The local products
of Gorizia and Friuli Venezia Giulia:
Written by Rossella Dosso
Oslavia's ribolla and Gorizia's grinzing
There is a beautiful place in Gorizia that attracts many tourists from all over the world every year: Oslavia. An important place also because of the Ossuary in memory of the fallen of the Great War that today cannot be visited as it is closed, like many other attractions in Gorizia. Oslavia is a fascinating place, immersed in nature that in its shapes and colors is reminiscent of the Tuscan hills.This is said by tourists who come from all over the world and who could certainly be more numerous.
In the greenery of these hills over the years wineries of producers have sprung up with passion and love to create products of world excellence. In 2010 local producers created the Ribolla Gialla Producers Association of Oslavia. They are Dario Prinčič , Figel, Francesco Gravner, Franco Sosol (Il Carpino), Stefano Bensa (La Castellada), Silvan Primosic, and Saša Radikon. All winemakers of the frontier not only physical but also experimental avant-garde who have developed a unique, we could say “extreme” winemaking technique, that of macerated wines, which has admirers and imitators all over the globe.
Unique, precious wines, celebrated by gourmets all over the world, produced in Oslavia, municipality of Gorizia. And Oslavia, thanks to them, is today the land of Ribolla Gialla.
This road could be the Grinzing (famous route of the Viennese vineyards) of Gorizia, and it was once dotted with trattorias and taverns that formed a true food and wine route, culminating-in glory-in the restaurants of San Floriano.
The whole thing could start from the “Case Fogar” red palace next to Piuma Bridge, located in one of the most beautiful places in the Region, which disappeared from the programming of the EGTC, which should take into account, since it should boost tourism also in the Italian part of its territory of a public building located at the entrance of the magnificent street of Oslavia with its restaurants and vineyards, close to Calvary, directly in contact with the Soča Park, equipped with a magnificent vaulted cellar and a panoramic terrace on the river.
In Oslavia, the monumental Ossuary is also an essential stop for those who research-and there are many-the paths and memories of the Great War: today it is closed, in a sort of endless renovation that has never been completed. “At one time the janitor rang the vesper bell“-the Klanjscek recount-”then about 15 years ago it broke. And no one fixed it. Everythingcould begin
We think that attractive signage should be restored in Oslavia, which should start already from all entrances to Gorica: in addition to Klainjscek and the Primosic trattoria first “Gorizian” stop, it would be appropriate to promote also the restaurants of St. Florian namely Korsic, Formentini, Dvor, and all the interesting facilities from the tourist point of view joined by Oslavia: even small realities, but they are there and should be promoted. This means planning a revitalization of Oslavia and thus incentivizing the emergence of some other initiatives. Targeted brochures in various languages, website, FB pages.
Written by Rossella Dosso
Gubana from Gorizia, the best in the world
Much forgotten and also a victim of the Friulian and – oops! – also from Trieste: we are talking about the unique and inimitable Gubana gubana from Gorizia, which it is wrong to compare with Presnitz and only to juxtapose it with the one from Cividale.
It is a bourgeois dessert, the Gorizian one, even a noble one, and its cost distances it from the counters of hypermarkets. It speaks all the languages of Gorizia: Friulian, Slovenian, German, Italian with some Hungarian and Croatian inflections. Gorizia’s gubana mirrors a vast mosaic of culinary traditions, which Gorizia has never been able to make the most of and especially in concrete terms.
The Gorizian gubana accommodates in its light, buttery and very thin pastry a riot of walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, raisins, citron, cinnamon and cloves, which gladdens the palate and by its Mediterranean characteristic induces one to investigate its origins.
As did Lella Au Fiore, one of those intelligent and vivacious women who bring prestige to our city and who was the ambassador of this elegant dessert, collecting house by house the recipes handed down from generation to generation, attesting to its derivation from the Hungarian term skubanki (shredding) and from the Slovenian guba: wrinkle, crease.
And by advancing the speculation as exotic as it is fascinating that it may have been inspired, including by its spiral shape, by the Eisemada: an Arab dessert. Cividale’s gubana is different from Gorizia’s, particularly in its leavened dough and especially in the marketing that now accompanies it on the shelves of all supermarkets and truck stops.
Gorizia’s is more refined, more artisanal, and believe me, better. But it risks like everything good in this city, intent on catching the butterflies of unrealizable megaprojects, to take the drift of insignificance. Let Gorizia treasure the resourcefulness that has animated the Cividale area, and let the municipality take charge of gathering the operators around a Trademark, a Consortium of protection, to bring this typical dessert of ours to the levels of consideration that it deserves: as Alderman Antonio Devetag had attempted with some success, uniting all the Gorizia bakeries and creating a special package to contain the very precious dessert: when the junta changed, the initiative ended up in oblivion.
For now we would be satisfied if all Gorizia’s restaurateurs at the end of the meal offered with joy and pride, a slice of this sublime dessert.
