Typical recipes of Trentino South Tyrol

It is a tasty cuisine based on the popular peasant cuisine but has German influences and for sweets it is very much based on Hungarian recipes for the use of dried fruits and spices.

Apples and cheeses are two typical products of Trentino well known. Mushrooms are also widely used in various recipes, especially in Trento. Smoked speck is another specialty of this region to which both mushrooms and polenta are often associated, to make truly unique recipes.

Let’s start with the appetizers by offering the speck salad and the roasted meat pate.

Speck salad

Speck salad required

• a cabbage hood
• 250 grams of diced speck
• half a glass of wine vinegar
• salt and pepper just enough

Preparation of speck salad

Finely chop the cabbage and place in a large bowl. Meanwhile, brown the diced speck with the wine vinegar. Adjust the salt and pepper and pour this mixture over the chopped cabbage. Mix carefully and serve.

Roasted meat pate

Necessary for roasted meat pate

• 600 grams of veal pulp
• 120 grams of sliced mixed mushrooms
• 250 grams of cooking cream
• half a glass of white wine
• 2 cloves garlic
• 40 grams of butter
• fish jelly just enough
• olive oil and salt just enough
• pickled cucumbers and peppers to be cut into thin slices for garnish

Preparation of roasted meat pate

Put the butter and a few tablespoons of oil and the garlic cloves (to be removed at the end of cooking) in a saucepan and brown the meat on all sides. Add the cream, white wine and mushrooms and cook for about an hour and a half with the lid.

Just cooked pass everything to the meat grinder several times to get some kind of cream. To this cream add the fish jelly, dissolved in a little water. Mix well, pour into a metal mold and put in the fridge for about 3 hours. Once removed from the tin garnish with slices of cucumbers and pickled peppers.

Now let’s move on to the first and we couldn’t start without talking about the famous dumpworms, which are cooked in many variations. I chose the most traditional, the dumped them in broth.

Canederli in broth

Necessary for dumped them in broth

• 80 grams of softened butter
• 3 eggs
• 80 grams of grated Parmesan cheese
• 250 grams of breadcrumbs
• 1,500 litres of meat broth
• nutmeg, salt and pepper just enough

Preparation of dumped them in broth

In a large bowl mix the butter with the beaten eggs, add the grated cheese, breadcrumbs, a pinch of nutmeg. Adjust salt and pepper and work for a long time to obtain a homogeneous mixture that is not too soft. With this mixture form many balls that should be cooked in the boiling broth for about ten minutes. Serve warm.

Trentino ravioli

Necessary for Trentino ravioli

For the pasta:

• 300 grams of rye flour
• 400 grams of white flour
• 3 eggs
• a tablespoon of olive oil
• a pinch of salt

for the filling and seasoning:

• 1 kilograms of spinach
• 2 glasses of hot milk
• 1 onion
• 3 tbsp chopped parsley
• 180 grams of butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 80 grams of grated Padano grain
• a pinch of nutmeg
• salt and pepper just enough

Preparation of Trentino ravioli

On a flatbread mix the two dough and start to work the dough by adding the beaten eggs, the tablespoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt and adding hot water until you get a smooth and compact dough.

This dough should be rested in a bowl covered with cling film for at least an hour.

Now let’s get the filling ready.

Boil the spinach in a little salted water, just cooked squeeze and chop with parsley.

In a large frying pan fry the finely chopped onion in a third of the butter, sprinkle the flour, pour in the hot milk and always stir together the spinach, with the pepper and nutmeg. Put the grated cheese again and cook for 3 or 4 minutes.

As the filling cools down, pick up the dough and make a fairly thin pastry with a rolling pin. In this pastry cut out with molds or a glass of discs about 6 centimeters in diameter,

In the center of each disc put a tablespoon of filling and close the dough joining the edges.

At this point the ravioli are ready to be cooked in plenty of salted water. Remove them from the water once they have come to the surface and season with melted butter and plenty of grated cheese. Serve warm.

Now to the latter

Roe deer in cranberry sauce

Necessary for roe deer in cranberry sauce

• 1200 grams of chopped roe deer pulp
• 200 grams of diced bacon
• 250 grams of fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 rib of celery
• 150 grams of cooking cream
• 3 or 4 bay leaves
• some juniper berries
• a pinch of butler
• 1 bottle of red wine
• olive oil, salt and pepper just enough

Preparation of roe deer in cranberry sauce

First the roe meat must be put for at least 24 hours to marinate. We then prepare the marinade.

In a very large bowl put the pieces of suede, carrot, onion and celery, cut into small pieces, bay leaves, juniper berries and handset. We cover everything with red wine and leave to rest.

In a saucepan, possibly clay, fry the diced bacon in a few tablespoons of olive oil for a few minutes. Then add the floured meat stew and brown the pieces. Now add the vegetables and wine of the marinade, adjust salt and pepper and with the lid let cook for at least an hour and a half.

Remove the meat from the sauce and set aside. Put the blueberries in the sauce and boil for 5 minutes. Pass or chop the sauce to form a kind of cream in which to put the pieces of meat and finally add the cream. Cook for a couple of minutes and serve warm.

Rabbit in goat sauce

Necessary for rabbit in goat sauce

• a not very large rabbit cut into pieces
• a bunch of tarragon
• 250 grams of cooking cream
• 100 grams of fresh goat cheese
• salt, pepper and olive oil as required

Preparation of rabbit in goat sauce

Cook the rabbit pieces with a little olive oil and the tarragon bunch until cooked, adding a little water if needed.

Prepare the dressing now by melting the fresh goat cheese in the cooking cream. Put the rabbit pieces on a course with the cheese sauce on top. Serve warm.

Let’s move on to the sweets

I KRAPFEN

Required for KRAPFEN

For the pasta:

• 500 grams of white flour
• 30 grams of brewer’s yeast
• 60 grams of sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 60 grams of butter
• a glass of milk

for stuffing

• 250 grams of jam
• little milk

To cook

• frying oil and icing sugar

Preparing KRAPFEN

Melt the yeast in a little lukewarm milk, add 150 grams of flour and let rise for about half an hour covered by a cloth.

After this time mix the eggs with sugar, add it to the sourdough and working with your hands, slowly add the milk and the remaining flour, the softened butter and a pinch of salt. Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes. After that form with the dough of the balls and leave to rise again until they double in volume.

Heat the oil to fry and cook the dough balls until golden brown on all sides.

Removed from the oil, pass in the paper towel and once cooled, with a kitchen syringe fill the inside with jam. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Chestnut cake

Necessary for chestnut cake

• 700 grams of chestnuts
• 5 eggs
• 350 grams of sugar
• whipped cream for garnish

Chestnut cake preparation

Boil the chestnuts in boiling water, shell and sieve the chestnuts to obtain a kind of puree. To this puree add the egg yolks whipped with sugar. Snow-whipped egg whites should be added last.

Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured cake tin and bake in an already hot oven at 200 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Once cold and removed from the cake tin, cut the cake horizontally into two parts and stuffed with whipped cream.