,
Cabernet and
Pinot
bianco, from
the hills around Bologna. The wines of
Romagna also have real
personality: the red Sangiovese,
and the white
Trebbiano and
Albana, ideal
with fish dishes. Some of the liqueurs worth trying are
laurino and
nocino,
respectively made with bay leaves and green
walnuts.
Festival and Country Fairs
For over thirty years in
Borgo taro, in
the province of Parma, the
sagra del fungo porcino
(Festival of the cep mushroom) has been held. This
small town in the Valle del Taro
is in fact the Italian capital of mis
fragrant fruit of the earth, and one of the stops on the "Emilia food
trail" dedicated to the cep mushroom. The festival, which takes place in
September, includes public tastings in the streets, cultural events and
various shows.
9.
Tuscany: art and taste
top
Splendid cities of art, at the heart of the
Italian Renaissance. Rolling green hills and mountains. Fine sandy beaches
and excellent tourist facilities. A great gastronomic tradition, a rich array
of typical products, representing the raw materials of a cuisine with
echoes of the past and rural influences, today rediscovered in the search
for high quality, unadulterated foods. Last but not least, the
wines: Tuscany is home to some of the best wines in the world, which are a
marvelous accompaniment to a cuisine which it is well worth getting to
discover.
Bite into a slice of Tuscan bread
drenched in olive oil and you will have captured in a mouthful the essence
of this region's cookery, since bread
and oil
reflect its sober tradition, simple but extraordinarily
unique. Tuscan bread is even mentioned in the lines of the
Divina Commedia,
where Dante
Alighieri highlights its
essential quality when he complains in exile about how salty he finds
"il pane altrui"
("other people's bread"). Tuscan bread, with its hard
crust and compact crumb, is in fact made without the addition of salt,
making it the ideal foil for intense flavors, such as that of oil from
the Lucca hills, one of Italy's finest. Tuscany is a marvellous world,
loved by anyone who is an expert on art or simply an enthusiast. The cookery
of Tuscany may be simple, but has an important strength: the raw materials
are all of the highest quality. A perfect example can be found in one of
the region's hallmark dishes,
bistecca alla fiorentina
 (Florentine steak), which to be "original" must be taken from the
highly prized Chianina breed of cattle, bred in
Val di Chiana, on the border
with Umbria.
Like bread and oil, it has become a symbol of Tuscan
cookery. It consists of a whole loin, cut thick, which should not weigh
over 700
grams and should be grilled with the absolute minimum of
interference: it should not be turned over frequently, nor should it be
forked, because it would lose its tasty juices. Once cooked, it can be
seasoned with salt and served with oil, pepper and lemon wedges. The whole
gastronomic tradition of inland Tuscany is influenced by country life.
There are sausages, salami and hams (such as the typical
prosciutto with
its intense and penetrating flavor);
antipasti such as
panzanella,
a salad of dried
bread softened in water and served with tomato, onion, basil and vinegar;
and unusual first courses, such as
pappa col pomodoro, based on
tomatoes cooked with oil, garlic, basil and pepper. Then there are
vegetable soups cooked for hours, adding a drizzle of oil just before
being served, such as the famous
ribollita fiorentina.
There are of course also pulses, and in particular
beans, which are
cooked "all'uccelletto",
according to a traditional Florentine
recipe, or "al
fiasco", using a technique widespread in the province
of Pisa, where the beans are placed in a flask with water, oil, rosemary
and other herbs and then cooked in hot embers. These delicious dishes are
best enjoyed in the region's exceptional
"agriturismo".
The landscape
of Tuscany is famous, with the
Maremma, land of the
"butteri",
the green hills of Chianti,
and its cities of art. Here, the
specialities of traditional
cookery bring the flavors of the past
to the present. In Siena, the city of the
Palio, the traditional
Christmas speciality is the delicious
panforte,
 a
cake made with almonds, flour, hazelnuts, cocoa,
cinnamon, spices and candied peel. From the Apuan Alps, in the north of
the region, comes lardo di Colonnata
(cured belly pork), which was once eaten
by marble quarry workers as an accompaniment to bread, and has now become
a delicacy much sought after by connoisseurs. The cuisine of the coast is
completely different. The most famous dish is cacciucco, a
fish soup from
Livorno, which
includes whichever fish takes the cook's fancy, ranging from shellfish and
crustaceans, eels and flying squid, to mantis shrimp, moray eel, mullet,
cod, lobster, octopus and cuttlefish. The result is a fantastic spicy
dish, a sort of hot red soup with tasty ingredients poured on top of a
slice of toasted country bread, seasoned with garlic and fried tomatoes
and red hot chilli peppers. Tuscany also boasts an excellent mixed dish of
fried seafood, based on red mullet and the so-called
"cieche"
("blind"), newly born elvers which owe their name to the fact they
cannot yet see, and which are therefore easily caught.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
Tuscany is a wine lover's paradise, as
is evident in the presence of no fewer than
14
wine trails. Any brief summary is bound to mention one of the most
famous wines in the world, the ruby-coloured, dry
Chianti, with
its intense aroma. Chianti
is produced in much of the region, and
the highest quality Chianti Classico
bears the
Gallo Nero ("black rooster")
trademark. Nor should we forget
dry red
Montepulciano, or
Brunello di Montalcino,
the strong
velvety, full-bodied red produced in the hills around Siena. Fine
white wines include the elegant dry
Vernaccia di San Gimignano,
and Galestro,
which is excellent with
fish.
Festival and Country Fairs
The
festa del
Calderone (Cauldron festival) of
Altopascio, in the
province of Lucca, combines religious elements with gastronomic
curiosities. Altopascio was, in around the year
1000, an
important stopover point on the road to Rome. Some monks from Lucca thus
decided to found the order of the Hospitalers, and provided a building in
which pilgrims could rest and take refreshment The "cauldron" was
the
large pan in which the friars cooked soup for the
pilgrims.The festival is mentioned by Boccaccio in the Decamerone, and on
the day dedicated to San
Jacopo, 25th July,
evokes a medieval atmosphere with good wine and huge plates of
pasta.
10.
Umbria: echoes of the Middle Ages
top
Umbria
is not only the green heart of Italy, the cradle of
the Franciscan tradition, and the setting for beautiful medieval towns. It
is also like a jewellery box which holds, alongside marvellous artistic,
religious and cultural treasures, an incredible heritage of aromas and
flavors. In such a limited space
(Umbria is one of the
smallest regions in Italy, with only two provinces
- Perugia and
Terni -
and is entirely landlocked) there is practically everything you
could ask for in a great gastronomic tradition: fine wines, skilful
farming, treasures of the earth such as truffles, and unmatched expertise
in the art of meat preservation.
There are parts of some Umbrian cities where you feel
catapulted back into the Middle Ages. Not just because of the appearance
of the streets and piazzas, the
palazzi and churches, but
also because of the aromas and colours of the food. It is in fact not
unusual to enter a restaurant,
 perhaps with tables outside under a
wisteria
pergola, and see meat cooked in the same way as it was eight
centuries ago: a hearth in the middle of the room, burning charcoal,
roasting spits, and the sizzling of meat over the fire. Some cities in
Umbria are
real "sanctuaries" of gastronomy.
Norcia, for example, in
the southeast of the region, is recognised as the birthplace of Italian
salami and ham production.