Written by Antonio Devetag
Ode to the Rose of Gorizia and those who produce it
The season of the Rose of Gorizia is beginning.We have a priceless treasure that is produced from the little arable land left in the municipal area, which comes about because of special climatic conditions, because of the characteristics of the land itself, because of a long habit and study in the field (in the true sense of the word) of very good farmers who have preserved and, indeed, perfected the appearance, taste and flavor of a vegetable of incredible quality.
Among them is Carlo Brumat, an unbeatable defender of this hypergorizian product.The crux of the matter lies in the fact that production is low, very low, and some people in good faith, others in bad faith, say that we are at a crossroads: increase production and thus extend the denomination to a wider territory, even going beyond the borders of the former province of Gorizia. Apart from the fact that the fake Rosa di Gorizia is now found in more or less every restaurant in the region and beyond, this solution would also mean a wider marketing of the product, which a Gorizia firm is already pursuing. All good? No of course, because anyone who understands anything about niche products and their success (see slow food) understands that the Rose of Gorizia just does not have the characteristics to become an industrial discourse.
Instead, it is an invaluable component of tourism tout court for our city, since a typically Gorizian product, so rare and so difficult to cultivate succeeds perfect in its intrinsic qualities only in Gorizia, in that strip of land from the Piuma bridge to Salcano. The Gorizian farmers who have been growing it for generations have happily united in the association “Produttori Radicchi Rosso di Gorizia o Rosa di Gorizia and/or Canarino di Gorizia” are convinced (and, from direct experience we support them without fear ) that the savoriness the “crispness,” the very texture of the two radicchios reach their ideal peak only in Gorizia, so much so that I can suggest that the real tourist-cultural bet would be precisely to promote our city as a place where to invite all tourists, and especially the neighbors from Udine and Trieste, in the winter season to come to Gorizia’s restaurants to taste this rarity: perhaps sipping that magnificent Ribolla Gialla in whose name some good Gorizia producers have also formed an association.
Since the members of the association rightly sell their product to a few restaurants of regional excellence (and not only) it would be right to tie their disposal to a very strict quality label (even De.Co. is fine even if going to the appropriate site it reads Rosa di Gorizia with TRIESTE in parentheses).
Today, more than ever, it is necessary to form, under the aegis of the municipality, an association of producers of Gorizia’s excellences ( among which we include Lucinico honey, the producers of Ribolla, the wonderful gubana of Gorizia already celebrated in a beautiful book by the unfortunately forgotten Lella Au Fiore (and which many insist on equating with the similar product from Trieste) together with Gorizia restaurateurs, aimed at the concrete and real launching of Gorizia’s specificities, which are identity, therefore culturally important. In short, doing what, in “Gorizian” proportions, they have been doing for decades in Veneto or Emilia Romagna.
By the way, in a cross-border perspective and very interesting to succeed in obtaining European funding, we know that the Gorizia association of producers of the Rosa di Gorizia would be ready to welcome among its ranks also those farmers who grow it in the Salcano area. That would be a remarkable qualitative leap.
Written by Antonio Devetag
Honey from Lucinico and Renzo Obit
The Rose of Gorizia, of course, about which we have written and will write more: but there is another Gorizian, to be precise Lucinico delicacy that we would like to mention, not least because in times of intense vague cultural tourism there has been little mention of it: Lucinico Honey, an extraordinary Isonzo-Gorizia product, which together with Gorizia Rose, Ribolla Gialla and Gorizia Gubana – assuming someone takes the trouble to urge our very good bakers to form an association of producers – form an exceptional poker of aces to attract visitors and tourists.
There are other specialties of the House of the Bee, located on Cicuta Street of course, but today we would like to mention this Doc honey, all produced by the bees of our territories, which reaches the apex of quality in the Dandelion and Lime varieties. Gourmet stuff. But there are also healthy honeys such as the one against sore throats and the energizing one with Ginseng, as well as a honey-based cosmetic line. The imagination of one of the founders–never praised and remembered enough–Renzo Obit gave birth, between 1993 and 1996 together with Luciano Marussi and nine other beekeepers, to this little Gorizia miracle, which would be worth enhancing in every way. It can be found in the best grocery stores in our region and in many supermarkets.
The link to “Cooperativa Casa dell’Ape”:
https://www.facebook.com/p/Cooperativa-La-Casa-dellApe-100049475020303/?locale=it
A cura di Gorizia3.0
Collio's extra virgin oil signed Enrico Coser
Alongside wine, also oil: this is the new project of Enrico Coser (owner with his family of Ronco dei Tassi di Cormòns, a historic winery in Collio Goriziano), who has taken advantage of the months of forced slowdown of commitments imposed by the pandemic to engage in a new initiative, always in contact with the land, always linked to Friuli Venezia Giulia. And now he produces, lo and behold, an elegant and delicate extra virgin olive oil, the name of which comes from the acronym Enrico and Costanza Coser, his little 5-year-old daughter, who also designed the logo that stands out on the black label.
