Italian Lakes in Northern Italy - Lake Como - Menaggio

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The local Cusine


We can speak of 2 distinct cuisines in the local area. The lake dishes with its preference for fish and the cuisine of the valleys, with much older traditions which make ample use of polenta and local cheeses.

The lake cuisine. Risotto with fillet of perch is the "national dish" in the area, but other specialities keep alive the memory of simple cooking enriched with the abundant presence of the resources that the lake offers. Another famous speciality, are "misultitt", which these days have taken on the Italian name of "missoltini". They are needle fish caught between May and June, dried in the sun and pressed in salt in wooden "missolte". The area also offers carp fried and marinated in salt and vinegar with local herbs such as "segrigiola"; fried alborelle, smoked trout in olive oil; lavarello in white wine, carp,
tench and pigo.

The valley cuisine. Polenta, game and mushrooms are the main ingredients in these areas. Peasant dishes and delicacies, simple flavours and unusual combinations are the characteristics of an area in which one feels the influence of nearby Switzerland and of the frequent incursions (peaceful and otherwise) of northern peoples. Many of these dishes are so typical of the area that their names do not even have Italian translations: such as "polenta cuncia", made with cheese, butter and garlic; "urgiada", which is barley cooked and smoked over an open fire; "furmentada", a soup made with wheat and pork rind, "mataloch", a sweet made from dried and candied fruit, "miascia" made from stale bread, butter, milk, eggs, sugar and red wine. As well as these dishes with their mysterious names, the is a wide choice of raw ingredients which are still free from the sterile and insipid influences of mass production: free range chicken, young goats and lambs from the upper lake region, troutlets from the Sanagra, chestnuts, game and mushrooms from all the valleys of the region. There is a wide range of dairy products from the mountain pastures like Alpe Nesdale, Alpe Rescanscia, Alpe Erba: cheeses with the strangest of names - a guarantee of the respect for ancient traditions and genuine local culture - such as: caprini, zincarlin, semude, piazzavachera, all of which are ideal as a main course or to end a meal. As they say in these parts, "La buca l'è mai straca se la sa minga de vaca" which, translated from the local dialect, means "The mouth will never tire unless it has had a flavour of goodcow's cheese

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