Mountain fragrances

A culinary travel to Alto Adige: the fragrances and perfumed aromas from mountain huts, rivers and farms tell you the history of this generous and authentic land.

In the land of the Dolomites, silent and imposing mountains overlooking the valley, cuisine is a hymn to nature. Each season has its own features but it is in autumn and winter that Alto Adige offers its best gastronomic tradition. Excelling products, such as speck ham, honey and cheese produced in Malghe (alpine huts), game and river fish tell of a cuisine with a very strong relationship to its land. Spätzle and Canederli, the so called “poor cuisine”, and the game sauce are the flagships of this region, including roe deer sauce, one of the most famous delicacies from mountain cuisine. Among the traditional dishes are all of the various soups, with mushrooms or snails, making them the ideal meals to get warmed and strengthen the spirit. Wild fowl and game, however, are also cooked as rich, fragrant and wild dishes. Served with underbrush, crunchy sauerkrauts and polenta, during the long and cold winters these are the most preferred hot meals: braised deer, fallow deer, roe deer and the famous goulash. Also the Tyrolean trout recipe is one of the main specialties of Alto Adige. As for dessert, krapfen filled with custard, apple doughnuts or the traditional strudel, one of the symbols of Alto Adige cuisine. The geographic features of the region also allow an excellent wine production: noteworthy are the white Nosiola, Gewürztraminer and many sparkling DOC wines.
 

Tips for storing food in the fridge

Speck should be kept wrapped in a piece of cloth and placed in the lower side of the refrigerator; deer bresaola can be preserved fresh for a few days longer if put inside a paper bag. Butter from alpine farms should be wrapped in a wet piece of cloth. Apples require different storage methods: if they are unripe then leave them out of the fridge, but if they are ripe put them inside the fridge in a perforated plastic bag. Fresh mushrooms should be placed in the fruit and vegetable compartment but need to be consumed within 3 or 4 days at most.