Trentino-Alto Adige: not just Italy!

Trentino Alto Adige is a region characterized by valley lakes, rivers and streams, but also forests, vineyards and alpine meadows with flowers and flying birds and butterflies. While on its south-eastern part are typical towering limestone peaks of the Dolomites, to the north, the landscape is mountainous and finally featured with the majestic Alps.

Region of Trentino-Alto Adige is composed of two historically and ethnically different parts. Trentino in the south was named after its capital – Trento and it is uniquely Italian. While Alto Adige region with a predominantly German-speaking population was assigned to Italy from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I.

German language remained as the main language here and everything is Germanic as well, from the food to the architecture. Region-Alto Adige (South Tyrol in german language and culture) are not only about the Dolomites however the most important part of the Dolomites is located right in the territory of that region. And Dolomites along with Trento town are undoubtedly the most beautiful places to visit in Trentino-Alto Adige.

Trentino Alto Adige cooking draws as heavily from its Germanic roots as it does from its Italian heritage. Most of the dishes are hearty and come from the peasants of the region. Over many years, the residents of this autonomous region in Italy have created a unique blend of the two cuisines. But lets not wait more and lets go directly to give some example of traditional food of Trentino-Altoadige.

Polenta is staple food in Trentino Alto Adige cuisine, but it may contain potatoes or buckwheat instead of or in addition to cornmeal. It is often served with wild game or mushrooms and liberally flavored with butter and cheese. In addition to polenta being eaten hot as a grain or sliced and fried, these grains can be made into a cake known as smacafam. It is also made into trisa, a hot soup of cornmeal and wheat flour cooked with butter and milk.

In addition to ravioli and tagliatelle, Trentino Alto Adige cuisine features strangolapreti, a spinach and cheese flavored potato and flour gnocchi, which literally translates to “priest stranglers”. They also serve a long tube shaped noodle called bigoi. Spätzli, a small handmade noodle, often is served alongside beef dishes.

Canederli, a bread dumpling, is one of the famous regional dishes. Trentino Alto Adige cooking offers these with meat, in soup or even filled with fruit for dessert. Another well-known food is broth with leberknödelsuppe, another kind of dumpling made from bread, calves liver and herbs.

3 Knödel or tyrolese Canederli, prepared with speck and potatoes. They are served in the traditional plate and on a tyrolese flourished table cloth.

Filling soups are very popular in this northeastern region of Italy. Trentino Alto Adige recipes for soup include minestra di trippa, a bread thickened soup with tomato sauce, vegetables and tripe. Saursuppe, another tripe soup, is flavored with herbs, onion, nutmeg and white wine. Barley soup, known as orzetto or Gerstensuppe, is made with vegetables, onion, garlic and a local smoked pork called speck.

Speck is also served as an appetizer or snack with hearty rye bread or crackers. Trentino Alto Adige recipes make many kinds of sausages, including hauswurst, from pork. This sausage is enjoyed served with horseradish, pickles and sauerkraut. Blood is used with walnuts, pine nuts and chestnuts to make biroldi con crauti. These nutmeg, cinnamon and clove flavored sausages are also accompanied by sauerkraut.

Beef is marinated in a brine with juniper berries, herbs and pepper to make carne salata. When sautéed in butter, it is served with polenta or beans. It can also be sliced and eaten raw. Dried cod is also eaten in Trentino Alto Adige cuisine. Beef is also enjoyed braised slowly in flavorful sauces. Rindsgulasch, or beef goulash, is a hearty beef stew. Sauerbraten is a stewed beef roast flavored with onions, vinegar and wine.

Food from this region features many different kinds of meat. Pork and poultry are raised at home and hunters bring home rabbit, venison, mountain goat and the chamois. This unusual game animal is served with salt pork in an herb flavored vinegar and sour cream sauce. Fresh water fishing provides brook trout. This fish is served with melted butter after cooking in vinegar, lemon, bay leaf, and clove flavored white wine.

Trentino Alto Adige recipes are well known for their flavorful apple desserts. Apfelküchel is a cake full of pieces of apple. Rolling delicate pastry for apple strudel requires many years of practice. Other well known desserts include a jam filled fried or baked pastry called krapfen. A sweet variation of smacafam are also made with nuts, raisins and aniseed flavoring. A Christmas specialty is zelten, a rye cake with provincial variations. It is often made with nuts, candied fruit, honey, cinnamon and liqueur. At the end One of the best and most famous sweets in South Tyrol is undoubtedly the strauben that are never lacking in festivals and village festivals throughout the year.The name derives from the German word "Straub" which means "tortuous, curled, messy, disordered", given the shape of this somewhat "twisted" dish. Usually this type of dessert is prepared in all the village festivals, which take place in the warm seasons in the Tyrolean squares. The dough consists of a batter obtained by mixing: flour, butter, milk, brandy, eggs and oil. The batter is then poured into boiling oil, making it take the form of a rolled and rumpled vermicellum.

When cooked it is placed on a plate and covered with icing sugar and often accompanied by cranberry jam.

Trentino Alto Adige has so much to offer, you won’t believe. Just even the Alps are totally worth the visit. Trentino is a magical mix between italian and german culture, and it’s the only one place where you can find such a thing!

The Strauben, at ypical spiral-shaped "Alto Adige" frittella is a sweet much loved by young and old. It is prepared by frying the dough which is dropped with a kind of iron funnel into the boiling oil. The procedure to cook the strauben is an art and it is absolutely fascinating to stop and watch the peasants at work while they fry dozens!

#dream