Читать книгу Trekking in the Apennines. The Grande Escursione Appenninica онлайн

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A good rule is to be adventurous and ask the staff what their specialities are. Don’t skip the antipasti (starters) unless you have a particular aversion to bruschetta, crunchy bread rubbed with fresh garlic, a drizzle of olive oil and chopped fresh tomatoes. Then there are crostini, an unfailingly scrumptious assortment of toasted bread morsels piled with pâté, melted goat’s cheese, wild mushrooms or olive paste. Don’t miss Emilian crescentine, also known as ficattole by the Tuscans: lightly fried savoury pastry, akin to soft Indian naan bread, served warm with thin slices of ham, salami or local sausage such as finocchiona, flavoured with fennel seeds. The famous cured Parma ham is prosciutto crudo.

All manner of fresh home-rolled pasta is proudly on offer. One traditional speciality is tortelli (similar to ravioli) con ripieno di patate with a potato or zucca pumpkin filling, or stuffed with creamy but light ricotta cheese and spinach. Ravioli toscani on the other hand are filled with meat and vegetables. They come either smothered in rich pomodoro (tomato) or al ragù, the tomatoey-meat sauce that made Bologna famous, if not al burro e salvia (melted butter with a hint of sage). Widespread are pappardelle al cinghiale, flat ribbon pasta served with a rich pungent sauce of stewed boar, not to everyone’s taste, though a worthy alternative comes with funghi, wild mushroom sauce. Thick homemade bringoli are a spaghetti lookalike that hail from Umbria and come with sauces of vegetables and mature cheese. Freshly grated parmigiano cheese accompanies most pasta dishes.