COLD –CUTS AND CHEESE: FOOD UNITES WHAT HISTORY HAS DIVIDED

Love for a faraway land: this is who the author Pierpaolo Pasolini expressed his feelings for his hometown Friuli, and Ippolito Nievo, other writer from Friuli defined it as a “small compendium of the universe”. This bordering region, like Trentino and Val d’Aosta, presents two very different faces, two contaminations, the Veneto one and the Hapsburg-Slavic one.

On one hand, Friuli is the heir of the patriarchy of Aquilea and of the Venetian ‘Patria del Friuli’ which from Livenza leaded to Isonzo, comprising the provinces of Pordenone, Udine and part of Gorizia, on the other hand the lands of Trieste and Gorizia, where the Hapsburg royalty was supported by a glorious past of strong administrative and economic autonomy. The image of Trieste and of the Friuli region is that of unredeemed lands conquered through the blood-shedding in the Unity of the Country.

Trieste, given back to Italy in 1954 after nine years of allied administration, continued to be a city which the Italian State lavished an interesting assistance, while all pending matters with Yugoslavia – due to border problems and indemnity to exiled people – were partially resolved, as witnessed by the contrasts with Slovenia and the conflicts in the Balkans - resolved completely in 1975 with the Treaty of Osimo. A decisive push was given to the Friuli region an economic reality in the national panorama emerged from tragedy which hit the region in 1976: an earthquake with thousands of dead people, and many, many injured. The reconstruction brought to light the strong will of the inhabitants and their pride of doing things “on their own”.

History, contaminated by different cultures and the people’s creativity, has also determined a rich variety and a fortune competition in the gastronomic compartment, particularly lively in the production of cold-cuts and cheese. The ancient traditions of the Carnic cuisine are combined to the specialities of the Friuli cuisine: cotechino with ‘brovada’ (a plate with white turnips fried with lard, onion and parsley and placed under marc), the typical polenta with corn, frico with pears (the only Dop cheese of the region, served with onion, boiled potatoes, besciamelle sauce, black pepper, pear and bacon), warm crostini with speck and cren, and so on with the specialities of the Valleys of Natisone, la Fagagna and its flavours, the beers of Fruili, and organic products.

Among the typical hams of the Region, similar in the raw material yet so different in process and fame, is the San Daniele Dop ham, seasoned in the town which bears the same name at a height of 300m for 12 months, and the Sauris ham, the only raw smoked ham (kept in places for 3 to 4 days filled with smoke from burnt beech tree wood), produced in limited quantities.

And for wine lovers, the following wines are a must: Ramandolo, only Docg, and the Doc Collio Goriziano, Friuli Isonzo and Friuli Latisana, together with the Igt Venezia Giulia. A tribute of falvours and taste, at the end of which we give permission to Zeno Cosini, the main character of the famous novel “La Coscienza di Zeno” (written by Italo Svevo, from Trieste) to light his nth cigarette.