Food

First christmas courses of Marche

Primi paitti di Natale: i vincisgrassi marchigiani - Enjoy Food & Wine
Written by EFW Staff

Discovering the first Christmas courses of Marche

Marche is the the perfect region to discovering a tradition rich in history and lost flavors.

Vincisgrassi is one of the most typical dishes of the tradition of Marche that can not be missed on the tables. It is prepared by overlaying thin layers of pasta with a thick ragout made with various types of meat and offal sometimes enriched by truffles.

Vincisgrassi has origin in Macerata, but for two hundred years they have also spread to the provinces of Pesaro and Ancona, which is why every family prepares this dish using different ingredients and characteristics. Nevertheless, the chicken or veal offal are never lacking.

According to tradition the origin of the name is due to the Austrian general Alfred von Windisch-Graetz, who had fought against Napoleon in the siege of Ancona in 1799 and for which this dish was prepared for the first time. In fact, the chef of Macerata Antonio Nebbia has described this recipe in the past, calling it a prince’s sauce, a sauce made from milk, flour, ham and truffle sauce with which the egg lasagna were served.

First Christmas courses of Marche: macaroni with stockfish, maccheroni with Campofilone and cappelletti in brodo

One of the main dishes of the maritime tradition of Marche is macaroni with stockfish, a Norwegian fish that is generally sold dried whose taste is similar to that of cod.
Piatto di maccheroncini Campofilone - Enjoy Food Wine

Macaroni with Campofilone are instead a variety of pasta that involves only the use of fresh eggs in the dough and which has been named IGP. It is therefore exclusive of the territory and the small hilly country of Campofilone. Its characteristics relate to the thinness of the pastry from 0.3 to 0.7 mm and the type of the pasta (from 0.8 to 1.2 mm).

In Marche, the Christmas holidays traditionally include cappelletti, a type of stuffed fresh pasta cut into squares or circles and folded in order to form bundles, different from tortellini for size and filling. Cappelletti are cooked in meat broth, preferably chicken. The filling is usually made of calf, turkey, pork loin, grated parmesan cheese, eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

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Image source: www.mangiarebuono.it

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EFW Staff