cuisine and recipes of the regions
along the Via Claudia Augusta

Käsespätzle is a traditional Schäbisch dish. In many parts of the world, dough patties are cooked in boiling water and further prepared or served and eaten in various ways. It is difficult to say who invented the batzen (such a common term). It is quite likely that batzen were eaten as early as the Romans, who had a similarly varied cuisine as we have today. Maybe even in the early history. Nowhere else, however, are batzen so appreciated, optimized and celebrated as in Swabia and some neighboring Alemannic regions.

Recipe

The Raetians, who lived in the Alps in early history, had an intimate relationship with nature and were guaranteed to catch fish from lakes and streams. They also liked to use leafy vegetables from the garden or nature. Olives were not known until Roman times along the Via Claudia Augusta, and even then only on special occasions or in gifted homes. In any case, ingredients and cooking methods from the Mediterranean area found their way to the Alps at the latest from this time on. Exchanges between the Romans in the Alps and the Etruscans in Italy existed even earlier. Thus, the dish is a typical dish of the Via Claudia Augusta, in which international treasures, regional foodstuffs and the most diverse preparation methods flow together, and the whole is interpreted in a modern way. Perhaps, inspired by the Via Claudia Augusta, you can think of a few things you could do to modify the dish. In any case, bon appétit. 

Recipe

Asparagus has been grown in South Tyrol since the 19th century. A traditional growing area where asparagus enjoys cult status in seasonal cuisine is the asparagus triangle of Terlan, Vilpian, Siebeneich, to the north of Bolzano. There, the royal vegetable thrives particularly well on the sandy and humus-rich soils of the former Adige River bed. In addition, there are also newer growing locations along the Via Claudia Augusta, such as Castelbello. The Bolzano sauce is said to be a creation of citizens of Bolzano who, after the First World War, went to the countryside to indulge their desire for the noble asparagus. They had hard-boiled eggs and chives served and prepared the sauce at the table according to their own taste.

Recipe

A traditional Trentino dish is Smacafam. It is often prepared at the end of the carnival. The preparation method is always the same. However, different flour is used in the different valleys of Trentino, for example white flour or buckwheat flour, to which milk, oil and salt are added. It is interesting to observe that historically many more different cereals were used, also in very different ways. For a certain period of time, cuisine around the world became more or less impoverished as far as that was concerned. Today, we are finding our way back to the diversity of grains and the many possible variations of their processing. After being made into a dough, the whole is put into a cake tin and sprinkled with fresh slices of lucanica, pieces of smoked bacon and flakes of butter. The traditional dish is often served with fresh vegetables, which shows that traditional cuisine can have something in common with current trends. The dish could have been cooked and eaten in exactly the same way in Roman times in what is now Trentino, possibly even in prehistoric times when the Raetians settled in what is now Trentino.

Recipe

It is not so long ago that it was common to use and prepare all the parts of animals, not only in the countryside but also in the cities. Accordingly, there are traditional dishes made from offal, such as Fegato Veneziano, a typical dish of veal or pork liver from Venice or the region around it. Fegato Veneziano stands out for its fresh, slightly sour taste, which comes from a dash of aceto balsamico, and also a bit of sage. It is eaten as a secondo piatto (main course), solo, with polenta or even bread. With bread or cereal porridge, Fegato Veneziano could have been eaten in the same way in Roman times. What was it called then? Iecur Altinum after the ancient predecessor of Venice as a port city on the Adriatic?

Recipe

Die Frittata ist eine Art  italienisches "Omelett". Der Unterschied zum klassischen Omelett ist, dass die Frittata nicht während des Kochens gewendet und in der Mitte gefaltet serviert wird. Außerdem werden die Zutaten mit dem geschlagenen Ei vermischt. Die Frittata ist sehr flexibel variierbar und eigenet sich so zur Resteverwertung bzw. zur regionalen, saisonalen Variantion oder Abwandlung nach eigenere Kreativität und eigenem Gusto. Sie Frittata wird kalt oder warm als Vorspeise oder Hauptgericht werviert, mitunter auch in kleinen Stückchen zum Aperitiv.