It is no coincidence that the word
"norcino"
(inhabitant of Norcia)
has become a synonym of grocer. However,
Norcia
is not the only place in
Umbria with a tradition of
meat preservation: Bastia
Umbra is in fact considered one of the
homesof porchetta,
a whole small pig
spit roasted and flavored with herbs and spices. At the other end of the
range of meat specialities that the visitor can taste, there is not only
pork, but a whole array of other specialities: beef (often served with
sauces), game and poultry. When visiting
Umbria, and above all the
valleys, with their rolling
landscape of green hills, pink
rocks, and small towns, you will discover how the region has always been
involved in heated rivalry with another region of Italy, Piedmont. The
bone of contention is the truffle.
Umbria, in
fact, is home to a variety of the fragrant "tuber"
called the black truffle of Norcia,
a rival of the white truffle of Alba in
Piedmont. The dispute to establish which of the two is better has been
going on for centuries, and is unlikely ever to be resolved. One thing is
for certain -
the Umbrians are very proud of their truffle and
every year between October and late March (the period when most are
picked), dedicate a
whole series of events to it, from the
Mostra Mercato
in Valtopina and Tartufo
d'Oro in Gubbio, to the
Premio di Umorismo in Città di Castello,
which is centred on the truffle, in
addition to other events in Norcia,
Fabro and
Scheggino. A good lunch in
one of the splendid cities of Umbria,
perhaps on the occasion of one of the
many historical festivals (such as
Calendimaggio in Assisi, the
Corsa dei Ceri in Gubbio, or
the
Giostra della Quintana in Foligno), or in
one of the many
"agriturismo" (farmhouse
structures) in the hills, would not be complete without one of the
region's traditional pasta dishes. T hese include
ciriole, which are
tagliatelle sautéed
with oil and garlic or meat
ragù; spaghetti,
served with bacon and marjoram or anchovies and
black truffles; maccheroni,
here known as
strascinati, with sausage,
egg and cheese; and embrici,
small homemade spaghetti, served with
tomatoes, garlic and abundant
pecorino sheep's
cheese. There are also delicious soups, such as
acquacotta from
Cascia, based on
dried bread and tomatoes. Lovers of fish need not feel left out, however:
although Umbria
has no coastline, there is a rich tradition of dishes
using freshwater fish, mainly from Lake
Trasimeno. There is
also a rich tradition of cakes and sweets. In Perugia,
chocolate enjoys cult status, and
traditional cooking also offers a range of extraordinary delights such as
pignoccate, with pine
nuts and sugar, serpentone,
a snake-shaped sweet bread with almonds,
and panpepato,
which marries the flavor of honey with that of
pepper and other spices.
FOCUS: WINES AND LIQUEURS
The best known Umbrian wines come from
the zones of
Orvieto and
Torgiano: the white is
dry and fruity, ideal for fish dishes, and the red dry, excellent with
game and meat in general. In Torgiano new wines such as
Rubesco and
San Giorgio are produced.
Other wines of the region to look out for
include Rosso di Montefalco, Bianco del
Trasimeno and Bianco
di Città di Castello. In
addition to the four wine trails which pass through
some of the most picturesque landscape in
Umbria, wine lovers cannot
miss the appointment with Cantine
Aperte, which is held on the last Sunday
in May in the associated wineries of the
Movimento del Turismo del
Vino (Movement for Wine Tourism). Set up in 1993, around a
thousand wineries participate in the event, which gives visitors the chance
to taste fine wines and local specialities.
Festival and Country Fairs
For ten years now, chocolate lovers from all over the
world have been meeting every October at Eurochocolate in Perugia.The
regional capital of Umbria
is
transformed for the occasion into a giant open-air sweetshop. The event is
extremely popular, attracting 800,000
visitors every year, and has earned a place as one of Italy's
major food, wine and social events, with tastings, exhibitions, shows,
conferences, and art, all centered around chocolate.
11. The
Marches: the pleasures of a "plural"
cuisine top
The Marches: a region with a "plural" name,
and rightly so, since here we find a variety of territories, cultural
influences, traditions and ways of life which cannot be considered as
uniform and indistinct.This also holds true for the region's food. We could simplify by saying that the
region has been subjected to two great influences,
Romagna to the
north and Abruzzi
to the south, although it is nearer to the truth to
say that the classic cookery of the Marches is a well-constructed mix of
foods which exploits both the products of the land and those of the
sea.
What did the Roman consuls and the
generals of the Carthaginian Hannibal have in common? Apart from sharing a
place in ancient history and fighting in bloody battles throughout the
Italian peninsula, they all loved the large
olives of the Marches. And still
today, this tasty fruit is appreciated: the symbol of the region's cooking
is in fact olive
all'ascolana,
olives which are stoned and then stuffed with a mixture of
 mince, eggs, parmesan cheese and various herbs, then dipped in beaten egg
and breadcrumbs and fried in oil. Links with history are not
that unusual for cookery in the Marches:
another great historical figure, Napoleon, is involved with a traditional
dish of the Marches, called vincisgrassi,
lasagne with mushrooms, truffles and chicken
livers, covered with béchamel
sauce and then baked in the oven. When
fighting against Napoleon in the Marches, the prince of Windisch-Graetz,
who was an officer in the Austrian army, tasted this dish prepared for him
by a local cook, and expressed such appreciation that the dish was given
his name, albeit somewhat distorted and Italianized. Putting history to
one side, food and wine represents for the Marches an essential aspect of
its attraction for tourists, which is based on a number of seaside resorts
and many places of interest inland. A well-preserved artistic and natural
heritage, together with a flair for tourism and good hotel facilities, are
supported by a flourishing tradition of good food. The Marches is home to
an excellent breed of cattle, similar to Tuscany's Chianina, whose meat is
an important part of a number of regional specialties. The symbolic dish
of Pesaro
is tournedos alla Rossini,
in memory of the great musician, who is
celebrated every year in August in his native city with an important
festival. This sumptuous dish of haute cuisine consists of a braised
fillet of beef with ham, mushrooms, parsley, lemon and a pinch of pepper.
In Urbino,
meanwhile, the local specialty is another tasty meat
dish, braciola,
a stuffed rolled
joint of beef braised in white wine. There is also a great deal of choice
as far as regards other types of meat, and there is a great variety of
salami and hams on offer. Fabriano
h as a worldwide reputation for its
production of high quality paper, and there is even a museum dedicated to
this traditional product. But the town is also a favorite with gourmets,
for its splendid smoked ham,
while in Macerata
the unusual
ciaùsculu is produced, a
traditional sausage made with finely minced pork, and flavored with
garlic, salt and pepper, which the local trattorias serve spread on slices
of toasted bread. In every comer of the Marches it is also possible to
find porchetta (sucking pig) turning on a spit, with its
traditional flavoring of wild fennel seeds. There are also treats for
vegetarians, though, or simply for those who love their greens. A tasty
local specialty is misticanza,
a mixed salad of wild leaves. Visitors to the coastal towns
can discover the specialties of fish cookery, such as
brodetto, a fish
soup. This dish is cooked in two main versions, one from
Ancona, and the
other from Porto Recanati.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
Viticulture was probably introduced
into the Marches by the Greeks, who colonised the area in die
4th century BC.
