I don’t know about you, but since covid I feel like I have been holding my breath. We got through the lockdowns and now we are surviving the overtourism which is understandable.
EVERYONE wanted to come back to Italy.
I just had my last group of the year and this weekend we went to a local festival a couple villages away. It is a small town with a wonderful real village festival. It’s celebrating the animals and there is a area to pet the animals and also they show horses and how sheep dogs work as well.
There were different types of pigs, goats, donkeys and sheep. They had ponies for the kids to try riding.
Local guys were showing their skills with their saws! Amazing how delicate they could be.
But you know me, I came for the food! The local shop keepers all had stands out. The butcher was making panini and selling food to take home as well. Prepared lasagna, even just ragu. We bought porchetta and a couple o types of different sausages he made, including one from the local Cinta Sense pig. We also got a large slice of their Finocchiona, a soft fatty salami which has garlic and fennel. It’s so nice to get artisanal products. The flavors are so intense rather than bland like grocery store products.
One of the things we look for in this area are called Ficattole. Fried dough. The name and shape changes all over the area. These are long thin slices of fried dough, very very light.
Closer to where I live, they are breadier and can be cut open to make skinny panini. Here we call them Donzelle. I think the difference in the dough is that these had more water in them and were very light.
Here is the recipe.
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 25 grams fresh brewer’s yeast, 1 cube of fresh, or the equivalent of dry
- 2 c milk
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pinch of salt and 1 pinch of sugar
- oil for frying
Instructions
- Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, add the yeast dissolved in a little warm water and half the milk.
- Start to knead, adding the milk little by little.
- The dough should be soft and sticky (add more water if necessary). A wet dough makes a lighter product.
- Cover and let rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
- Bring the frying oil to temperature, grease your hands well with olive oil.
- For coccoli, tear off pieces of dough and place them in the hot oil for a few minutes
- For Ficattole, roll the dough flat and cut strips.
- Sprinkle with salt while hot.
I think the best part of Fall are the festivals as they almost always involve food.
Although the weather was wacky, we still celebrate the harvest.
Here we have wine festivals, oil of course, wild boar, steak, porcini to mention a few.
What is your area famous for?