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Vol. 2 No. 3, June 2007
Welcome to the third Sapori e Saperi newsletter of 2007. Usually I write about things I’ve recently seen or done, and this time there’s the trout festival, but I’m also giving you a preview of a few of the food festivals that take place in the Garfagnana every summer. Going along to one is wonderful way to plunge right into the middle of rural Italian culture. The locals are very helpful, but booking Sapori e Saperi to escort you ensures you won’t miss the best events, and I can help you plan other interesting visits on the way. Every season has its excitements, so if you’re planning a trip to Lucca at another time of year, there’s bound to be something I can recommend.
Best wishes for a slow and flavourful 2007.
Contents
 Up at the trout farm
Until last Sunday I totally agreed with Jean Giono (quoted by Elizabeth David in French Provincial Cooking): ‘Of course, I am no more talking of tank-bred trout than I would give a recipe for cooking a dog or a cat’. So I was taken aback to find that the signs to the second Sagra della Trota led to an impianto ittico (fish farm). I’m not sure what I thought would be served at a trout festival. I knew that the rivers of the Garfagnana have their own species of trout, Trota iridea, which they share only with the adjacent Lunigiana, and that the chef was to be Giulio Vannucci, chef of Slow Food Garfagnana. Perhaps I had imagined that each of the 150 guests would be issued with a fishing rod and sent into the river to catch his or her own fish.
Having driven an hour along narrow roads winding through tiny villages, postage-stamp fields and leafy chestnut woods, high up into the Garfagnana, I wasn’t about to go away without my lunch. The fish farm lies at the confluence of three rivers which supply water to the enormous rectangular outdoor fish tanks set into the slope outside the main building. These tanks contained the mature fish which had enough space to frolic up and down without bumping into their roommates. Inside the building were large shallow metal tanks on legs in which the juveniles swam about in gangs as if they were afraid of the vast open spaces available to them. None of this looked like animal persecution, but the proof would be in the eating.
At the dining marquee I discovered a model of good organization and hospitality. Like most sagras, you ordered and paid for your food at a desk at the entrance, then sat down at a table and your meal was served by friendly local teenagers. The menu offered trout cooked in four different ways: as a sauce for pasta, sautéed and topped with tomato sauce, deep fried in a batter, and baked ‘al cartoccio’ (in foil) with herbs in the oven. With main courses costing between €4 and €6 and €2 for a bottle of wine, value for money certainly wasn’t going to be a problem. But just past the order desk, I came to the ‘cocktail’ table offering unlimited free sparkling wine, pasta fritta (deep-fried bread dough as compulsive as peanuts), one of the best five-month old pecorino cheeses I’ve ever tasted (made by Verano Bertagni whose dairy Sapori + Saperi guests can visit) and some excellent salami (producer unnamed, but I noticed a salumeria in the village above). My ‘al cartoccio’ turned out to be a sizeable whole trout, perfectly cooked and beautifully flavoured in its herby crust. I’d certainly eat another one of those farmed trout, but I’m now going in search of a wild beast to find out if it’s better.
A sideshow at the sagra was one of only two water mills that are registered to grind Garfagnana DOP chestnut flour. It only operates at the end of November and early December when chestnuts are ground, but a video clearly showed the whole process from picking to drying to shelling and grinding. What’s more, had I arrived earlier in the morning, I could have joined a walk on a newly restored footpath through alpine meadows with blossoming wild peonies, a pleasure to look forward to at the third Sagra della Trota.
 Summer food festivals in the Garfagnana
Sat 16–Sun 17 June at Mologno (Barga)
‘Il paiolo mestato’ (‘The Stirred Pot’)
A festival celebrating polenta made from formenton otto file, the primitive maize grown in the Garfagnana and stirred in a purpose-made copper pot over a fire (it tastes like maize, not like bad school pudding) and pecorino (cheese made from sheep’s milk also stirred in a copper pot over a fire).
 Sat 7–Sun 8 July at Piazza al Serchio
‘Le contee del Farro della Garfagnana IGP’
(‘The Territories of Farro of the Garfagnana IGP’)
It’s mind-blowing to discover that this farro (emmer) grown in the Garfagnana is the same wheat cultivated by the first farmers in the Middle East over 10,000 years ago, and is different from farro (spelt) grown elsewhere in Italy, which is the one available in the UK. This is a chance to find out more about its history and better still to taste the delicious variety of traditional dishes from zuppa di farro (bean and farro soup) to insalata di farro (farro salad) to farro beer (a live-yeast beer invented by a Garfagnana lorry driver and every bit as good as the best German and Belgian wheat beers).
Thu 2–Sun 5 August at Cascio (Molazzana)
‘Sagra delle Criscolette di Cascio’ (‘Festival of the Criscolette’)
Unimaginable as it is, this is a festival given over entirely to the celebration of a crêpe. But what a crêpe and what a celebration! Four days of sit-down four-course dinners plus music and games.
Sun 5 August at Pieve Fosciana
‘Passeggiata degustativa formenton otto file’ (‘A tasting journey of eight-row maize’)
The town sign proudly proclaims Pieve Fosciana as the ‘village of eight-row maize’, and this imaginative meal-on-the-hoof takes you from antipasto to dolce, each in a different private garden or village square, never deviating from the basic ingredient of the full-flavoured primitive native American maize.
Sun 16 September at Ghivizzano (Coreglia)
‘Norcini a Castello’ (‘Pork butchers at the castle’)
Pig-out on cured pig in this medieval hilltop village. The streets are lined with the produce of local producers of handmade cheese and salumi and a feast of typical Garfagnana food and wine is served in the cantinas (cellars) of the houses. Mediaeval crafts and herbs are on display in front of the castle and there are mediaeval games for the children. A great family outing.
Pork + Porcini: an antidote to Slow Food Cheese
If you’re heading to Bra in the Piedmont for Slow Food’s biennial cheese festival from 21–24 September, I’ve specially planned the second week of Pork + Porcini to start on 27 September to provide a cheese-less respite from over-indulgence at the largest cheese fair in Europe (and perhaps the world). However, if you discover a particularly excellent cheese, you’d be welcome to bring it along for all to taste.
Adventures for 2007
You can join me in my adventures either by signing up for a week of in-depth exploration of a few seasonal foods or book a day or two as you’re passing through. Whatever the season, there’s always something exciting happening behind the scenes.
Pork + Porcini
Thursday 20–Wednesday 26 September 2007
Thursday 27 September–Wednesday 3 October 2007
Olive Oil, Chestnuts + Polenta
Sunday 11–Saturday 17 November 2007
Sunday 18–Saturday 24 November 2007 |