Sangiovese,
Montepulciano trebbiano and
Verdicchio are all widely
planted. The most famous wine is
Verdicchio, a
white wine which is an ideal accompaniment to
seafood.There are a number of varieties, such as that from
Matetica (to
which is dedicated the "Verdicchio di
Matetica wine trail"), from
Jesi, and from
Pian delle Mura. Mention should also be made of the
Bianco dei
Colli
Maceratesi and the
Bianco del Metauro.
Reds include
Conerò and
Piceno. Lastly,
there is the local Vernaccia,
produced in Serrapetrona. Enthusiasts
will be fascinated by the International Wine Label Museum in Cupramontana
(Ancona),
which has a collection of over
40,000 wine labels from all
over the world.The Marches also has a flourishing tradition of
distillation, and the most important products are
anisetta and
mistrà.There
are also many
industrially produced liqueurs, but even these are very popular and based
on traditional recipes.
Festival and Country Fairs
One of the oldest popular food festivals of the Marches
is the
sagra delle frittelle
(Fritter festival) of
Massignano, in the province of
Ascoli Piceno.
The festival, which has taken
place for almost fifty years in the month of August, associates tastings
in the square with shows and entertainment, according to the traditional
pattern of the great Italian folk festivals.
12.
Lazio: ancient and popular
tastes
top
If we think of Roman cookery, what comes to mind is an
image of the people. More than elsewhere, in Rome and
Lazio, food
brings with it the aromas and noises of the taverns, recipes using
simple ingredients, and robust strong flavors. These "humble" origins
created a tradition based on the principle of using whatever was
available, from the cheapest cuts of meat to offal, in simple recipes
without frills. Together with this is an extraordinary range of products
from the market garden and countryside which give the traditional dishes
of Lazio
unequalled colour and aroma. Today, "popular" cookery is
experiencing a revival, paradoxically becoming refined in the process,
despite its country roots and reputation for hearty
food.
Sitting down at table in Rome and
Lazio means
embarking on a journey through centuries-old traditions, in a whirlwind of
extraordinary aromas and flavors. What better place to start than the
most famous antipasto in
the Roman repertoire,
bruscheta, a
slice of toasted bread rubbed with garlic and doused
with olive oil. As is well known, the Romans are passionate about pasta,
which is the classic way to
 start any Italian meal. The best known
regional recipe is bucatini
all'amatriciana,
originally from the town of Amatrice, in the province
of Rieti. Bucatini, a
type of thick hollow spaghetti, is served with a
sauce of bacon, tomatoes, chilli and white wine, and then covered with
grated pecorino romano
cheese.
Another famous dish is
gnocchi alla romana,
which tradition dictates should be eaten on Thursdays, although
the explanation for this is unknown. The
gnocchi are made of
semolina, milk and eggs and then sliced: the discs thus obtained are
arranged in layers in a dish with grated cheese and butter and then
browned in the oven. Spaghetti
alla carbonara
is another classic: the spaghetti is served in
a
sauce of raw eggs, bacon, pepper and
pecorino cheese. Lastly,
there is a dish that visitors should try at least once: rigatoni
alla pajata, pasta tubes served
in a sauce of veal intestines cooked with tomatoes, peppers, parsley, oil,
garlic and white wine. While the Romans love pasta, and have even
dedicated a museum to it (the Museo
Nazionale delle Paste
Alimentari),
there is no doubt that they positively adore meat, which here is
tasty and strong-flavored, and often served with vegetables. Their
favourite dish is abbacchio
(sucking lamb), a preference which derives from the
city's deep-rooted rural tradition. There are many different ways of
cooking this, the most traditional of which is baked in the oven, but it
can also be prepared "alla
cacciatora", i.e. pan fried with garlic,
rosemary, anchovies, chilli and white wine. There is also a vast array of
recipes for pork, although the pièce
de resistance is without doubt
porchetta,
sucking pig flavored with wild fennel and stuffed with fatty
bacon, liver and heart. Beef dishes include coda
alla vaccinara, i.e. oxtail cut into sections,
sometimes together with the animal's chaps, cooked in a rich
ragù
and flavored with celery, sultanas, pine nuts and dark chocolate.
 The list of popular Roman dishes based on meat is practically endless, but
two others that spring to mind are
trippa alla trasteverina,
tripe stewed in an earthenware dish with lardons, and
saltimbocca alla romana,
slices of veal rolled up with a slice of ham and flavored with
sage leaves, cooked in butter and served piping hot.
Lazio and Rome
also have a great tradition of cooking fish, both of sea and lake
varieties. Vegetables are also central to the region's food, and globe
artichokes are particularly popular. The local variety is called
"mammola".
A famous recipe using artichokes is
carciofi alla giudia, a
dish whose Jewish origin is
evident in its name. It is based on artichokes stewed in abundant olive
oil. Lazio
is also home to extremely tasty cheeses, such as
pecorino and
ricotta. Ricotta
is also used in some of the region's traditional
cakes such as the crostata di
ricotta (ricotta
tart), made with short crust pastry and a mix of
ricotta,
sugar, eggs, orange zest, sultanas, candied citron peel and
cinnamon. There are also frappe,
which are special sweets for carnival
time, fried in oil. Another favourite are
maritozzi, sweet rolls
containing raisins, pine nuts and candied peel.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
In the
Castelli Romani hills,
viticulture achieves one of its utmost expressions. The
"Castelli Romani
wine trail" passes through places whose names are well known to
connoisseurs: Frascati, Albano,
Velletri and Castelgandolfo.The most
famous wine is undoubtedly the dry white
Frascati .There are also excellent wines from
Marino, Colli
Albani and
Colli Lanuvini. Other areas famous
for their wine production are
Viterbo and Frosinone.
Montefascone, near lake Bolsena, is the city of origin of a white wine
whose strange name has become something of a legend: Est! Est!
Est!
Festival and Country Fairs
Every year in June
Nemi, on the shores of the lake,
hosts a
sagra della fragola
(Strawberry festival). A great cup is filled
with strawberries and then doused with sparkling fragolino wine (made with
a variety of strawberry-flavored grapes). Not to be missed is the vanilla
ice-cream garnished with strawberries and the wines and liqueurs flavored
with strawberries, which can be tasted at stalls in the town's main
streets.
13. Abruzzo: loyalty to tradition
top
Among the regions of Italy,
Abruzzo
is probably the one which is most loyal to its past.
Also in the most characteristic products it safeguards to the utmost the
traditions, rituals, mysteries and magic of its culture. The region is
strongly characterized by its mountains, which for centuries almost
completely cut it off from the rest of Italy. This period of isolation is
now over, but the region's customs, heritage and culture, not to mention
its cookery, are still intact, despite the onslaught of industrialization
and mass tourism. This means, for example, that local food products are of
excellent quality. Here, loyalty to the past is expressed in a great
gastronomic tradition.
The people of
Abruzzo give prime
importance to food, feeling that while it is certainly a joy for the taste
buds, it is also the best way of socialising. This attitude is seen in the
panarda, a banquet
that is a wonderful way to socialise and in which food is transformed into
an effective means of communication. This is a real food ritual,
celebrated in honour of Saint Anthony Abbot. The tradition is common to a large
number of towns, but is observed above all in Villavallelonga, a small
town in the mountainous area of the
Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo.