“The idea of producing oil came to me because I believe that ours is an area extraordinarily suited to the cultivation of olives because of its microclimate and location,” explains Enrico Coser- Friuli Venezia Giulia is in fact at the limit of latitude for olive cultivation, and this characteristic brings unique characteristics to the oil on an organoleptic and analytical level, with an acidity and a quantity of polyphenols that are optimal for the health aspect as well as on a taste level.”
3.5 hectares of olive groves, divided between an old olive grovea Gagliano (hamlet of Cividale) and olive trees planted in Cormòns next to the vineyards of Ronco dei Tassi. About 1,400 plants, with an average age of 15 years, are cultivated with great attention to the environment, with organic fertilization and – as far as phytosanitary management is concerned – with guided and integrated pest management with products with low environmental impact. The olives are harvested by hand, arrive at the oil mill on the same day as harvesting and are immediately processed.a Crushing is carried out at a controlled cold temperature (i.e., below 27 °C). Then the oil is stored in steel tanks and allowed to decant at a controlled temperature (14-16 °C). Finally, ecco is put on the market in elegantly designed half-liter bottles, specially made in an antique green color to best protect the precious contents from light.
“It is characterized by a medium fruitiness and the fusion of the peculiarities of the individual cultivars,” explains Enrico Coser, ”It is a clean oil that opens on notes of sweetness, leaving room for a moderate bitter sensation and a pleasant spiciness, typically attributable to the regional Bianchera cultivar. It is ideal on vegetable salads, grilled vegetables, fish appetizers, baked and grilled fish, fish and vegetable pasta dishes.”
Written by Rossella Dosso
Pinza from Gorizia
The pinza is certainly the most typical Easter dessert in Gorizia (and Trieste). So much so that “Bona Pasqua e bone pinze” is the wish that today (less frequently) as yesterday Gorizians exchange during the period of the most heartfelt and oldest feast of Christianity. This dessert, now on display year-round in the windows of pastry stores and bakeries, was prepared by Gorizian housewives exclusively on Holy Saturday. Waking up at the crack of dawn, they would begin – together with their relatives and neighbors – the ritual of a long kneading of the ingredients, after mixing the mother yeast with part of the flour and milk, and kneading the dough several times, adding eggs, butter, sugar and liqueur. Indeed, the secret of success lies in the patience with which to cope with the leavened loaves until they are “tamed” and grow. Kneading the dough by hand required considerable physical exertion, culminating in the breaking into round, tall, spongy loaves on which a cross-shaped cut was made, symbolically signifying the Passion of Christ. Since baking the tongs in the wood-burning kitchens of the time was far from easy, they – brushed with beaten egg yolk – were entrusted to the pec (the baker) for baking.
But the tongs were-at the same time-an element of identity and a point of honor in the family: values that had to be safeguarded, so much so that women would put a coin on them or make special marks to prevent them from being confused with those of a different origin, by the baker. Who, to relieve himself of responsibility, would apply a number written on paper to the pliers, handing the corresponding number to the person who had entrusted it to him. Then, families would take the tongs to church to have them blessed, before being consumed: a testament to the symbolic value attributed to this Easter cake. Which is eaten for breakfast that is, together with cooked ham, to which fennel flowers or grated horseradish root may be added. It is also customary to eat pinza in the classic Easter picnic, accompanying it with salami, other cold cuts and cheeses.
Its true origin, like almost all of our leavened pastries, is claimed to be sought in Bohemia. In Austria, in Styria, Graz and Vienna, at Easter time, the words Görzer Pinze, meaning pinza from Gorizia, appear in the windows of pastry shops, thus signaling its availability. While in Graz, during Lent, there is a competition among pastry shops for the best Görzer Butter Pinze.
That there remains, even in the culinary field, a mutual contamination between Austrian and Gorizian culture is unavoidable: for centuries Gorizia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, within whose framework it developed and grew. German names are particularly present in pastries: here then is the cuguluf, the presnitz or the Mohr in Hemd (Mohr in Hemd). But the city has always been a frontier place, in contact with different cultures, from which it has been influenced and enriched. For example, the Menihi (friar’s braids), characteristic of the Easter season, has Slovenian derivation and is made precisely from the dough of the pinza, worked into braids that enclose a hard-boiled egg, traditionally colored red. But the emblematic dessert of Gorizia Easter remains the pinza.
A cura di Gorizia3.0
Superlative cheeses from Zoff's in Borgnano
Giuseppe Zoff is one of the very rare Isontine producers of cheese, which he makes directly from the milk of his herd of about seventy cows based in Borgnano, the hamlet of Cormons contiguous to the municipality of Medea, Borg da Ocjs locality. In a delightful place at the foot of the hill, Zoff has also built a well-equipped farmhouse with five spacious and well-furnished rooms with bathrooms, which also has a room for hearty breakfasts in which the main dish is milk products.
