Italy’s mountains are not just about skiing and views: they also have one of the richest and most varied food traditions in Europe. Every valley has its own recipes, and every mountain hut its own take on them. Here is a culinary journey through Italy’s mountain dishes, region by region.
Aosta Valley: fonduta and lardo
Aosta Valley cooking is hearty, warming and closely tied to the produce of the high summer pastures.
The signature dishes
Fonduta valdostana: Fontina DOP cheese melted with milk, butter and egg yolks. Served in a small pot with croutons of dark bread, it is the classic Aosta Valley après-ski dish. You will find it in every mountain hut in Cervinia and Courmayeur.
Polenta concia: coarse-ground polenta mixed with melted Fontina and butter from the alpine pastures. Simple but irresistible.
Carbonade: beef stewed in red wine with spices. A dish for sub-zero days.
Lard d’Arnad DOP: pork fat cured with herbs in doils, chestnut-wood tubs. Sliced thin, it melts in the mouth like butter.
Crema di Cogne: a chilled chocolate zabaglione, a speciality of the village of Cogne.
Trentino-Alto Adige: canederli and strudel
The region’s two identities, Trentino and South Tyrol (Alto Adige), show in cooking that blends Italian and Central European traditions.
South Tyrolean specialities
Canederli (Knödel): dumplings made from stale bread with speck, cheese or spinach, served in broth or with melted butter. Every farm has its own recipe.
Schlutzkrapfen: half-moon pasta parcels filled with spinach and ricotta, dressed with butter and Parmesan. The signature dish of the Puster Valley.
Speck Alto Adige IGP: ham smoked with juniper and rose hip. The Tyrolean Marende (speck, cheese and rye bread) is a ritual.
Trentino specialities
Strangolapreti: bread and spinach dumplings, lighter than canederli, served with butter and sage.
Carne salada: beef cured in brine with spices, served raw like carpaccio or seared on the griddle. A speciality of the Trentino shore of Lake Garda.
Apple strudel: the Trentino version has paper-thin pastry filled with Renette apples, raisins, pine nuts and cinnamon.
Ladin specialities (Val Gardena, Alta Badia, Val di Fassa)
Cajincí: Ladin ravioli filled with spinach, potatoes and ricotta.
Turtres: filled pastries (sauerkraut, spinach or potatoes) fried in lard.
Crafuncins: rye-flour dumplings with melted cheese.
Lombardy: pizzoccheri and sciatt
Valtellina
Valtellina is a paradise for mountain food. Every dinner after a day in Bormio or Livigno should include:
Pizzoccheri: buckwheat ribbons with savoy cabbage, potatoes, butter and Valtellina Casera cheese. Heavy, but sublime.
Sciatt: crisp buckwheat fritters filled with melted cheese. The name means ‘toads’ in the local dialect.
Bresaola della Valtellina IGP: air-dried, cured beef. Dressed with olive oil, lemon and rocket, it makes a perfect starter.
Polenta taragna: polenta made from maize and buckwheat flour, stirred with butter and cheese. Valtellina’s comfort food.
Piedmont: fonduta and bagna cauda
The Langhe and the Alps
Bagna cauda: a warm sauce of garlic, anchovies and olive oil for dipping raw and cooked vegetables. The ultimate sharing dish.
Agnolotti del plin: small meat-filled ravioli, pinched closed by hand. Served in broth or with butter and sage.
Gofri: honeycomb waffles from the Occitan valleys (around Bardonecchia), filled with cured meats, cheese or hazelnut spread.
Castelmagno: a blue-veined DOP cheese from the alpine pastures, made above 1,600 m. Perfect melted over polenta.
Friuli Venezia Giulia: frico and goulash
Frico: a fried disc of grated Montasio cheese, crisp outside and soft inside. With polenta it is the signature dish of the Friulian mountains, perfect after a day in Sella Nevea or Forni di Sopra.
Jota: a hearty soup of beans, sauerkraut and pork. The Central European influence is obvious.
The Apennines: arrosticini and wild boar
Abruzzo
Arrosticini: grilled skewers of mutton. Irresistible: people eat them by the dozen. You will find them everywhere in Roccaraso and Campo Imperatore.
Pasta alla chitarra: square spaghetti cut on a stringed tool called a chitarra, served with lamb ragù.
Scrippelle ‘mbusse: thin crêpes served in broth. A speciality of Teramo, perfect for warming up.
Tuscany
Pappardelle al cinghiale: wide pasta ribbons with a wild boar ragù. The dish of the woods around Abetone.
Castagnaccio: a chestnut-flour cake with rosemary and pine nuts. An old dessert from the Tuscan mountains.
Calabria and Sicily
Fileja with ‘nduja: fresh Calabrian pasta with spicy ‘nduja from Spilinga. You will find it near Gambarie.
Pasta alla Norma: a Sicilian classic of fried aubergine, tomato and salted ricotta, served in the mountain huts on Mount Etna.
Mountain wines
Do not forget the wine:
- Gewürztraminer (South Tyrol): aromatic, perfect with speck and canederli
- Teroldego (Trentino): a deep red that goes well with meat
- Alpine Nebbiolo (Aosta Valley): light and fragrant
- Sfursat di Valtellina (Lombardy): a powerful red, ideal with pizzoccheri
- Montepulciano d’Abruzzo: goes with anything off the grill
To find the mountain huts where you can try these specialities, see our guide to the best mountain huts for food.
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