Baking from northern italy, by richard sax - 1

1 servings

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SOURCE: GOURMET MAGAZINE, 02

FROM: SALLIE KREBS

In Trieste and the Friuli region of northeastern Italy, pasta and Italian-style braised dishes are startlingly juxtaposed against others with such seemingly non-Italian ingredients as sauerkraut, goosefat,and smoked pork. If you've eaten at Felidia Ristorante in New York City, which features food from this area as well as from Istria- formerly part of Italy but now in Yugoslavia- you know how delicious the amalgam can be. The region east of Venice, largely unfamiliar to Americans, borders on both Austria and Yugoslavia; it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until World War I. The styles of cooking, ingredients used, and various specialties overlap and ignore national borders. Baking is a key element of the region's food, notably yeast-raised, coffee-cake-type breads with rich nut fillings. This is not exactly what comes to mind when one thinks of Italian pasticceria. Equally surprising is another regional mainstay, strucolo, or strudel, reminiscent of the baked goods of Austria and Hungary. If you visit this area of Italy- and you should, for its gastronomic pleasures, including prosciutto di San Daniele, its lovely wines ("more exquisite than renowned," one writer lamented), and especially its warm welcome- one of the first things you'll see as you drive into Trieste from the Venice airport is the Castello Miramare. This was the summer residence of Emperor Franz Josef and his empress, Elisabeth. Lidia Bastianich, owner of Felidia and a native Istrian, explains that there is a further reason for this region's unique culinary style: "This is an East meets West area, and it has always had a distinct flavor of intrigue and movement- all the way back to the Huns, who brought with them a Germanic element.

There's always been a lot of flow back and forth." Delighted by the regional baked goods on a visit last fall, I sought out authentic versions still made by local bakers. My journey into this world began at a raucous lunch at the Trattoria Da Giovanni, tucked away on a side street in Trieste. Run by brothers Bruno and Gianni Vesnaver, this lively, rustic hole-in-the-wall is a lunchtime hangout. Standing at the counter, workers nibble and catch up with local goings-on as they drink the season's new Terlano wine, made from the Terlano grape and drawn by siphon from huge casks called damigiane (demijohns).

Sitting at a communal wooden table in the back, a group of us were quickly brought pitchers of the wine, as well as mortadella sliced from a sausage two feet in diameter on the bar and ham baked in a flour-and-water crust to trap its fragrant juices. The slivered ham was showered with freshly grated horseradish and served with a sharp, beer-spiked mustard. We were most excited, though, about thick slabs of crusty olive bread. This turned out to be the work of a local baker called Simone, and Bruno quickly sent a barboy down the street to fetch him so we could pay our compliments in person. Simone Supanz, an ebullient former boxer (with a broken and reset nose as evidence) runs a panetteria (bread bakery) in Via San Gazzaro. He began baking at the age of fourteen, and he still keeps alive many of the traditional regional specialties.

Submitted By SALLIE KREBS On 12-07-94

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