What you eat while hiking in the Dolomites depends less on altitude than on the valley: each province and each Ladin valley has its own dishes and its own names.
What Do You Eat at a Malga or an Alm?
Cheese made on site, and in South Tyrol (Alto Adige) farmhouse cooking. In Trentino, which includes the Val di Fassa, more than 300 malghe (alpine farms) are still active, and in summer their malga cheese is the thing to taste: no two are alike, from one alpine pasture to the next and from one year to the next.
In the low-altitude malghe, between 900 m2,953 ft and 1,300 m4,265 ft, milking takes place every day and the milk is turned into cheese.
In South Tyrol, the alpine farms (Alm) serve several kinds of Knödel, a cheese with character, spicy Speck and fresh raspberry juice. Many of their dishes come from the mountain cooking of the old days: the Schwarzplentene Knödel, made with buckwheat flour, were seen as food for the poor, and the Rohnen on the menu are beetroot.
Our guide to Dolomites mountain huts covers what huts serve for dinner and breakfast, and when.
Which Dishes Should You Try in the Dolomites?
Two dishes turn up from one valley to the next under different names: Knödel and Schlutzkrapfen.
Knödel, which menus also spell canederli, are dumplings; in Cortina d’Ampezzo, look for them under their Ladin name, chenedi.
Schlutzkrapfen are half-moon pockets made with rye and wheat dough, most often filled with spinach and quark (a fresh cheese), served with brown butter, Parmesan and chives. In Val Gardena (Gröden), you will also see them written crafuncins. After a long day on the trail, this is our first choice.
Which Ladin Dishes Should You Try?
In Alta Badia (Hochabtei), Ladin cooking is peasant cooking, made of simple ingredients and recipes handed down for centuries. Four dishes to look for on the menu:
- panicia, a barley soup;
- turtres, fritters filled with spinach or sauerkraut;
- cajincí, half-moons filled with greens and served with butter;
- furtaies, sweet spiral fritters.
In Cortina, look for the beetroot casunziei, an Ampezzo recipe. The filling combines red and yellow beetroot, potato, toasted flour and a pinch of nutmeg; they are served drizzled with butter, with smoked ricotta or Parmesan and poppy seeds. Cortina’s tourist board gives the recipe for four people if you want to make them at home.
What Food Should You Bring Home from the Dolomites?
A Speck Alto Adige PGI or a Puzzone di Moena PDO: look for these labels, both protected names in the EU register.
Speck Alto Adige (Südtiroler Speck in German) is a protected geographical indication (PGI, Regulation (EC) No 1107/96). It is both lightly smoked and air-dried, under an aromatic crust of rosemary, juniper and bay leaf.
Puzzone di Moena, also called Spretz Tzaorì, is a protected designation of origin (PDO, DOP in Italian; Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1162/2013). It is a matured raw-milk cheese from the municipalities of Moena and Predazzo, which cheesemakers traditionally wash by hand in warm water during ageing. Its flavour moves from sharp notes to grass, pasture, ripe fruit and toasted hazelnut.
What Is Törggelen?
An autumn tradition of South Tyrol, from early October to late November: if you hike in October, you will find it in full swing. After the grape harvest, taverns and farm inns open their parlours and serve homemade Schlutzkrapfen and Knödel, cured meat and sausages with sauerkraut, Krapfen (sweet doughnuts) and roasted chestnuts, with grape must (Siaße) and young wine.
