What to eat Friuli-Venezia Giulia? culinary specialties and gastronomy

As in the rest of Northern Italy, polenta plays a major role in local cuisine, serving as both a base for recipes and an accompaniment to a wide range of dishes in sauce. This ground corn porridge can be yellow and thick or white and thinner, depending on the variety of corn used. Wheat was traditionally little grown in the region, so wheat pasta was very rare, unlike blecs, made with buckwheat flour. There is a small local production of round rice, cooked as risotto.

Vegetables include brovada, made from grated turnips fermented in grape marc. This very common peasant preparation is made in autumn during the wine-making process. In Carnia, northwest of Friuli, sauerkraut(crauti) is widespread. Dried beans, lentils, radicchio (chicory), cabbage, potatoes, squash and asparagus are also popular, as are tomatoes on the Adriatic coast. Sclopit or silene is a wild herb whose crunchy, mild-tasting leaves are widely used in risottos, potato gnocchi and omelettes. Finally, horseradish or kren - with its pungent root - is popular for making sauces.

The star of Friulian cured meats is prosciutto San Daniele PDO. This cured ham takes its name from the municipality of San Daniele, in the province of Udine. It needs to mature for at least 13 months. But smoked cured meats are also common, such as speck di Sauris, a beechwood-smoked ham produced in the Carnic Alps. Similar to cotechino, muset or musetto is a finely spiced sausage made from pork giblets and eaten boiled. It's a fairly fatty sausage, often cooked in winter with lentils. Salsiccia di Cragno is a pork and beef sausage flavored with caraway seeds. Pitina, originally from Val Tramontina, is a meatball (game, mutton, goat) smoked and rolled in corn flour, served in thin slices. Finally, pestat di Fagagna is a sausage made entirely of bacon and vegetables, cut into pieces for use as a condiment in soups and sauces.

Friuli, with its vast mountain meadows, offers some exceptional cheeses. Montasio, a cow's milk cheese made mainly in the province of Udine, but also in Pordenone and Gorizia, is undoubtedly the best known. It's a semi-hard cheese with a delicate taste, characterized by numerous small holes. The astonishing formadi frant ("crushed cheese" in Friulian) is made by pressing scraps of other cheeses with black pepper. With its rich, powerful taste, this product - initially considered a lower-quality cheese - is now classified as a high-quality artisanal product.Asìno, typical of Monte Asio, is a soft cheese in brine, while scuete fumade is similar to smoked ricotta.

A traditional Italian meal is divided into four parts. To begin with, the antipasti are the equivalent of our amuse-bouches. The primo (first course) consists of pasta, ravioli or risotto, and sometimes soup. The secondo (second course) and its contorno (side dish) consist of meat or fish. It finishes with a dolce, or dessert. Please note: in restaurants, coperto is a supplement (between €2 and €4 per person) that includes bread and service, added to the bill but rarely indicated on the menu. If tap water is drinkable, Italian restaurateurs will always offer bottled water, either still(liscia) or sparkling(frizzante). Finally, in seaside restaurants, the price of fish is calculated per 100 g and not for the whole fish, which is often much heavier.

As in the rest of the country, antipasti include cold cuts, cheese, vegetables in brine, mushrooms in oil, fish and seafood, olives, breadsticks and more. Another local specialty is liptauer, which originated in Liptov, Slovenia, but is also found in Austria, Hungary and, of course, the Trieste region. This fresh cheese-based preparation - cow's, sheep's or goat's - is enhanced with chives, paprika, onion and sour cream. Another surprising recipe isajvar , a tasty stewed bell pepper confit of varying degrees of heat, originally from the Balkans.

Soups are also popular, and the best known here is jota. This is a bean soup reminiscent of the Venetian pasta e fagioli. But here, instead of pasta, we use sauerkraut and smoked bacon. This dish, also found in Slovenia and Croatia, is perfect for harsh winters. Minestra de bobici is a thick soup with white beans, corn, smoked ham and potatoes. Finally, minestra de bisi spacai is a split-pea soup. Rice dishes are also popular, such as risotto di sclopit - flavoured with silene leaves - sometimes garnished with seafood, or risotto agli asparagi (with asparagus), risotto agli urticions (with young hop shoots), risi e bisi (with peas).

