Typical Christmas recipes of Trentino Alto Adige
Christmas in Trentino Alto Adige has the rich taste of Canederli, with butter or in consommé, of wild game sweetened with red fruits jams and of the tasty desserts with dried fruit or jam.
Christmas first courses of Trentino Alto Adige
The first courses of this region remind the winter breaks on the snow and the cold days in the mountains. They are nourishing and tasty, prepared, as the tradition says, with simple ingredients like bread leftovers, potatoes or turnip.
Canederli are a must on the tables of Trentino and they can’t miss to celebrate the Christmas lunch. They are big ball-shaped gnocchi, prepared with diced bread leftovers, traditionally of the so-called “rosette” or other white bread, kneaded with eggs and milk. The dish is seasoned with chives, onion, speck of Trentino Alto Adige and local cheese. Canederli are cooked in the consommé or sautéed with melted butter; they can be enriched with red turnip, spinach or cheeses. Canederli are a typical dish of the local peasant tradition mixing together simple and local ingredients for an exceptional final result.
Another traditional first course are Casunzei, half moons of fresh pasta stuffed with potatoes and red turnip seasoned with melted butter and poppy seeds. It is the perfect dish for the Christmas holidays. These ravioli are typical of the Ampezzo Valley, the Venetian side of the Dolomites, even if they are pretty spread also in Trentino Alto Adige.
Second Christmas courses of Trentino Alto Adige
The second Christmas courses of Trentino Alto Adige fully satisfy all the meat lovers. The main course foresees wild game served as well-structured steaming goulash or paired with fruit jams. Deer with juniper or wild berries sauce, roe deer stew served with red blueberries jam and the beef goulash with potatoes. These are the typical dishes tasted during the cold days paired with abundant cornmeal mush, perfect to mop up your plate with bread. Among the side dishes there are often savoy cabbage cooked in a pan and sauerkraut slightly sour, cooked for a long time in a pot and enriched with speck. The cornmeal mush can’t miss! It is eaten “pasticciata” (stirred with tomato sauce or the meat juicy sauce) together with malga cheeses, latteria cheeses or fontina. Another typical side dish is potatoes cooked in a pan or in the oven with onion and Alto Adige speck.
Christmas desserts of Trentino Alto Adige
Christmas in Trentino Alto Adige is a triumph of sweetness. Sweet recipes are abundant and represent a regional strong suit. The dessert par excellence is strudel, beloved during the holidays with its stuffing of apples, raisin, pine nuts, cinnamon and a shell of crispy puff pastry.
Another typical dessert is Strauben, Tyrolese fritters, spiral-shaped. They are prepared trickling threads of dough directly in the hot oil to obtain a crispy nest to sprinkle with powdered sugar, together with a blueberry jam and whipped cream. Apple fritters are another famous fried dessert made of large slices of apple battered and fried in oil. Finally, the Zelten can’t miss during Christmas: it is a sweet bread typical of the holidays enriched with dried fruit and spices such as walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, dried figs, grapes and candied citron, besides rum, cinnamon, anise and cloves.