Experiencing the real, old-fashioned countryside seems to be the motto for his guests, mostly Germans and Austrians, but there is no shortage of Italians (“Many come from Tuscany,” he says, marveling a bit) who come to spend a weekend or a week to cleanse themselves of the toxins of the city. In the large courtyard that serves as the entrance to the farmhouse, guinea fowl, geese, turkeys, chickens can be seen; all around are green meadows, rows of vines a panorama that embraces the Cormonese Collio.
He makes the cheeses together with his wife Patrizia, also from a completely different past: “I was employed,” he says as if remembering very remote times, “at the municipality of Cormons, but today I devote myself completely to this beautiful activity: I changed my life and I don’t regret it,” and they are for freshness and genuineness true gems for any gourmet. Meanwhile, the yogurt: when you taste it you forget about the one sold in supermarkets, as tasty as it can be. Very light, velvety, almost impalpable if it weren’t for the delicious taste, sweet and sour together that it leaves in the mouth.
Don’t miss the caciottelle cheeses, which are offered in as many as four versions: the fresh ones, which still taste like freshly milked milk, the slightly aged ones, which have nothing to envy to the best cheeses around, those flavored with herbs ( Thyme, Sage of the Island of Cres, basil, rosemary) , which combine the genuineness of the dough with the smells of a meadow in bloom, and the smoked ones, “ideal for flavoring first and second courses,” says Patrizia, “especially gnocchi, better if made of pumpkin. Then there are wonderful aged cheeses, which are ideal to accompany polenta dishes, although many cooks, the most refined, use them to season traditional Friulian pasta dishes, instead of grana cheese.
Just to remain proudly clinging to traditions, the cows on Zoff’s herd are Red Pezzate cattle raised in a completely natural way. “We have chosen to raise the calves with their mother’s milk,” says Giuseppe Zoff, ”even if we lose a few liters of milk, but in the end it all translates into quality.
Written by Rossella Dosso
The game meat of Casa Coronini
A taste for beauty and refinement were in the DNA of Count Guglielmo Coronini Cromberg (1905 – 1990), the last owner of the Gorizia palace of the same name, which represents a treasure trove of works of art, portraits, furnishings, of the highest value. Alongside these testimonies, there are objects (knick-knacks, porcelain, crystal, silverware) that convey to us the atmosphere of daily life in the noble family, including gastronomic habits, as suggested by the presence of nine handwritten notebooks from the mid-19th century to the first half of the last century, preserved in the Coronini Cromberg Foundation archives. Written in different languages (German, French, Slovenian), three of them appear to have been compiled in her own hand by Olga, Guglielmo’s mother. A first notebook containing 48 recipes is written – as we append from Roberto Zottar’s in-depth study on “The Evolution of Gastronomy and the Kitchen Notebooks of the Coronini House” – in Kurrentschrift, the old German cursive. Olga’s manuscripts-containing approximate indications as to weight and execution-appear to be addressed to those with a good culinary familiarity and tell us about a typically Central European cuisine, certainly not popular but, at the same time, devoid of excesses as to refinement and opulence.
The same collect (also) some recipes on game, which the count sometimes hunted personally, using the thirteen-barreled rifle built by his great-uncle, Arturo Coronini Cromberg.
As for the structure of table service, the Coronini household also recorded the transition from the so-called “French-style” service, where diners drew on the dishes freely, to the “Russian-style” service: the dishes, except for cold hors d’oeuvres, were brought to the table in succession according to an order that ensured the right cooking point and optimal temperature. In the mid-19th century, the service was enriched with a minutia of the courses (the menu) to give the guest an account of the gastronomic journey that would await him or her.
Among several recipes on game, we propose two:
Wild game pate
Having on hand 2 small roe deer shoulders or one large rabbit, stew the meat together with the bones for an hour and a half, adding a little butter or plain veal roast fat. If necessary, wet with a little water. Remove the bone, boil for two hours and strain the broth to remove the fat. Then mince the meat and beat it for two hours, gradually adding 3 raw yolks and 2 heaped tablespoons of fresh speck cut into squares; while doing so, water the mixture with the previously saved broth and then sieve it. Then add again 2 heaped tablespoons of speck pieces and as many of ham or tongue, and pistachios. Line the mold with thin slices of speck and bake the pate for an hour and a half in a bain-marie. It is also very good with the addition of madeira or mushrooms.
For veal jelly, follow the same recipe, but adding butter and excluding eggs.
Wild duck
Wilt a lot of vegetables with butter or lard, and only at this point add the whole duck. (If the duck should be very fatty, the skin and some of the fat should be removed, so that it does not taste “chilly.”) When the duck, after being turned repeatedly, has taken on some color, add a tablespoon of vinegar and water, and occasionally a glass of red wine. When the duck has softened, remove it from the heat, chop up the vegetables, if necessary add a little more wine, because the sauce must be plentiful. Then cut the duck (after removing the skin) and douse it with the vegetable sauce (puree).