Cjarsons are one of Carnia's best-known dishes. These thick ravioli are made from a potato-based dough, like gnocchi, with a filling that is often sweet and savory, ranging from wild herbs, ricotta and potatoes to raisins, prunes, cocoa, pine nuts or cinnamon. Another emblematic dish, frico, is a thick patty of mashed potato, onion and Montasio cheese. Variations include pancetta, mushrooms or tomato. Patate in tecia - originating in Trieste - are candied potatoes with onion and pancetta.

Of Hungarian origin, gulash is a beef stew garnished with vegetables and onions and generously flavored with paprika. Triestino gulash does not contain potatoes, but is flavored with tomato and herbs, then served with polenta or gnocchi. Another typical Trieste dish, porzina, is an assortment of boiled pork: smoked bacon, sausages, smoked pork ribs and various offal. Also common in Veneto, ragù bianco di anatra is a sauce made from minced duck meat, served with pasta. Finally, cevapčići is a Balkan dish that became an integral part of local cuisine with the arrival of Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian and other workers in the region. These long croquettes of grilled minced meat (beef, pork and/or lamb) are served with raw onion.

Fish and seafood are also very popular, as is the famous brodetto di pesce, a rich fish soup prepared all along the Italian Adriatic coast as far south as Croatian Dalmatia. This dish contains a variety of fish, shellfish and squid cooked in a tomato and white wine-based sauce. It's usually served with polenta or toasted bread. Boreto alla graisana, from the town of Grado, is a lighter turbot-based dish, flavored with garlic and a dash of vinegar. Also served as an antipasti, sardoni in savòr are fried sardines marinated in vinegar and onions. Also popular in neighboring Veneto, baccalà al pomodoro is a dish of cod cooked in a tomato sauce with garlic and parsley. Granseola alla Trieste is a recipe based on poached spider crab flavored with lemon juice, pepper and parsley. Last but not least, canocchie alla busara are squids - cousins of the shrimp - re-fried with garlic, tomato, parsley and white wine.

Italian pastry classics such as tiramisù, panna cotta and gelato can be found in the region. The Austro-Hungarian presence has left its mark, and most local desserts exist under other names in Austria, Slovenia or Hungary. Presnitz - typical of Trieste - is a puff pastry snail filled with a mixture of walnuts, almonds, dried fruit, chocolate, rum and spices. Gubana is a spiral brioche filled with dried fruit and nuts, traditionally prepared for Christmas and Easter. Putizza is the Italian name for potica, a Slovenian dessert found in Trieste, also filled with nuts and symbolizing Christ's crown of thorns, which is prepared for Holy Saturday. Another brioche, pinza, takes the form of a ball flavored with rum and lemon or orange zest.

Gnocchi di prugneou or di susine are potato pastry ravioli stuffed with plums and covered with a mixture of breadcrumbs toasted in butter, sugar and cinnamon. Koch di gries is a semolina cake with raisins, pine nuts and orange zest. Strucchi are small doughnuts filled with walnuts, sometimes with raisins, jam or candied citrus peel. Originating in the Valli del Natisone, these sweets are typical of Christmas and Carnival.

As the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Trieste was also the gateway to exotic commodities such as coffee, which still plays an essential role in the city's soul. Coffee in Italy is a veritable religion. While we're all familiar with the classic espresso, ristretto and cappuccino, there's also caffè lungo (long), con panna (with a dash of cream), latte macchiato (hot milk, frothed milk with espresso) and caffè freddo (iced coffee).

Friuli-Venezia Giulia is Italy's eighth-largest wine-producing region. Located mainly in the center and south of the region, the four most important wine-growing areas are Collio Goriziano, Colli Orientali del Friuli, Isonzo and Carno. They produce excellent white wines such as Friulano (made with grapes very similar to Tokaji), Ramandolo, Ribolla Gialla and Malvasia. Red wines include Merlot, Schioppetino, Refosco del Peduncolo Nero, Tazzelenghe and Colli Orientali del Friuli Merlot.

Throughout Friuli, aperitif time is known as tajùt. The habit of getting together with friends before going to work or home is still very much alive in the region today. A few slices of San Daniele prosciutto, a few cubes of Montasio and you order a glass of white(taj di blanc) or red(taj di ros) wine from the innkeeper. As for beer, the region produces Castello, Sauris and Moretti. Grappa is a brandy made from grape marc. Slivovitz, a plum brandy, is very common in Central Europe, and is also found in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Ciders from Carnia and Pordenone are also famous.