The area around the Park of Monte Cucco has a very strong gastronomic tradition, with a great variety of high-quality local products, including cheeses, truffles, wild mushrooms, honey, pork-meats, cereals and pulses such as spelt, barley, lentils, chick-peas and grass-peas.
The mountain pastures provide the essential environment for the production of other foodstuffs, such as lamb and beef. Some of the family-run farms offer tourist accommodation, and also sell small amounts of their own organic produce.
Cheese was traditionally made using fig-leaves, walnut leaves and wine marc. The idea was always to preserve the cheese and protect it from attacks by insects or other predators. Individual cheeses were...
Grass-pea (Lathyrus Sativus) This little-known variety of pulse is rarely grown because it can only be cultivated by hand. It looks like a squashed chick-pea. It is an herbaceous plant, which grows on...
Traditional bread Typical sweet cakes and savoury tarts are still baked, often using traditional country recipes which have been passed down through the generations. In the past, they were frequently made...
The prized Chianina breed of cattle can boast ancient origins and is given PGI (Protected Geographical Location) status. The antecedents of the present herds were those large, white cattle that are depicted...
The White Truffle (Tuber Magnatum Pico) is the most highly prized of the truffles. It is an underground fungus that lives in symbiosis with the roots of many types of tree, including cornel trees, maples,...
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