Written by Rossella Dosso
The cherries of Collio
Collio, Brda, Cuei. Three languages (Italian, Slovenian, Friulian) to indicate a territory: the one between Italy and Slovenia, covered with vineyards that chase each other on the gentle slopes of its hills. And that in spring wears the white dress of cherry trees in bloom, a prelude to gluttony of their red, juicy, crunchy fruit.
Hello, Zijvio, Mandi, is the greeting that farmers address to each other – indifferently – as they meet in the vineyards. Because Collio is the amalgam of cultures that the three languages express through its inhabitants. Who have lived together for centuries, heedless of the borders erected by states: their minds and hearts have never perceived them. Those borders.
On this land, which was once the vineyard, vegetable garden and orchard of the Habsburgs, cherry trees grew and grow, the fruits of which are harvested by the descendants of the farmers who brought to the market in Cormons – flourishing until World War II – most of the cherries produced in Collio. The ancient varieties, including white and black cepike, drugmbernce, napoleonke, and tercinke, arrived in the hill town inside baskets carried by the wagons of the Brda inhabitants.
Today’s Piazza XXIV Maggio, once the “plaze de pomis” (fruit square), covered with a myriad of baskets of cherries and the other spring fruits, became a kaleidoscope of colors.
The Cormonese said the cherries were ripe when the Jewish traders arrived. Under whose direction the fruits, packed in crates, traveled on railroad cars refrigerated by ice bars to markets in Vienna, Warsaw, Prague and St. Petersburg.
Cherries for centuries sustained the income of the families of farmers in Collio: “the relieved south” of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from which they drew tasty fruit, early vegetables, and fine wines, and which in Cormons found the driving center of concentration and sorting of the various productions. Not very fond of humid and cold climates, the cherry tree has always found an appreciated habitat in Collio, due to the right exposure to the sun and non-aggressive ventilation.
Written by Rossella Dosso
Josko Sirk's vinegar
Amidst the beautiful hills of the Cormon Collio lies Subida, a delightful hotel-resort with attached famous restaurants: the Osteria della Subida and the “Trattoria al Cacciatore.” The complex is run by the Sirk family, who are dedicated to hospitality and gastronomy with passion and love for their land. Josko and his wife Loredana opened a small tavern in the 1980s, which later turned into La Subida, a unique place. Today the business is also run by their very active children Tanja and Mitja. Josko was among the first to grasp the importance of these hills, enhancing from the very beginning not only the wines produced, but also the beauty of the territories, giving birth to the “Consortium of the small Collio” and identifying in the yellow Vespa – to be rented by whizzing through the roads lined with rows of vines – what has become the symbol of Eno-gastronomic tourism in Collio. Which is a fertile land where not only excellent wines are produced, and where there is a gem that represents one of the treasures of Cormons. We refer to the grape vinegar of these generous hills: that of Sirk.
Produced in the vinegar cellar attached to the restaurant, Josko has created this vinegar of absolute excellence by making it from white grapes and putting a lot of love into it.
“If it is true, as it is, that a great wine is made from a great grape, from this great grape I make my great vinegar. It takes me a few years, and in that time I have to care for it and cuddle it like a baby in swaddling clothes,” Josko says. The grapes that have reached full maturity are brought to the vinegar cellar, derasped and put into small vats where they undergo alcoholic fermentation. After eight to ten days have passed, the sugars have turned into alcohol, and at this time acetic fermentation is triggered in contact with the mother vinegar. The process takes place absolutely spontaneously and lasts almost a year, until the ‘following autumn, when all the alcohol will have been transformed into acetic acid. A few weeks before the next harvest the vinegar is decanted, pressed before decanting; after the process is finished it is placed in small barrels to age. It takes three or four years for it to blend and refine. Once in the bottle it matures to become a unique product.
Josko through his “creature” has been able to make Collio and its extraordinary products known, but there is a lack of synergy between entrepreneurs capable of enhancing in the world not only the excellence of wine, but also a territory that still has so much to give in terms of tourism. It is in everyone’s hopes that the newly formed Pact between ten hillside municipalities, led by Cormons, will finally succeed in creating a true brand capable of conveying Collio’s potential to an ever wider audience of users.
Written by Rossella Dosso
Plums with a thousand names and dumplings from our home
In quarantine one can devote oneself to preparing old, basically very simple recipes. Often used as synonyms, plums and prunes are not equivalent. Close relatives, indeed very close, but: the fruit is born plum (and found in markets from July to September) becoming plum (to be eaten year-round) only once dried. Fresh, dried or confected, plums come in many varieties. Those widespread in Friuli are of the oblong type, not very large, to which the Germans give the name zwetschge, the Slovenians cesplie and the Friulians sespis, which in Cividale becomes sespa, in Cormons cespa (with the sweet esse like that of rose) and in the Natisone Valleys ciespa. Still plums they are, but those that grow on the other side of the Isonzo River have a reputation for being the best. A reputation attested to by the success they achieved in much of Europe when, in the early twentieth century, farmers in Collio (but also those in the Vipacco valley) used to dry them.
