Booking your holiday at Gallo delle Pille, located in Monzambano, in the province of Mantua, in Lombardy, you can taste the simple dishes of the poor people and the aristocratic Pandoro, on Lake Garda.
Tortellini of Valeggio
The Tortellini of Valeggio sul Mincio is a tasty first course of stuffed pasta. The shape is similar to many types of tortellini you can find throughout Italy, made with a thin sheet of egg pasta. However these tortellini have a rich filling made from different qualities of meat. The traditional recipe includes a pork, chicken and beef mixed ground mixed with onion, celery and carrots, then flavored with rosemary. The special touch of these tortellini is the addition of red wine to meat, in particular the Bardolino, typical of the area. The filling is then enclosed in the classic tortellini, and these are cooked with the meat broth.
Lake Garda Bigoli with sardines
Bigoli with sardines is a very old recipe from the towns that overlook Lake Garda. Traditionally this simple and poor dish was prepared for Christmas Eve and Good Friday. The fish is cleaned and chopped, cooked in a pan and seasoned with garlic. In some variations you can find tomato, in others wild fennel. The most important thing is that the sardines must be of excellent quality! Handmade bigoli are perfect for this recipe because they have a rough and porous consistency that retains the sauce. After boiling, the bigoli are drained and mix together with the sardines sauce before serving.
Lake Garda Bigoli with sardines , my-personaltrainer.it
Risotto with Amarone
Risotto with Amarone is a traditional first course of Verona. This dish is even more significant if prepared with all the traditional ingredients of the place, starting with Vialone Nano PGI, a variety of rice grown in the Verona area. During cooking, the rice should be blended with Amarone DOCG, the red wine typical of Verona, produced mainly in Valpolicella. Other ingredients of this delicious risotto are beef bone marrow, butter, onion or scallion and olive oil. Cheese is another important ingredient, better if seasoned like the Monte Veronese.
Verona Pandoro
Pandoro is the traditional Christmas cake from Verona, known throughout Italy. The recipe as we know it today, was invented in the 19th century, however other cakes very similar to Pandoro were already known in Ancient Rome and during the Middle Ages, reserved for the tables of the nobles. The ingredients of Pandoro are simple, but once very expensive: butter, flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder and cream. The processing is very complex and the cake has to go through several stages of leavening before being baked. The difficulty of preparing this cake at home is one of the reasons that have made the industrial product so famous and widespread. In Verona you can find delicious handmade pandoro in local pastry shops. To enjoy it at its best, heat the pandoro in the oven before sprinkling it with icing sugar.
Pandoro of Verona, consigliaricette.com
