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THE FOODS
Lombardy honors its richly diversified culinary heritage with dishes that are often elaborate and esoteric in taste. Milan's gastronomic traditions differ, if more in form than in substance, from the dining customs of the provinces in a territory that extends from the Alps along the lakes of Garda, Como and Maggiore across the Po plains to the Apennines. Provincial cooking merits individual attention, yet regional patterns of eating do show recurring themes. Risotto and polenta still surpass pasta in popularity. The habitual use of butter, cream and lard has only gradually yielded to olive oil in recipes. Lombardians are resolute consumers of meat and poultry (especially duck, goose and turkey). Beef is the base of bollito misto, eaten everywhere. The many recipes for veal include vitello tonnato, with tuna sauce, shared with Piedmont. Pork's customary utility extends through a range of salame, though salume also comes from beef and geese. Lombardy's popular cheeses are firm Grana Padano, blue-veined Gorgonzola, soft, ripe Taleggio, soft, mild Quartirolo Lombardo and tangy Provolone Valpadano, all covered by DOP, as well as creamy Robiola and Stracchino. Some local cheeses are also protected. |
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THE WINES
Wine does not rank high on the list of Lombardy's numerous industries. The citizens of this most populous and well-to-do region are better noted as consumers than producers of wine. Still, even though output is much less than that of neighboring Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont, Lombardians do make some fine wine, a growing share of which is truly excellent.
Just why the inhabitants (the eclectic Milanese, in particular) downplay local wines is hard to explain. But regional wines are often upstaged on restaurant lists by the reds of Tuscany and Piedmont and the whites of the Venezie (Veneto, Trentino and Friuli). Many of the 6 million bottles of Nebbiolo reds produced annually in the Alpine Valtellina are spirited away by the neighboring Swiss before Italians have a chance at them. On the other hand, Lombardians do show growing signs of pride in their preferences for the metodo classico sparkling wines of Franciacorta, which have attained the status of DOCG (while the red and white wines of the zone come under the Terre di Franciacorta DOC).
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