Made in Alto Adige (Sudtirol in German),
especially Val Venosta, Speck dell’Alto Adige,
or country bacon, traditionally is smoked over a wood fire and then cured for an
average of 20 to 24 weeks. Genuine speck must have a rind that is well marked,
and should be slightly firm to the touch.
Flavored with herbs and spices, its
smoky taste makes it excellent in pasta sauces (tagliatelle, speck and
chanterelle mushrooms, for example) or in dishes with meat or eggs.
And if
there’s no time to cook, pair a generous slice of speck with a few cucumbers, a
spoonful of horseradish sauce, and a glass of Blauburgunder, the pinot noir wine
produced in the Alto Adige region.
Beer in Italy? Alto Adige, with its crystal clear water from the Eastern
Alps, became an ideal area for the production of birra,
which began here as early as the 900s.
Although few of the traditional small
breweries still exist, several large companies, such as Forst, still produce
millions of gallons of beer, in a range of brews, yearly.
Beer is growing in
popularity in Italy, as more and more people are discovering that it can rival a
glass of red wine with pizza or antipasto.
Trentino-Sudtirol 