QUALITALY_131

October/November 202 2 XIII MAGAZINE Thanks to the morphology of the land and the vegetation, certain breeds of livestock , especially pigs, find their natural habitat here, guaranteeing the herdsmen an excellent production of meat that is highly appreciated both in Italy and abroad, but above all appreciated by the locals, who have the advantage of being supplied directly by the breeders or by companies that choose them as their suppliers. A close-knit, almost family-like setting that fosters an exchange of ideas and trust between the farmers and the buyers who, in turn, have the advantage of directly seeing how the farms care for the animals, how they pamper them and what they feed them. Chef Trippini confirms this by saying: ‘I have the advantage of buying local meat: the Etruscan “cinturello”, with which I make meat sauce and stew, and also chickens, rabbits, pullets and pigeons. Scrolling through the menu at Ristorante Trippini it becomes clear that farmyard animals and birds are almost absolute ‘stars’ of many first and second courses. Pigeon in salmì can be considered the restaurant ’s emblematic dish and, in a cer tain sense, an Umbrian ambassador of taste. The chef says he is par ticularly at tached to this dish for two reasons: it reminds him of his father, a ‘master’ in the preparation of this dish, and because in a cer tain sense it is the symbol of the Trippini family’s gastronomic journey, from his grandparents’ opening of the trat toria Da Peppe si pappa , to its transformation into a restaurant by father Adolfo. ICING ON THE CAKE . . . It is evident that the Umbrian culinary tradition for centuries continues to give us many appetising recipes, many of which involve desser ts that vary according to the area. Here, creamy desser ts are almost absent, leaving ample room for dry desser ts, where spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and fruits such as walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, apples, pine nuts, figs and plums reign supreme. In Umbria many desser ts which ‘star’ on the tables during the Christmas festivities are of ten replicated throughout the year; for example Terni’s Panpepato , which combines the bit ter taste of chocolate with the sweetness of honey and candied fruit; Perugia’s Pinoccate , diamond-shaped sweets made with sugar and pine nuts, either white with vanilla or black with chocolate; Pinolate , dry round pastries made with almonds and pine nuts; the Attorta or Serpentone spoletino, a puf f pastry filled with apples, cocoa and walnuts in the shape of a spiral, very similar to the Rocciata of Assisi, Spello and Foligno. In this par t of Italy, some families have their own own unusual desser t, perhaps linked to a memory or a par ticular event, as in the case of Grandma’s snack , a desser t on Maestro Trippini’s menu, who says: ‘It is a desser t much appreciated by my customers and I prepare it by soaking the bread in orange, put ting an olive oil ice-cream on top; it is a childhood memory, the snack that my grandmother used to make for me in the af ternoon, she would soak the bread in water and then put sugar, a drizzle of oil and, of course, orange’.