Browse Techniques

A vegetarian variation of the classic Trentino bread dumpling, incorporating blanched spinach and fresh ricotta into the dough alongside stale rye bread, egg, nutmeg and chives. The canederli are poached in a rich capon or vegetable broth and served in the broth as a first course — the spinach turns them brilliant green and the ricotta keeps them light despite their density.

Wild deer goulash from the Trentino — venison cubes braised slowly with sweet and hot paprika, juniper berries, red wine and onion until completely tender. Unlike Hungarian goulash which uses beef, the Trentino version celebrates the local Alpine deer. The juniper-paprika combination creates a distinctive mountainous warmth. Served with Kaiserschmarrn (egg-pancake scraps) or bread dumplings.

Bread and spinach dumplings from the Trento valleys — larger and more rustic than their canederli cousins — dressed with browned butter and crispy sage leaves. Unlike canederli served in broth, strangolapreti are boiled in salted water and finished in the pan. The name ('priest-stranglers') refers to a legend of a gluttonous priest who ate them so fast he choked. The texture is dense and yielding, held together with egg and flour.

A dense, earthy buckwheat cake layered with bilberry (mirtillo nero) jam and dusted with icing sugar — the most beloved Trentino cake, sold in every mountain pastry shop and rifugio. The buckwheat gives the cake a dark, nutty character and slightly rough texture. A classic of the Trentino-Alto Adige cake tradition that reflects both Austrian and Italian influences.

A mountain soup combining wild porcini mushrooms (fresh in autumn, dried in other seasons), farro (emmer wheat) and sliced Speck Alto Adige in a rich beef bone broth. The speck adds smoke and salt; the porcini give an extraordinary earthy depth; the farro provides body and chew. A soup of the Alpine hunting season, when fresh porcini cover the forest floors.