The most
 incredible feature of the panarda is the quantity of
dishes, which may even be over fifty, and the etiquette which forces the
diners to do honour to the table by eating everything. Its origin is
the
popular devotion to St Anthony. It is recounted that many years
ago a woman left her baby in its cot and went out of the house to go and
fetch some water; on the way back, she met a wolf carrying the child
between its jaws. The woman invoked St Anthony, at which the wolf put down
the child and fled; she then promised to celebrate the Saint's help every
year with a great festival dedicated to him: namely, the panarda. This is
not the only ritual of Abruzzo
which brings together magic,
spirituality and food. Another example is
minestrone delle
virtù (soup of the virtues), so called
because it uses seven ingredients of each type, like the seven cardinal
virtues, and the seven virtues that a good housewife should possess.
According to tradition, its preparation requires seven types of
vegetables, seven types of meat, seven types of dried pulses, seven types
of fresh pulses and seven types of pasta. Even the herbs must be seven in
number. Still today, in houses in the area of
Teramo
(but also in
dozens of restaurants), the minestrone is cooked on 1st May, a
custom which derives from celebrations dedicated to the goddess
Maia
(who the month is
named after) in propitiatory rites to
ensure the fertility of the land and an abundant harvest. The provinces of
Abruzzo
offer a rich sample of the landscapes, flavors and cultural
features of central and central-southern Italy, which can be seen by
driving for little over half an hour, from the coast up into the hills,
through historic towns of great i nterest. In the vast array of eating
places, ranging from elegant restaurants to homely trattorias, visitors
can run the gamut of Pantagruelian delights. The obvious place to begin is
with the extraordinary abundance of pasta dishes, with place of honour
going to maccheroni alla chitarra.
This type of spaghetti is prepared using
a small frame across which metal wires are stretched. A sheet of pasta is
passed through this "chitarra"
(guitar), which cuts it into
square-section strips. The pasta is cooked in salted water and served with
lamb ragù or
tomato and basil sauce. Other
Abruzzo
specialities are related to the region's sheep farming tradition:
lamb, cooked simply, such as in the recipe of the
catturo,
where the meat is cooked in a large copper pot with fatty
bacon, onion and chilli; or sheep's cheeses.
Many of these foods are best tasted in the towns
of the Parco Nazionale
d'Abruzzo, one of Italy's most important
national parks, a jewel of nature set in some of the highest mountains of
the Apennines. Also worth tasting are the salami and hams, such as
mortadella di Campotosto.
Those with a sweet tooth must try
the confetti (sugared
almonds) from Sulmona,
not only delicious, but also beautiful,
considered by some to be real works of art.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
The Etruscans were also responsible
for introducing viticulture in
Abruzzo
it Today the region's
best known wines are the dry red Montepulciano,
perfect for accompanying pasta and meat dishes;
Trebbiano,
a smooth
white, ideal with antipasti, fish and soft cheeses; and red
Cerasuolo, which is
excellent with salami and hams. The traditions and quality of regional
viticulture can be discovered on six different wine trails. A vast array
of bitters and digestive liqueurs are also produced, most of them
flavored with mountain herbs.
Festival
and Country
Fairs
In
Fara San
Martino, a
small town in the province of Chieti
every year on 29
June, the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, the
sagra della
pasta (Pasta
festival) is celebrated. This popular festival is held on the day on which
an important agricultural fair used to be held, and includes
characteristic banquets on the banks of die Verde
river.
14.
Molise: the heritage of an ancient
culture top
Vast green pastures alternated with
the hills and mountains of Matese and Majella: this is the landscape that
characterizes Molise, a
region in the centre-south of Italy
which still preserves many traditions of the country life of the
past. Today, more than in the past, the region cultivates its proud sense
of identity, defended tenaciously from any attempt at standardization.
This spirit also dominates the attitude to food. Sheep farming and
agriculture are thus at the basis of typical
Molise cookery, which is
simple and strongly flavored, based on jealously guarded recipes which
are passed down from one generation to the next.
Molise
is one of the
most secret, secluded and least known areas in Italy. It has a romantic
and magical atmosphere, and recalls parts of northern Europe, such as
Scotland or Ireland. The gastronomic tradition of
Molise is
closely related to that of Abruzzo
on one side and of Apulia on the other.
What unites these three worlds is the culture of the "tratturi", the
routes along which the flocks were once led from the mountains of the
Apennines to the plains of Apulia. For thousands of years, these "grass
roads" allowed flocks and herds to periodically move and take advantage of
pastures in different seasons at different altitudes. In autumn, they left
the mountains, which had become
 inhospitable with the arrival of the cold,
to head for the plains, where winter was milder, to then return to the
mountains in spring, when in turn the plains had become clammy and
inhospitable. This phenomenon is called "transhumance". Today, the tracks
are used by horse riders and mountain bikers, and form a spider's web of
routes which are an ideal way to discover the region's history, and a
gastronomic tradition which has remained almost intact. The heart of
Molise
cookery is thus to be found in its sheep farming past, and
traditional food is now on offer in a vast number of town and country
restaurants. The tasty meats of kid
and lamb
are the most popular. The preferred method of cooking is
obviously spit-roasting, which gives a unique taste to meat. Excellent
lamb dishes include escalopes with olives and barbecued intestines. Sheep
farming and livestock breeding do not just provide excellent meat, but
also dairy products appreciated throughout Italy:
Molise is famous
for its pecorino, scamorza
and
burrini or
"butirri",
small
cheeses stuffed with butter. They can be eaten fresh after only one week's
maturing; after a month their taste becomes much stronger. In Agnone in
the north of Molise, a
town known for the manufacture of handmade bells, the
dairy products have a particularly high reputation. There is
widespread production of salami and hams: ranging from
smoked hams (those from
Rionero Sannitico
are excellent), to various salami, such as
capicollo, ventricina and soppressata,
made using lean and fatty pork, spices, salt,
pepper and red wine. There is also pampanella,
bacon flavored with chilli and baked in the
oven, and the typical
salsiccia ferrazzanese,
a sausage flavored with chilli and
fennel seeds. Ferrazzano, in the bay of
Tappino, has become famous
for its sausages, which make use of pork from pigs fed on acorns. As
in Abruzzo,
homemade pasta in Molise
is of great importance, and also here we
find maccheroni alla chitarra.
The many types of stuffed pasta
include calcioni,
filled with
ricotta, ham and scamorza
cheese. Molise's historical and artistic beauties include many castles,
and while they were being built in the
15th
century, the shepherds and farmers together created what is still
considered one of the region's most characteristic recipes:
zuppa di ortiche
(nettle soup). After being boiled in water, the
nettle stems are cut into sections and fried with tomatoes. The flavor is
incredibly delicate. But despite the fact that most of
Molise is
inland, it is not dedicated only to farming: there is also a beautiful
coastline, which is now discovering seaside tourism with interesting
resorts such as Termoli and Campomarino. It is here that you can enjoy
delicacies such as mullet, cuttlefish and sea bass. There is also abundant
seafood. Another delicacy is calamaretti
all'olio, which are freshly fished small squid, eaten raw
and served with oil, vinegar, salt and chilli.
FOCUS :
WINES AND LIQUEURS
Molise
has two main
wines, which bow come in white, red and
rosé versions: in the
area of lsernia they drink Pentro,
and in the zone of
Campobasso, Biferno.Also
worth trying is the somewhat
unusual crema di pondo,
the region's most famous liqueur, whose name and
ingredients recall the punch drunk in England. It is made by mixing an
infusion of orange and mandarin zest in alcohol with whipped
sugar.
