Apr

28

La Festa della Sparasina

April 28, 2008 |

Every year in Pigozzo, a small village about 10 kilometres from Verona, they celebrate the Festa della sparasina, the Wild Asparagus Festival. Sparasina is the word in dialect for Asparagus Acutifolius from the family of Liliaceae. These wild asparagus grow spontaneously in the woods and close to rivers between April and May, and it’s in this period that the Festival takes place.

I’ve always heard of this Festival but I’ve never been to it or to Pigozzo. This year I saw the advertisement and decided to go right away. Pigozzo is a really small village surrounded by hills that are covered by vineyards, olive trees and forests which made for a perfect setting. It was a fantastic day, sun was shining and the weather was so warm that I ate outside.

The Festival takes place close to the church and I should say that everything was really well organized. When I arrived people kindly indicated me where to park. I arrived early but the food stands were already crowded. I started with the appetizer called bruschetta speciale and it sure was special: half slice of bread with cooked wild chicory and dandelion greens and the other half with a pâté made with wild asparagus.

I then took Risotto con le sparasine (Risotto with wild asparagus). The risotto was made with Vialone nano rice which is produced in the surroundings of Isola della Scala, in the province of Verona. The rice was extremely good and surprisingly “al dente” as Vialone nano rice is easy to overcook if you’re not careful and that is hard to avoid when you’re preparing it for a big crowd. The rice had a slightly bitter taste due to the wild asparagus, but was well balanced with the butter and Parmesan cheese.

The second dish I chose, pictured above, was absolutely fantastic: sparasine (wild asparagus), a kind of wild chicory mixed with dandelion and candelina, ruscus aculeatus. The vegetables were blanched in hot water, then flavored with extra virgin olive oil and accompanied with hard-boiled eggs. The eggs were organic!

I concluded my lunch with a slice of cake called, “Torta con l’erba amara” , cake with bitter herb (Tanacetum Parthenium, feverfew) and I fell in love with it. It has a unique taste aromatic and slightly bitter and I want the recipe! What a lunch, a celebration of wild vegetables and herbs. Simple ingredients from nature cooked and presented in a very unpretentious way.
I went home very satisfied but also with a new inspiration: to start learning more about finding and cooking wild herbs. It will definitely be a future subject in this blog.

If you happen to be close to Verona around the end of April or early May don’t miss this festival. There’s a website dedicated to it www.sparasina.com but only in Italian. I’m sure you can easily check the dates and the map to get to Pigozzo without any problem.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. FunAtomic on April 29, 2008 2:35 pm

    Sounds like a great day out.
    It’s given me some good ideas too

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