Not the common dried plums found on the market today: those took the name Amoli goriziani or Prunele (Suha cesplja in Slovenian or Doblòn in Friulian). The procedure was this: once picked, the plums were peeled with a curved knife, then exposed to the sun on wicker trellises.
After they turned a beautiful golden yellow color, freed from the bone, they were flattened and joined two by two, inserting an almond or a half walnut but also a sage leaf in between. They then underwent a sulfur treatment (to preserve them from mold) and were sealed in a glossy paper, as is done with chocolates. Packaged in elegant boxes, under the name Gorzer Prunellen, they took their way to Viennese stores, even reaching as far as Poland and Russia. World War I destroyed much of the orchards and the trade died out on the eve of World War II.
Native to Asia, the name probably comes from Susa, an ancient Persian city. The discovery of plum seeds dates back to prehistoric times, and evidence of their presence in Italy goes back to Pliny the Elder, who mentions them in his “Naturalis Historia,” informing us that: “e myxis in Aegypto et vina fiunt” (from small plums in Egypt they also make wines). Instead, in Friuli and especially in Slovenia, but also in Croatia and several Eastern European states, Slivoviz or Sljvovica is made, a distillate obtained by fermenting the fruit, which, particularly in the Cividale area, is also sprinkled on gubana.
On the tables of Gorizia and Trieste, susina rhymes with gnocco. “Gnochi de susini” made their appearance-when the territory was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire-thanks to Bohemian cooks, who worked for aristocratic families. In fact, among the most renowned dishes of Austrian cuisine are Marillenknödel, sweet dumplings filled with apricots. In the Collio, which is rich in these plants belonging to the Rosaceae family, the variant of gnocchi with plums could only be born, and they show up in inns and homes at the end of summer. They can be served as a first course, in such circumstance enriched with sage and a pinch of grated Parmesan cheese, or as a dessert – and this is the best-known declination – flavored with melted butter, breadcrumbs, sugar and cinnamon. But given the caloric intake, as the people of Trieste warn, “Ocio a la balanza!” Translation seems superfluous to us.
Here's the recipe:
Ingredients: 700g of flour, 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon of butter, 5 tablespoons of milk, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 20g of brewer’s yeast.
Recipe: Stem the yeast with warm milk, sugar and a couple of tablespoons of flour and let rise. Beat eggs with sugar, add remaining milk, melted butter and flour. Combine with fermented yeast, knead well and let rise. Cut the plums in half, pat them dry and dip them in sugar. Take a spoonful of dough, insert half a plum and throw the dumpling into the salted boiling water. When the dumplings come to the surface, they are ready. Drain them well and dip them in melted butter where breadcrumbs will have been browned. Sprinkle them with sugar and a pinch of cinnamon and eat them hot.
Written by Rossella Dosso
The turnip of Verzegnis
Here is the story of the Verzegnis turnip (quite different from “the turnip and the broad bean”).
In each seed is reflected the image of the people who passed it down and, by selecting it, improved the variety. That of the inhabitants of the small Carnic village is linked to the seeds of the gnau, that is, the turnip, so much so that they are nicknamed gnaus, probably because of the conspicuous local production of the vegetable. The etymon of gnau is, however, of obscure derivation and a first attestation is found in Abbot Pirona’s 1871 Friulian dictionary, which defines it as “mondiglia di rape, which is given for food to animals,” also pointing out that “the voice is used in Carnia.” Indeed, it was noted that the name gnaus was also known outside Carnia itself and used to identify the inhabitants of Verzegnis.
Today we would not be talking about this product if Mrs. Delfina Frezza had not recovered in a drawer – some years ago – the sachet with the root seeds, bequeathed by her mother. The precious bag was handed over to Ersa – Regional Agency for Agricultural Development, which, thanks to experimentation carried out as part of the FuturBioErbe project, financed by the FVG Region, saved the gnau (and with it a small part of local history), enrolling it in the national list of traditional food products (Ministerial Decree September 8, 1999, No. 350).
The Municipality then distributed seedlings to families in order to reinvigorate an ancient crop (evidence of its cultivation is given in the Preparatory Acts of the Austrian Cadastre of the Municipality of Verzegnis of 1827) that had been lost and that sympathetically identifies its inhabitants. The municipality itself celebrates its iconic vegetable with an event called “Gnaus – a community within a root” having a biennial cadence (the next one will be held in the summer of 2019).
Simple but beautiful story that of the Verzegnis turnip, which was a crop of second sowing (i.e., every other year after the main one, usually a winter cereal), developed for livestock and human feeding, not so much because of its nutritional value as for jemplâ la panze (filling the belly). The possibility of preserving it in the cold season, once treated, stimulated its cultivation all the more. The gnau is slightly elongated and red-violet in color in the above-ground part and white in the lower part, differing from the common type (called tonda di Milano) not only in color but also in shape and flavor (more delicate).