Festival and Country Fairs
For the feast day of the Saints Peter and Paul, on
29
June, hernia celebrates the products of the land in an ancient
ritual, dating back to 1254,
the
fiera delle cipolle (Onion
festival). While being centred particularly around onions, it is also a
celebration of fruit and vegetables in general. According to tradition,
the onions bought in Isernia during the festival (which are tied together
in large garlands) are considered to be tastier and to have great medidnal
powers. On the day of Corpus Domini, in June, the 13 Macchine dei
Misteri (Machines of the
Mysteries) are taken in procession on the shoulders of around
200 men along
the streets of Campobasso,
following a ritual route which starts in
the old town. The festival is also an opportunity to try specialities of
regional cuisine.
15.
Campania: birthplace of the Mediterranean diet
top
The story of the Neapolitans is a
strange one: since time immemorial they have eaten that "Mediterranean
diet" which is now recommended by nutritionists the world over. But they
had always been completely unaware of the fact: the food on their tables
was not the result of trying to balance proteins and carbohydrates, but of
using what was available: vegetables, bread and pasta, cheese and fish
-
whatever could be bought cheaply at the market. The region's
cookery is thus based on "humble" ingredients, with little use of meat,
but vibrant with flavor and colour; it is no surprise that it is
considered the archetype of Mediterranean cooking.
In terms of cooking, Campania is
characterized by respect
for the traditions which have their roots in Magna
Grecia
and
Sannio. Neapolitan cookery, which for historical reasons is influenced by
that of the ancient Greeks, the Spanish and the French, has influenced to
an extent all Campanian cooking, which tends to preserve the food's
natural flavors, exalting its freshness and quality. Campanian gastronomic culture
 has been
consolidated over the centuries, and handed down from generation to
generation. Any discussion of Neapolitan cooking is bound to involve a
celebration of its most famous dish, which more than any other has
introduced the taste and simplicity of southern Italian food to the rest
of the world: pizza.
Pizza was invented by the local people in their constant
search for a cheap way to satisfy their hunger, and corresponded perfectly
to their
needs, being simple to prepare, but at the same time
filling and nutritious. It started life as a simple disc of dough
scattered with mozzarella
and flavored with oil and garlic;
the only dressing was probably a handful of seafood. Then tomatoes arrived
from America and the pizza assumed the form we know today. It slowly
became a dish of mass consumption, and was successfully exported beyond
the region's confines. It was also popular with crowned heads: the Bourbons, kings of
Naples, loved it, as did the Savoias, kings of Italy. When Queen
Margherita
arrived to visit Naples in
1889, an inventive pizza
cook, Raffaele Esposito,
had the idea of dedicating a pizza to her. The result
was pizza Margherita:
tomato,
mozzarella and basil,
whose colours celebrated the tricolour flag of the newly unified Italian
State. Another lynchpin of Neapolitan cookery is
pasta. The regional capital of this
food was Torre Annunziata,
whose expert pasta makers used the durum
wheat imported from America. The art of drying and storing pasta, which
led to industrial production, was perfected in Gragnano, a town to the
south of Naples. Neapolitan creativity has led to an incredible variety of
pasta shapes with fantastic names: vermicelli,
fusilli, spaghetti,
tortiglioni, rigatoni, ziti, maccheroni, to mention but a few.
There is also a vast range of sauces and dressings served with pasta. The
simplest are perhaps also the best, and a plate of spaghetti served with
tomato and fragrant basil is a delight on a par with any sophisticated
rich sauce. An exception to the Neapolitan
simplicity in food preparation is
ragù, or to use its full
name, ragù del
guardiaporta
(porter's ragù).
The name of this wonderful dish originates from the
fact that it takes a long time to cook and also requires constant
supervision -
it was supposed that only porters, with their mainly
sedentary and relaxed way of spending the working day, had the necessary
time available to prepare it. Ragù
is a hearty, substantial dish, and
constitutes a meal in itself. In this elaborate recipe, slices of veal are
rolled up and stuffed with cheese, parsley, garlic, pine nuts and
sultanas. The rolls are then cooked with fat, tomatoes and red wine. The
sauce thus obtained is used to dress the pasta, while the meat rolls are
served as the main course. In the Neapolitan tradition every self-
respecting housewife has the secret of her own
ragù: but obviously
this gastronomic marvel can also be enjoyed in the region's many
traditional restaurants and trattorias. Campania's culinary tradition, as
said, is extremely varied, ranging from the simple and popular dishes of
the Caserta area,
the country cooking of Sannio with vegetables,
cheeses and sausages, the Mediterranean diet typical of the
Cilento area,
not forgetting the traditional specialties of Salerno, such as
ravioli stuffed with eggs and
ricotta. There is of course
an amazing myriad of seafood specialties to be found in the beautiful
coastal towns of the region, from the peninsula of Sorrento to the islands
of Capri and Ischia.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
Viticulture began in Campania two
thousand years ago with white and red
Falerno,
a wine produced in
the area of Caserta
and still drunk today in the region.
Greco
di Tufo,
a white wine
perfect for accompanying crustaceans, lobster and mussels can also boast
ancient origins. At present, the grape varieties grown in Campania are
Trebbiano, Malvasia, Sangiovese,
Greco and Aglianico. The most
popular reds are Procida
and Vesuvio;
while whites include
Lacrima Christi, Ischia
and Capri. You
should also try Epomeo
and Don Alfonso
from the island of
Ischia. Campania also
produces an excellent lemon liqueur, limoncello,
particularly in the area around
Sorrento.
Festival and Country Fairs
The
sagra dei fichi
(Fig festival), which has been
held for over twenty years in San Mango
sul Calore
(Avellino) in late
July, is an opportunity to discover a much appreciated and
exported product, the fig of San Mango.These sweet fruits are handed out
free, and over the two evenings visitors are offered the chance to taste
traditional country dishes accompanied by the excellent local Aglianico
wine.
16.
Apulia: sea, plains and hills
top
The people of Apulia have never been
wealthy, and have lived on agriculture and sheep farming, since nature
blessed them with a mild climate and fertile soil. But the Apulians have
exploited their imagination to create that endless source of joy and
flavor which over the centuries has become their traditional cuisine.
This tradition is based on simple elements: pasta (great
quantities of wheat were produced in the
Tavoliere plains, near
Foggia),
cheeses, hearty country salami and hams, and fragrant and tasty
vegetables. A unique range of food in a land which is like a bridge
reaching out from Europe into the deep blue of the
Mediterranean.
