Trentino-South Tyrol
Trentino-South Tyrol eats in two languages. South Tyrol, German-speaking and Tyrolean by culture, has speck, dumplings and strudel; Trentino, Italian-speaking, has polenta, brine-cured beef and alpine cheeses. The culinary border is sharper than the administrative one.
The region joined Italy only in 1919, after four centuries under Austria, and is split into two autonomous provinces that in practice behave like two separate regions. In South Tyrol (Südtirol) most people speak German as a first language; in Trentino they speak Italian; and in three Dolomite valleys they speak Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance language older than both. Geography amplifies the difference: valley floors at 200 metres planted with vines and apples, pasture above 1,000, and Dolomite peaks over 3,000. What you eat depends on altitude before it depends on language.
Speck Alto Adige IGP is the emblem, and the local rule sums it up: a little salt, a little smoke, a lot of air. A boned, opened ham leg is seasoned with juniper, bay and pepper, cold-smoked over beech at under 20°C and aged at least twenty-two weeks: closer to prosciutto than to bacon. The rest of the South Tyrolean pantry is consistent: Schüttelbrot, a thin crisp rye bread with fennel and caraway; washed-rind mountain cheeses; and apples, which cover around 18,000 hectares and make this the largest contiguous apple-growing area in Europe.
On the table, South Tyrol serves canederli (bread dumplings with speck, eaten in broth or dressed with butter), Schlutzkrapfen filled with spinach and ricotta, Austrian-school goulash, and finishes with strudel or shredded Kaiserschmarrn pancake. Trentino answers with strangolapreti, bread and spinach dumplings; carne salada, beef brined with juniper and rosemary and eaten nearly raw; polenta made from a red maize grown at Storo; and char and trout from the mountain streams.
The wine plays high. Trentodoc is mountain traditional-method sparkling, begun in 1902 by Giulio Ferrari, who took Chardonnay up the slopes. Teroldego grows on the gravel plain of the Campo Rotaliano; Marzemino is the wine Mozart names in Don Giovanni. In South Tyrol the reds are Lagrein and Schiava, and the whites include Gewürztraminer, named after the village of Tramin, plus Pinot Bianco from the Isarco valley and Müller Thurgau grown at 700 metres in the Cembra valley.
Signature dishes
- Canederli (bread and speck dumplings)
- Speck Alto Adige (lightly smoked cured ham)
- Schlutzkrapfen (spinach and ricotta half-moons)
- Strangolapreti (bread and spinach dumplings)
- Carne salada e fasoi (brine-cured beef with beans)
- Gulasch (Austrian-style beef goulash)
- Polenta di Storo (red maize polenta)
- Strudel di mele (apple strudel)
Foods from here
When to go
From late September to mid-November comes Törggelen, when farmhouses in South Tyrol open to serve new wine, roast chestnuts, speck and dumplings, the region's most distinctive food ritual. October brings the apple harvest, the Merano grape festival and a speck festival in the Funes valley; November has the Merano WineFestival. From late November until Christmas, the markets in Bolzano, Merano, Bressanone and Trento sell mulled wine, spiced zelten fruit bread and fried strauben. Spring brings the white asparagus of Terlano. In summer the high dairy huts are open, and you can eat alpine cheese where it is actually made, above 1,800 metres.
Frequently asked
What food is Trentino-South Tyrol known for?
Speck, canederli and apple strudel above all. Canederli are bread dumplings bound with milk, egg and speck, served in broth or in melted butter, and they appear on almost every menu. Trentino adds strangolapreti, bread and spinach dumplings, and carne salada, beef brined with juniper and eaten nearly raw.
Is the food in South Tyrol Italian or Austrian?
Mostly Austrian in structure, Italian by passport. The region joined Italy only in 1919, after four centuries of Habsburg rule, and most South Tyroleans still speak German first, so goulash, dumplings, rye bread and Kaiserschmarrn are the everyday food. Trentino, the southern province, cooks Italian: polenta, gnocchi, cured beef. Three Dolomite valleys speak Ladin and have a third tradition again.
What is speck and how is it different from prosciutto?
Speck is a boned, opened pork leg that is both cured and cold-smoked, so it sits between prosciutto and bacon. Speck Alto Adige IGP is seasoned with juniper, bay and pepper, smoked over beech at under 20°C and aged at least twenty-two weeks. The local rule is a little salt, a little smoke, a lot of air, and it is eaten sliced raw, not fried.
What is Törggelen?
Törggelen is the autumn ritual of walking up to a farmhouse to eat and drink the new wine, from late September to mid-November. The standard spread is roast chestnuts, speck and cured sausage, barley soup, dumplings and doughnuts, served in the farm's own parlour. It is concentrated in the Isarco valley south of Bressanone, and most farms only open a few weeks a year.
What wine is Trentino-South Tyrol known for?
Trentodoc, a mountain traditional-method sparkling wine begun in 1902 by Giulio Ferrari, and the first Italian appellation created solely for bottle-fermented sparkling. The reds are Teroldego from the gravel of the Campo Rotaliano, plus Lagrein and Schiava further north. The best-known white is Gewürztraminer, named after the village of Tramin.