The production cycle, from sowing (June-July for direct sowing, July-August for transplanting) to harvesting is 90 days. As for cultivation: although the vegetable has a good adaptability, a draining and sunny soil is recommended, which should be kept moist while the crop is growing. Harvesting is usually in October/November, but it also depends on the time of planting. Storage should be in a cool, well-ventilated place.
Consumption? The root can be boiled, boiled or eaten raw with a sprinkling of salt. But the most popular use involves one of the flagships of Friulian cuisine: brovada, which when combined with muset (cotechino) is the death of it.
Recipe: Muset and brovada of Verzegnis
Arrange in a container–in the past a barrel was used–in an uncool place an alternating layer of turnips and apple cider residue (instead of pomace, as grapes are scarcely produced in the mountains), which will cover the top layer along with water. Make sure that all fermenting turnips turn out to be submerged. After 40 to 50 days the product, cleaned and grated, can be consumed. Two hours of cooking in the pot, with water and salt, and the brovada is ready.
For muset: boil it in unsalted water. Slice it and arrange it on the plate together with the brovada: the success of the “marriage” is assured.
Written by Rossella Dosso
The garlic of Resia
La bielezze de valade, i paîs pojâs sui plans, de mê vâl soi namorade: soi di Resie, sin Furlans!
(The beauty of the valley, with the villages lying on the plains, of my valley I am in love: I am from Resia, we are Friulians.) It is the tribute to the pleasant Resia Valley and to Friulanity that the last stanza of Roseane dispenses: the song by maestro Arturo Zardini. The Resians, however, are atypical Friulians. Peculiar. In fact, in this beautiful valley of our Friuli, nestled between Austria and Slovenia, they speak a language of Paleo-Slavic origin that has very little to do with Friulian. Da la Russie l’antenât stabilît sot il Cjanin (From Russia the ancestor settled under the Canin), adds Zardini in his beautiful song.
Indeed, it is likely that a small community, moving from the steppes of the East, settled in this valley sheltered from contamination, where it developed its own language that it has been able – opposing the march of time – to preserve and jealously guard along with its music, clothes, dance and Pust: the Resian Carnival. But geographical isolation has not only resulted in the preservation of language, customs and traditions.
In fact, the Resians have preserved appreciated vegetable biodiversity: beans, corn, but above all a particular variety of garlic-they call it strok-a Slow Food Presidium, which has become a real trademark registered with the Udine Chamber of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office. And well they did, because Val di Resia garlic has developed characteristics that have elevated it to a veritable culinary star, so much so that its presence is now widespread in markets throughout Italy and beyond, and in the pantries of top chefs. The properties attributed to it-those of, among others, fighting roundworms and preserving good health, so much so that it is tied around the necks of children and the sick-have ensured that its cultivation has not been lost over time. The characteristics? The bulb of the Resia garlic is as small as the cloves that make it up, usually six or eight in number. What differentiates it from other types of garlic, however, is the distinctive reddish color taken on by the second layer of the tunics that wrap around the head, unlike the cloves, which show white. While flavor and aroma are rather strong but sweet and not very sour. Planting takes place in November and harvesting of the bulbs takes place in the first half of July.
Usage. Scapes can be eaten fresh, in tasty soups or succulent omelets, in cream form or in oil. The cream can be spread on croutons and is suitable for accompanying meats, fish or aged cheeses, but it is also an excellent topping for pasta and rice. For those who fear bad breath odor-although producers claim that for Resia garlic such a “problem” is practically imperceptible-the remedies are: chew a few coffee beans, some mint, basil, but also sage or rosemary. This is the advice we also give to young men who would like to approach — referring once again to Master Zardini’s villotta — ‘ne biele frute, bionde, sane, fate ben, cu la cotule curtute, bielis spalis, un biel sen (a beautiful girl, blond, healthy and well-built, with a short skirt, nice shoulders, a nice breast). If the girl was brown or dark-haired: the advice still applies.
Written by Rossella Dosso
The truffle of Muzzana
As Pliny the Elder informs us, in the first century A.D. the entire Po Valley was covered with forests and, between the Livenza and Isonzo rivers, the Silva Lupanica developed, which was drastically reduced in its consistency by human settlement and the progressive anthropization of the places. Today, what remains of the “wolf forest” is mainly concentrated within the administrative boundaries of the Municipality of Muzzana del Turgnano (about 300 hectares of broadleaf forests located south of the town). English oak, hornbeam, oak and ash trees represent the typical vegetation of this lowland forest, which is characterized by the presence of resurgence water and swamps.