Apulia, a wonderland which is the crossroads
between East and West, the land of a thousand churches, Romanesque
cathedrals, castles and grottoes. A cocktail of art and culture that
attracts visitors from all over the world, attracted by the historical,
artistic and natural attractions of the region, but also by the food. Three different culinary traditions
coexist here, originating in
1222, when
Federico II
divided Apulia into Terra di
Bari, Capitanata and Terra
d'Otranto. These
three districts were the forerunners of the present-day provinces of
 Foggia, Bari
and Lecce,
and their three styles of cookery
basically present the same dishes with slight variations. Bread and
pasta food, oil and wine represent the pillars of popular Apulian cookery,
and there is a vast range of quality products. The golden wheat of Apulia
is used for the many types of pasta,
whether produced industrially, in fresh pasta
shops, or by housewives. The various types of pasta (the most famous shape
is orecchiette,
shaped like small shells) are served with a wide
variety of sauces, ranging frorri vegetables and pulses to meat. An
absolute must is orecchiette
con cime di rapa (orecchiette
with turnip tops); Another
speciality is ciambotto
(fish ragù),
invented in
Bari, and prepared
using various fish. The cuisine of the coastal regions is full of fish
dishes, although fish is also cooked in the interior in a number of
elegant recipes. The recipes are extremely simple: there is no point in
covering, or worse, altering the flavor of the excellent
fish and seafood with complicated
preparations. For example, in
Bari freshly caught
baby octopus and
anchovies are often
eaten raw, and sometimes still alive. The
oysters, are also excellent, and
should also be eaten as fresh as possible with a squeeze of lemon juice
and
freshly ground black pepper. In
Taranto the
mussels are exquisite,
and their excellence is explained by a curious legend. From the seabed of
the bay of Taranto rise
"citri", jets of fresh water which
encourage the breeding of mussels. The largest of these, whose vortex is
visible on the surface, is called
San
Cataldo. It is in fact said that one day
the saint threw his ring into the sea to calm a tempest. The source
appeared in the exact place where the ring sank to the bottom, and this is
why the mussels of Taranto a re
so good. While on the subject of fish,
visitors to Gallipoli,
the splendid city in the Salento area, must try
scapece. This is a fish dish with a wonderfully aromatic flavor. The
recipe involves small fish, which are then left to marinate in vinegar and
saffron. There are many ways of discovering the Apulian gastronomic
tradition. Some of the most enjoyable involve following one of the
regions's wine trails. There are also dairy trainls, which give visitors
the chance to try ricotta
and the region's other cheese.
Another gastronomic masterpiece is tiella,
a soup which is a legacy of Spanish domination.
There is no official recipe, and every area has its version. The dish
dates back to the region's rural past, when families
returning home from work in the fields put whatever they could find in the
cupboard in the pot. More or less everywhere, in the small towns of the
interior, and along the seafronts, there are many shops where you can buy
Apulian bread, a
product with a deserved reputation. Dark and full-flavored, it is a
perfect foil to strong-tasting food. Equally appetising are the many types
of focaccia
bread available.
FOCUS:
WINES AND
LIQUEURS
Apulia was once famous in the winemaking field above all
because it provided excellent blending wine, used to beef up the wines
from northern Italy, which were considered a little weak. The region was
in fact known as "Italy's winery" because of the vast quantities of wine
it managed to produce (around a third of the national production). Over
time, Apulian viticulture managed to earn a reputation not only for
quantity, but quality. At present it is distinguished for the production
of distinctive roses such as
Rosato del Salento.
Whites worth mentioning
include Locorotondo
and Castel del
Monte,
alongside the Martino
and
San Severo reds.
Moscato di Trani,
meanwhile, is an excellent dessert wine. Among the various wine
trails in Apulia, the "Murgia Carsica
DOC wine trail" introduces visitors to
the typical wines and food of the
Bari area.
Festival and Country Fairs
Orsara di Puglia. a small town in the province of
Foggia, is
considered the home of the traditional cookery of the
Tavoliere and
Daunia areas. Every year in late June it hosts an important
festa
del vino (Wine
festival), dedicated to Tuccanese, a red table wine. The festival takes
place in the streets and piazzas of the medieval old town, and seven
wineries offer wine tastings together with conferences and traditional
folk music. h
17.
Basilicata: a
pearl
between two seas
top
Basilicata, a
small
region set between two seas, the Ionian and the Tyrrhenian, has a
centuries-old gastronomic tradition. The recipes often have roots in the
distant past. Few people know, for example, the reason why in many Italian
regions sausages are called "luganiga". The word comes from the Latin
lucanicam, i.e."sausage of Lucania",
and the production of this sausage began
in the times of the Romans, or maybe earlier, here in
Basilicata, when
the region was known as Lucania,
its Latin name. It is mentioned in the
works of Apicius, Martial and Varro.The secrets of this ancient farming
civilization have been passed down to the present day, to become a
resource for us all.
Basilicata
is a
land rich in tradition, where the cuisine is a skilful combination of
simple and genuine products, shunning the sophisticated preparations of
modern gastronomy. An example of this is the fact that only olive oil is
used in cooking, while butter is used as if it were a kind of cheese.
Despite the similarities of some dishes with those of neighbouring
regions, the originality of Basilicata's
 cuisine is to be found in its
capacity to extract flavor from even the simplest ingredients, and to use
spices to make even the humblest dishes tasty.
Vegetables are often eaten as a
first course, either on their own or accompanied with pulses or pasta, in
dishes such as broad beans and chicory, fresh almond shells with turnip
tops, and wild chicory in beef stock. The pulses, cereals, vegetables and
aromatic herbs are at the basis of strongly flavored and yet balanced
dishes. Pasta,
traditionally handmade using durum wheat, salt and water, is
one of the pillars of the region's cuisine, and comes in a vast array of
different types, where shapes and names are limited only by the cook's
imagination. There are also interesting types of stuffed pasta, such as
ravioli
alla potentina, stuffed with
ham, ricotta,
parsley, egg and pepper. From Matera meanwhile, come
calzoncini,
small semicircular pastry parcels filled with
ricotta,
sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cheeses
also represent a recurrent motif on tables throughout the
region, and are all of excellent quality, especially those made using
sheep's and goat's milk.
Pecorino lucano,
produced with
70% sheep's milk and
30%
goat's milk, matured for between three months and a year, is
a cheese of exceptional taste and quality. A famous gastronomic invention from
the region is the sausage,
already known in ancient Rome. Excellent sausages are
produced throughout Basilicata, and can be
eaten fresh or matured, or even conserved in oil or lard.
Soppressate, sausages of pork cut
by hand using the tip of a sharp knife, dried and then preserved in extra
virgin olive oil, are an excellent example of the care dedicated to
sausage production. When you have the chance to taste
local specialties in a restaurant or farm, make sure you try
pezzenta, a sausage made
 using pork
off cuts. Mutton and goat are traditional favourites, barbecued, stewed or
roast. The preparation of stews requires a certain skill on the part of
the cook, who must ensure the correct proportions of the ingredients and
understand when the dish is ready to be served.
Cutturidd (stewed mutton), a
traditional shepherd's dish, is prepared in a terracotta dish, or in heavy
aluminum pans. Ragù,
the ideal sauce for many types of
pasta, is cooked using three different types of meat: lamb, pork and kid,
which are first sealed and browned and then cooked in tomato sauce. The
result is a real delicacy. Chilli,
whose use is widespread throughout the region, is always used
with moderation, so that its taste is pleasant even for those who don't
like spicy food. Another specialty peculiar to the region is
lampascioni, a variety of wild
onion with an unusual taste, which is eaten on its own or in combination
with other foods. The traditional sweets and cakes of the region exploit
simple ingredients and original flavor combinations. Examples of this
creativity include casoncelli,
filled with chickpea puree mixed with bitter cocoa and sugar,
and sanguinaccio, which is prepared with pig's blood, cooked wine
must, bitter chocolate, raisins, lemon zest, cinnamon and sugar. These
products are usually prepared for home consumption, but luckily for
tourists, they can also be found in many of the region's wonderful
patisseries and agriturismos.
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
The three most famous wines of
Basilicata all come from the
Vulture district (near Melfi
and
Rionero): red
Aglianico, sparkling
white Moscato,
and Malvasia,
a characteristic dessert wine.
