Assisi and the Valle Umbra
Food and wine
Assisi and its surroundings have solid traditions in the region's cuisine and gastronomy. Home-made pastas have a superb taste, as well as the "stringozzi" seasoned with goose sauce, chicken giblets and truffle. Roast or grilled meat, roast pork, roast goose and "scottadito" lamb are always present and they are typical dishes that have always been passed on and that are the result of head bred in small farms with the objective to keep the peculiarities of local products. Fresh and mature cheese also has a good tradition.
Arriving in Torgiano, which is opposite Perugia in the valley , the homonymous AOC Torgiano area begins. Documents and finds testify that vines have existed here since the ancient times. Inside the "Museo del Vino" there are some amphorae and other objects used for the cultivation of vines and for the production and preservation of wine. The low hills sloping down from Brufa to Miralduolo and Torgiano, where also the Sangiovese, the Canaiolo, the Ciliegiolo and the Montepulciano grape varieties are cultivated, are beautiful. Bettona, an ancient town that dominates the valley of Assisi from its knoll, is behind Torgiano.
Wonderful holm oak groves and woods of Turkey oaks extend all around and they are famous because of the abundant presence of edible boletuses. Between Assisi and Spello there is an area of extraordinary landscape beauty, apt for the cultivation of olives and vines. This is the AOC Assisi area where excellent red wines are produced. The valley is quite vast and stretches towards Spoleto.
The extra-virgin olive oil produced in this wide area is considered one of the best in the world for its quality. This balanced and often fruity oil recalls the flavour of fresh olives and is very good to season local dishes, vegetables and the legumes grown in this part of Umbria. The arrangement of olive plantations on the slopes has created a unique landscape, which appears as a balanced synthesis between limestone white colour and the light silver and green colour of plants. Costano, between Bastia Umbra and Torgiano, is worth being cited.
It is famous for its "porchetta", namely young roasted pork spiked with a wooden post, aromatized with garlic, wild fennel and other spices. Between Assisi and Bevagna there is Cannara and its famous onions are celebrated in a festival celebrated in mid-September. The onions collected at the end of July are twisted in beautiful bunches and are preserved during autumn and winter.
Their culinary uses are many, for instance in the "schiacciata", a baked flat bread with onions and sage or rosemary.