That between man and the forest has always been an intense and indissoluble relationship. It is particularly so for the inhabitants of Muzzana, who find in the forest itself the mirror of their history and to which they are attached for what it has been able to offer them over the centuries: food(game), medicinal plants, wood for warmth, shelter from invasions. As a sign of gratitude and respect, the municipality has regulated its use by reserving it only for residents who request it, who can enjoy what it dispenses: wood, mushrooms, space for hunting. We like to think that the forest has liked it, reciprocating the regard by offering the gastronomic excellence par excellence: the truffle, probably already present since the Neolithic period, but remained hidden for a few millennia. Incidentally, the study of truffles is hydnology, from the Greek hydnon, which stands for hidden.
But how is it that the truffle has responded “present” in the Muzzana woods? A few decades ago, truffle hunters from Romagna sniffed, in the manner of their dogs unleashed in the forest, the welcome presence, being careful not to reveal it. It turned out, however, that their assiduous attendance was not motivated by the amenity of the places, so much so that the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, in 2001, commissioned the Experimental Center for Tartificulture in Sant’Angelo in Vado to map the truffle areas of the region. Result: the officialization of the presence of tuber magnatum pico in what remains of the ancient “wolf forest.” The circumstance stimulated the interest of mycologists and lovers of the woodland environment and the birth (in 2005) of the “Muzzana Amatori Tartufi” Association, which, together with the municipality, represents the driving force behind initiatives related to truffle culture in order to promote its growth and collection, correlated with the respectful management of the woodland.
The gastronomic aspect, taken care of by the Association itself, finds its apotheosis in the two days at the end of November dedicated to the “Trifule in fieste” Fair, which offers the opportunity to taste delicacies, among others, such as the egg enclosed in a jar for a few days together with the tuber and then cooked in the ox eye. The polente quinciade: polenta with melted cheese and truffle, tagliolini with butter, beef fillet or baked scallops, accompanied by the noble excellence of the Muzzana woods.
Written by Rossella Dosso
The brovedar of Moggio Udinese
There are dishes that evoke places and places that evoke foods. For example: say pizza and you think of Naples or vice versa. Panettone in Milan. In our Northeast: Grado recalls boreto, the Resia Valley garlic and peverada sauce the Marca Trevigiana. And we could go on for hours. Then there are more “noble” products such as the white truffle that takes us to Alba, or the black truffle to Acqualagna. And others, of folk ancestry, that have a history of having filled the stomach in times when there was nothing else to put on the table. This is the case of Moggio Udinese and its brovadâr: a close, indeed very close, relative of the better-known brovada: a matter of feeling as the song intends, of erre (the one that brovadâr adds) but above all of turnips: the real protagonists of the two recipes.
In particular, that of brovadâr calls for them to be sown from the end of July to August and harvested between the end of September and January (after undergoing a frost: this way they become sweeter and crispier) to be polsâ in the field.
Washed and brushed they then end up boiling in the boiler along with their leaves. Once cooled they are placed in large wooden containers, or of the less aristocratic plastic, on the bottom of which cabbage leaves are laid, the same ones that go to cover the vegetables immersed in water and a little salt. Under the weight of a board they lie relaxed – in a manner of speaking, because they go to ferment – until with natural lactic fermentation the sugars of the turnips turn into lactic acid: hence their salty, sour taste. Et voila – so to speak, because they have to rest for 40 to 55 days – Brovadâr is made. The fleshy roots of this biennial, cruciferous plant (Brassica rapa), native to Siberia, are preserved for a long time: until spring appears. The difference between brovadâr and brovada? A matter of preparation: for brovada related to winemaking time. In fact, turnips are left to macerate and ferment – for less time and without the foliage – in vin rosso marc. The color taken on by the brovada is consequently purplish-red and the flavor pleasantly sour. Brovadâr, consumed since time immemorial in Val Aupa, of which Moggio is its geographic prelude, was winter sustenance along with potatoes, beans, dairy products and preserved pork. It has many uses: as a side dish for meats, in salads, but its death is mignestre, as noblewoman Gemma di Caporiacco recommends in her 19th-century cookbook.
In the past, a good deal of research has been done among elders on methods of preparing and preserving turnips. But fundamental has been the sensitization of families to conserve the seeds handed down. The municipality started the “Women for Brovadâr” project, which has turned into an association to promote the product. But it has done more: it has equipped itself with a Production Specification, registering it in the De.Co (Municipal Denomination) register. The same is included in the Breadbasket of the Julian Pre-Alps Natural Park and in the “Tipicamente friulano” circuit. In spring there is the Festa dal Brovadâr, which was cancelled this year. To the next edition we must go. And driving along the road from the Pedemontana up to the mountains of Alto Friuli – arriving in Mueç or Dordolla, its picturesque hamlet that the popular emphasis juxtaposes with none other than the Serenissima (“Venice is beautiful but Dordolla is its sister”) – enjoy in addition to the view the simple but beautiful story of the brovedâr, escaped oblivion. A story indeed minor but genuine like the people of these places and like the air here.
