Issue 05, Alta Badia
Benvegnù! As the Ladin people would say when welcoming you to the Italy Deep Dive
Welcome back to the Italy Deep Dive, a food, wine, recipe travel guide and narrative newsletter by La Panza Piena which takes place bi-monthly, diving into Italy’s history and food culture by unpacking, eating, drinking and cooking a town at the time.
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I hope you haven’t been suffering the blistering heat of these past days too much. To freshen our bodies and minds I’d like to guide you to a beautiful valley in the North East of Italy, full of mountains, green fields, happy cows and wooden houses. The area we’re diving into is Alta Badia and the delicious traditional product is speck.
Let’s dive
I fell in love with Alta Badia within the first five minutes of arriving, exactly one year ago. A beautiful corner of Italy, in the region of Trentino Alto Adige, all the way up north, on the border with Austria. It sits nestled between the Dolomites, one of the world’s most breath taking mountain chains, with steep rock cliffs interrupted by bright green, supple pastures. It’s the land of the Ladin people, a mountain community that developed its own national identity throughout the 19th Century. It is also a language, spoken in South Tyrol (the sub-region which Alta Badia is in), Belluno and Trentino and is similar to Swiss Romansh and Friulian.
The Ladin people are known all over the world for their exceptional hospitality, ancient culture and unique cuisine, making Alta Badia an inviting destination for all gastro-nomads (those who travel seeking food excellencies). The valley is packed with gastronomic excellencies, mainly consisting in cured meats and cheeses, so narrowing down just one product was a tough job. I chose to share the story of speck, a lesser-known Italian cured meat which is characteristic of the whole Tyrol area, also produced in Austria and Germany. It might be one of the few traditional products whose origin is shared between more than one country, equally. Speck - for those of you who have not yet had the chance to taste it - is a cut of pork smoked at cold temperatures.
Nowadays speck is consumed all over Italy (and beyond) in all sorts of ways, from a midday spuntino (snack) to inside a pasta sauce. Once upon a time, however, speck was traditional eaten during the brettljause, the Tyrolese merenda, an afternoon meal enjoyed by people working in the fields, mountain huts of pastures. At the end of a long workday, all the people who worked the land or with animals would convene with friends, family or colleagues and enjoy a hearty meal, refuelling their bodies. Alongside speck - which was cut into a 3cm thick slice and subsequently into smaller chunks - the merenda consisted of cured sausages, local cheese and pickles, all accompanied by homemade bread, wine and beer. To this day, the gesture of serving speck is considered a symbol of hospitality.