##FriuliVG

In this attractively secluded region where the Alps almost touch the Adriatic, the homespun cooking of the Friulian hill country presented historical contrasts with the more refined Venetian-style fare eaten along the coast. Over time, though, the two cuisines have reached a happy union in dishes accented, often rather sharply, by the tastes of Austrian and Slavic neighbors, who remember Trieste as their gateway to the Mediterranean.

In Alpine Carnia and the vine-draped hills of Udine and Gorizia, the open hearth fogolar with conical chimney is used for grilling beef, lamb, kid, poultry, sausages and mushrooms. The indispensable polenta goes with cheese, meat stews, blood puddings and game: hare and venison often cooked in salmì (highly seasoned wine sauce) and a mixed flock of fowl, including woodcock, duck and little birds called uite.

Friuli's pride is the exquisite prosciutto of the town of San Daniele, which rates a DOP, though there are also sausages called lujanie and muset (the local cotechino), the neck cut called ossocollo and the smoked ham of Sauris. From mountain meadows come Montasio cheese (the base of crisp frico) and ricotta called scuete, also smoked and aged for grating.

The ingredients for Friuli's medley of soups include pork, tripe, turnips, cabbage, corn, barley, mushrooms and above all fasûj, small reddish beans that also go with rice or noodles. Pastas include flakes called flics, tubes called sivilots and the curious cjalçons, envelopes with sweet-sour fillings for which various recipes include spinach, ryebread, raisins, candied fruit, potato, parsley, mint, brandy, chocolate and cinnamon. Breads, beyond the usual wheat, are made from rye and barley flour as well as pumpkin.

Along the Adriatic between Lignano Sabbiadoro and Trieste recipes favor seafood: turbot, sardines, prawns, cuttlefish, squid, scallops, crabs, eels and even turtles cooked in soup. Chowder from the fishing port of Grado is called boreto alla graisana. There are several recipes for salt cod baccalà and many for risotto with fish, vegetables, herbs or frogs.

Trieste harbors eastern traditions in gulasch or gùlas (peppery beef stew), cevàpici (grilled patties of minced pork and beef), rambasici (meat filled cabbage rolls), bòbici (soup with ham, beans, potatoes, corn kernels), potato gnocchi or gnocs made with plums or pumpkin. Pastas include lasagne with poppy seeds, the ravioli-like bauletti (with cheese-ham filling) and offelle (filled with spinach, veal, pork, onion). Wursts, sauerkraut and horseradish add to the tangs of Central Europe.

So do desserts, such as presnitz (rolls with raisins, nuts, candied fruits), strudel (pastry with apples, raisins, pine nuts, cinnamon) and a local version of the latter called strukli with potatoes in the dough and ricotta in the filling. Potatoes also go into crescent-shaped chifeleti biscuits. Other treats are pumpkin fritters called fritulis, chestnut cookies called castagnolis and the fluffy cake roll gubana.

Regional SpecialitIes:

Fresh & Cured Meats

• Prosciutto di San Daniele •

• Salamini italiani alla cacciatora •

Cheeses

• Montasio •

GOURMET SPECIALITIES

• BROVADA •

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