Aglianico, excellent with meat, is the only one to have achieved DOC
recognition. Other wines worth mentioning include
Aleatico di Rionero.
Festival and Country Fairs
In
Basilicata,
folklore, gastronomy and history
are closely related, and in a visit to an important city such as
Matera (with its
characteristic Sassi) in
the month of July is a perfect
opportunity to enjoy the festa
della Bruna, a
festival intended to try and ensure a good harvest, with an
impressive procession led by a carriage pulled by oxen. Throughout Matera
during the festival period, traditional regional dishes are
prepared.
18.
Calabria: mountain farmers and
fishermen
top
In Calabria the cookery reflects the
environmental conditioning of a harsh land, squeezed between high mountain
ranges and a dazzlingly beautiful sea. The food is simple, humble and
flavored with the strong and robust flavors of a long farming and
fishing tradition. This sun-kissed land offers fragrant citrus fruits,
olives, vegetables and wines. Chilli, also called "the spice of the poor",
which was brought to Calabria in the 16th century from America,
gives life and an unmistakable flavor to simple dishes. The farming
tradition, and that of the coast, have passed down over the generations
the secrets of preserving vegetables, meat, and in particular pork and
swordfish, which is abundant in the waters off
Scilla and
Bagnara. The region's traditions are a hybrid of strong influences from the
East and from the Albanian and Greek communities which began to settle in
Calabria in the Middle Ages.
Calabria, an ancient land with a rich history, with white
beaches, green woods and pine forests, and small towns clinging to the
mountainsides, is situated between two seas on the southern tip of the
Italian peninsula. The cookery reflects the environment, and the so-called
caviale dei poveri
("poor man's caviar") is the dish which more than any
other expresses this. It is a paste made with anchovies' eggs, spiced up
with abundant chilli and conserved in oil. The recipe bears witness to a
culinary tradition based on humble, simple ingredients, with strong,
almost violent flavors and aromas. This is the harsher side of the famous
Mediterranean diet. This "caviar" also introduces a nother particular
characteristic of Calabrian food: the processing of foods with the aim of
preserving them. In the past, daily sustenance was not something that was
taken for granted in Calabria, as it may have been in other, more wealthy
regions of Italy. The harshness of the terrain and the often difficult
climate made it important not to waste any of the products of sheep
farming and fishing. The women thus created many methods for the long-term
conservation of food, both from the land and the sea: an art which has
been developed in sausages and foods conserved in oil, and which today
evoke the flavors and aromas of a bygone age, and are still found on
restaurants menus in the cities and picturesque towns along the coast. The
Calabrian diet is well-balanced, with a good variety of dishes based on
mutton and pork, vegetables (aubergines are particularly popular) and
fish. Calabria is also the homeland of the hottest
red chilli in the
whole of southern Italy, which brings heat to any dish in which it is
included; yet, incredibly, it manages to enhance other flavors without
overpowering them. One of the constant features on
Calabrian tables is pasta,
homemade naturally. Perhaps in no other region
is the preparation of this food so much a part of daily life. For example,
it is said that a woman is not ready for marriage until she knows at least
fifteen different ways of making dough: knowing how to make good pasta in
a variety of ways means being a good wife and hostess. There are as many
different types of pasta as there are meat and vegetable sauces with which
to serve them. The meat sauces are nearly always based on beef, veal, pork
or lamb, slowly cooked in a sauce of locally grown tomatoes, pureed and
conserved under a layer of olive oil. In the mountain areas of
Sila
and Aspromonte, there is a whole range of dishes based on
mushrooms, especially
the fragrant cep. They are used in a wide repertoire of tasty recipes,
whose "humble" origins are only apparent and which exploit the flavors of
the ingredients without distorting them. Meat is generally cooked in sauce
or grilled. An extremely tasty specialty is
capretto con le patate
(kid with potatoes) baked in the oven and accompanied with peas
and artichokes when in season. There are innumerable vegetable dishes
which often seem to outshine the main courses they are supposed to
accompany, such as melanzane ripiene
(stuffed aubergines) and
peperonata
(stewed peppers), not to mention many types of vegetables
conserved in olive oil. Fish
also holds a prime place in Calabrian cooking, in the coastal
zones of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas. Tuna and swordfish are cooked in
thousands of different ways: fried, in soups, in sauces and baked as
involtini
(slices of fish rolled up and
stuffed).
FOCUS : WINES AND LIQUEURS
The Phoenicians and Greeks brought
viticulture to Calabria. It was they who began to produce wines with the
region's splendid grapes. At present, the most widely planted varieties
are Gaglioppo and Greco. Among the best known wines are
Grò,
which comes in red, white and
rosé varieties, and
Savuto and
Dormici,
which are dry reds. With
fish, white Esare
is recommended. For those who like wine but also
love nature, there is vie "Wine and woodland trail", which runs through
the Sila
mountain park near
Catanzaro.
Festival and Country Fairs
For over ten years, in September,
Diamante (in the
province of Catanzaro)
has hosted the
Peperoncino
festival, organized by the
Italian Chilli Academy, which brings together lovers of the tasty
Calabrian product, and which has over fifty branches in Italy and more
than five thousand members. The festival offers the chance to taste many
specialties prepared using this ubiquitous
ingredient.
19.
Sicily: a journey back in time
top
There are few places more than Sicily where
talking of cookery means making a journey within a journey. Here we find a
cuisine with a rich and tasty variety of products which displays a
fantastic balance between land and sea, and a gastronomic tradition which
is quintessentially Mediterranean. However, Sicilian cuisine is not a
single entity, since differences originating from a variety of cultural
influences have been mixed with the differences between the food of the
coast and that of the interior. Sicilian cookery is thus like an artist's
palette, juxtaposing strong colours and pastel shades, in a play of highly
evocative echoes and references.
"It is impossible to understand Italy
without seeing Sicily: the key to everything is to be found in
Sicily".Thus wrote Goethe in Palermo on
13 April
1787 on the
occasion of his first trip to Italy, in the search for the roots of
western culture. The largest island in the Mediterranean is a wonderful
place, whose natural beauty is fused with the artistic heritage of the
many peoples that have settled there. They have
 all left their mark on the
region's food, and it is for
this reason that Sicilian cuisine is
today considered one of Italy's richest and most appreciated. First to
arrive were the Greeks, who founded
Siracusa, Catania and
Gela
and introduced into these areas the characteristic foods of
their homelands: olives, salted
ricotta and above all
barbecued lamb. The Romans
introduced maccu,
broad bean puree flavored with aromatic herbs, excellent
with pasta or simply spread on bread; stuffed cuttlefish; baked onions;
pasta served with beaten eggs, parsley and cheese ("riquagghiu"). After
the Romans came the Arabs, and with them rice, sugar, spices and almonds.
A dish clearly derived from the Arab tradition, also in its name, is
cuscusu, a fish soup
served with couscous, typical of
Trapani. The dish originates
from the north-African couscous, but differs from it in its use of fish.
The Arabs are also responsible for the island's two most famous sweets,
cassata
siciliana
(a sponge and
ricotta
cake topped with fondant icing and candied fruit) and
sorbetto. The
Normans, meanwhile, taught the Sicilians how to prepare stockfish. The
period of French domination saw the introduction of rollò (a
stuffed veal roll), while the
Spanish brought the so called pan
di Spagna
("bread of Spain", a sweet
sponge cake), along with chocolate, tomatoes, and above all aubergines.
