The Italian Lakes

The Italian Lakes lie along the foot of the Alps, in a chain of deep glacial basins that runs from Lago Maggiore in the west, shared between Piedmont and Lombardy and reaching into Switzerland, through Lago di Lugano and Lago di Como, to Lago d'Iseo and finally Lago di Garda, the largest, which Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino divide between them. Waverley Root treats this country in The Food of Italy as a northern borderland, where the cooking of the plain meets that of the mountains and where the water, rather than the sea, supplies the fish. The lakes belong to the region's geography before they belong to its kitchens, and it is their depth and their size that govern the climate on their shores.

The defining fact of the lakes is the moderating effect of so large a body of water set against so high a range. The mountains shelter the shores from the north, and the water holds its warmth, so that the lake margins carry plants one would not expect at this latitude. Root records the olive among them, growing at the northern limit of its range, and the lemon and citron are associated with the western shore of Garda. The oil of the lakes is accordingly light and delicate, a different thing from that of the south, and it is a fair index of how far the lake shores diverge in climate from the plain of the Po lying only a short distance below them. The cooking that rests on this land divides along an old line. Butter and rice belong to the Lombard plain, and the fats of the mountains are those of cattle and pasture, but on the lake shores olive oil appears beside them, and the two traditions meet within a few kilometres of one another. This is the principal interest of the region for the cook: it is a place where the northern and the Mediterranean habits of fat overlap, and where a dish may be dressed in one or the other according to which side of the water it comes from. The fish of the lakes are freshwater fish, and the region's cooking of them is its own. Root writes of the lake fish as the natural resource of the shore towns, among them the trout, the perch, the pike and the whitefish known as lavarello, and the cooks of the lakes treat them simply, grilled, fried, or cooked in butter with sage, since the fish is delicate and the shore cooks have little reason to disguise it. The lakes also give their names to particular preparations of dried and preserved fish, a method suited to a country where the mountains made winter storage a necessity. Beyond the water, the surrounding hills supply the rest of the table. Polenta, the maize porridge of the north, is the staple of the upland villages, and the cheeses of the Alpine pastures are the natural companions to it. Rice grows on the plain to the south, and the risotto of Lombardy is the dish that carries the region's name furthest. The wines of the lake shores are light and local, and Garda in particular has a long record as a wine-growing shore. The cooking of the lakes is thus a composite, drawing on water, hillside and plain, and Root's account is of a cuisine defined by its position between them.

The taste of the lakes is one of restraint: freshwater fish cooked in butter or in the light local oil, polenta and risotto as the starch, and the cheeses of the nearby pastures. The oil of the lake shores is delicate rather than peppery, and it suits fish of mild flavour. The wines are light and are drunk young, in keeping with a table that does not rely on strong seasoning.