Flavours of the South

Three culinary questions for Lojze Wieser, publisher and specialist on the taste of Europe

In this country, what is typically served at Easter?

The smoked ham is a feature they all have in common. Depending on the particular region, this is accompanied by smoked sausages, pork and beef tongue, bula, hard-boiled eggs or eggs mixed with horseradish. Virtually everywhere, they eat Reindling / Pohača / Potica as well: This is a rolled yeast dough with a sweet filling of nuts, sultanas and cinnamon, prepared in an earthenware dish, the “Rein”, which is best baked in a wood-fired oven. In some valleys, the white bread is left unfilled and is then called Woazana. The Potica / Pohača / Reindling has been made throughout the entire Friulian-Slovenian-Carinthian area since the 15^th century. In Friuli it is still called Gubana today, a derivative of the Slovene for “fold”. The shapes vary from elongated for Potitze (rolled) to Pohača (for white bread in general) and Reindling (round shape). This traditional Easter dish is not only an ancient recipe in which sweet, sour and salty harmonise perfectly, but also represents a dietary habit that goes back far beyond Paracelsus’ time and can be traced back to the early Middle Ages.

Where does polenta come from?

The word polenta has its origin in Latin and generally refers to small-grained food such as grated cereals. In this part of the world, polenta refers mainly to corn and in the Alps-Adriatic region it is called Frico, Fricka, Sterz or Polenta in its prepared form. Corn made its long journey to Europe starting with the indigenous peoples in America and passing through the East and Turkey on the one hand, and the West and Friuli on the other, and soon became a staple food in all households. To this day, it carries the memory of a simpler past. There are virtually no limits to the variety of combinations with other tastes, and some might find them daring, for example in some parts of Carinthia where “polenta” is eaten for breakfast as a corn porridge slathered with grits or butter and topped with a richly sweetened milky coffee.

What can be cooked quickly and is easy on the students’ budgets?

I recommend beans with stewed plum, one of the most unusual and delicious dishes from my childhood. My mother called this meal “fižol s češpeljevo marmelado” and liked to use the big broad beans for this purpose. We used to drink fresh, cold milk with it. And here’s the simple recipe: Drain the cooked beans, add to a frying pan with plenty of melted butter, allow it to heat thoroughly, stirring occasionally, and serve with self-bought stewed plums.