The Spanish influence is also behind many dishes with contrasting
flavors, such as pasta with sardines and raisins, and orange salad
seasoned with chilli.
Caponata is a perfect example of how the Spanish tradition combined
with the Sicilian taste for sumptuousness. This hearty salad is based on
vegetables, and contains aubergines, celery, capers, olives and sweet and
sour tomato sauce. The original recipe also included
octopus, scampi and a small lobster. In restaurants and agriturismos you
can naturally find foods that are common to Sicilian and Italian cuisine
in general, such as pasta
prepared in a variety of ways. But even here, you will find
traditional and unique flavors.
Siracusa is famous for its
spaghetti with anchovies, and in
Trapani
 pasta is served with
lobster. Apart from fish, many pasta dishes are based on vegetables and
cheese, such as spaghetti with courgettes, or pasta with
ricotta
and semolina. Catania's speciality is
pasta alia Norma,
with aubergines
and tomatoes, named in honour of the Catanian composer
Vincenzo Bellini
after one of his famous operas. The series of towns lining the
interminable Sicilian coast offer fish and other seafood of astounding
quality. In Trapani tuna
is prepared in a
huge variety of ways: fresh, conserved in oil, or salted and dried
("noseddu"). Messina, meanwhile, is famous for
swordfish,
and a local speciality
is impanata, which consists of a sweet pastry case filed
with swordfish and then baked. All along the coast,
sardines are fished in large
quantities, and served with currants, pine nuts and
anchovies.
FOCUS:
WINES AND LIQUEURS
First the Greeks, and then
the
Arabs and Normans, praised the strong
Sicilian wine.The island's king of wines is without doubt the sweet and
unmistakable Marsala,
created by the Englishman John Woodhouse. He had the idea of
strengthening the
Marsalas local white wine cooked grape must, grape syrup and
distilled alcohol. The result was an excellent dessert wine which also
went well with ice<reams. Other
wines worth trying include
Alcamo, Moscato di Pantelleria,
Malvasia from the Aeolian Islands
and Etna, which comes
in white, red and rosé
versions. One of the various wine trails
in Sicily, the "Etna wine trail" is dedicated to mis wine,
the
first in Sicily to obtain DOC
status.
Festival and Country Fairs
For almost
400
years the most important festival
in Palermo and Sicily
has been that of Santa Rosalia,
the "festino"
as the people of Palermo call this
festival dedicated to the city's patron hermit saintThe festival takes
place in mid-July and involves great religious celebrations (starting with
an impressive procession), shows and naturally endless occasions to taste
the specialities of Sicilian cuisine.
20.
Sardinia: aromas of the
Mediterranean
top
The variety of the cookery in Sardinia is
comparable to the variety of its landscapes. Sardinian cookery, in fact,
juxtaposes the flavors of the sea and the strong aromas of Mediterranean
herbs, and offers dishes from both the pastoral and coastal tradition. The
repertoire of recipes also reveals the willingness to integrate the
culinary traditions of past invaders and more recent rulers or guests
(such as Catalans and Arabs and, in the period of the Marine Republics,
Pisans and Genoans from the Italian mainland).
Almost all the coastal towns of Sardinia boast a rich
tradition of seafood, which is often imaginatively combined with food from
inland areas. The meeting of coastal and interior areas, of flavors,
traditions and cooking techniques, often leads to unusual and surprising
results. A case in point is the minestra di
verdure
(a soup of seasonal vegetables)
prepared in Alghero, to which small morsels of sea bass and bonito are
added; or pan-cooked fish and potatoes, a speciality of Porto Torres and
Stintine In Olbia,
seafood enjoys almost cult status, above all
mussels, which are
eaten in soup or with pasta, in herb or tomato sauce, in
a gratin, or
as the filling for crispy fritters. One of the most
beautiful tourist areas in Sardinia, the Costa
Smeralda, is also a paradise
for the taste buds: summer dishes include salads with crustaceans and
seafood, pasta with bottarga
(dried salted eggs) of grey mullet or
tuna, and carpaccio
of sea bass or swordfish. Cooks also use some of the
traditional recipes of the Gallura
area, such as zuppa gallurese,
whose
ingredients are bran bread,
beef stock, fresh
pecorino cheese,
grated mature pecorino cheese and chopped parsley. And while on the subject
of marrying flavors of the sea and those of the land,
Gallura
is
also a good place to make gastronomic discoveries, such as its dishes
based on mushrooms,
which grow in profusion in the woods and meadows. To find other traditional food, you
will need to go to Porto Torres and
Sassari, where they
prepare an extraordinary dish using the tuna's reproductive organs, called
lattume or
lattante.
Sassari is
famous for its dishes of snails:
in spicy tomato sauce, in herb sauce, pan fried, or baked.
There is also a wide range of interesting seafood recipes, especially
those dedicated to crustaceans in
Alghero, a town which,
in addition to its many natural and architectural beauties, boasts a
Hispano-Catalan past. There are also some interesting ways of cooking the
abundant eels from the
pools around Oristano,
which may be pan fried with white wine
and raisins, or baked with pecorino
cheese. Alongside seafood recipes,
the other great Sardinian culinary tradition derives from sheep farming.
From the pastures of Logudoro, and the many modern dairies spread over the
territory, comes a vast array of sheep's cheese,
ranging from soft
pecorino to
mature versions. From the mountainous are a in the heart of the island,
Barbagia,
comes pane
frattali, which
is based on the typical thin crunchy Sardinian bread, seasoned with stock,
tomato sauce, poached eggs and
pecorino cheese. Barbagia is also home to sanguinaccio di pecora,
a
sausage which is considered the
world's oldest and which is still prepared today. Naturally, pasta dishes
are also found in Sardinia. In fact, along with Genoa and Palermo, the
city of Cagliari is attributed with inventing pasta. The most
popular form in Sardinia is gnocchetti
sardi (also called "malloreddus"), served with plenty of
tomato sauce, chopped sausage and grated
pecorino.
The area of Sulcis,
south west of Cagliari, has felt the strong influence of the fish cookery of
Carloforte, with its north African and Genoan influences: here you can
taste pasta with
pesto
carlofortino
(very similar to
pesto from Genoa) or
casca,
a
local version of
couscous, served only with pulses.
FOCUS:
WINES AND LIQUEURS
Among Sardinia's most famous wines are
Vernaccia
from
Oristano, with its
characteristic aftertaste of almonds, and
Cannonau from
Cagliari, a red
wine which is an ideal accompaniment to the intensely flavored local
meat, while the white version is excellent with cheeses, especially
pecorino.
Excellent dessert wines include
Moscato di Sardegna and
Malvasia di Bosa.
Berchidda (province of
Sassari)
is home to the Museo del Vino
di Berchidda (Wine Museum), which
introduces visitors to the fascinating world of wine production with its
exhibits of old presses and utensils.
Festival and Country Fairs
In Tonara,
in the province of Nuoro, the
sagra del torrone (Nougat festival) is held
every year on Easter Monday, and is one of Sardinia's oldest traditions
.The town is considered the home of this fine confection and the
festival is a perfect opportunity to taste nougat of all types: with
almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, lemon. In addition to nougat, other
Sardinian sweets are on offer, together with wine and local crafts. The
festival is brought to life by folk songs and traditional dancing.
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