Lonate Food & Wine Festival Highlights Pork-Centric Dishes from Nine Venues

At the table with pork: a food and wine festival

Event Presentation

The culinary circuit “…A tutto Porcello” returns with numerous participants. This event will see the involvement of nine restaurants and farm stays located within the Lonate area, characterized by offering dishes typical of rural peasant culture with pork as the main ingredient.

The pig, a protagonist and initial inspiration of the Fiera di Lonato, is thus given great prominence because of the meats—about which our grandparents and great-grandparents used to say, “nothing is wasted.”

Creativity is left free, once the prerogative of farmers and now of restaurateurs, to research and propose dishes particularly suitable during this period, as it is a busy time for pig slaughtering, entrusted to the professionalism and expertise of the norcin, formerly called “masadur.”

Gastronomic Offerings

As mentioned, creativity knows no bounds. The proposed menus, with particularly affordable prices, range from appetizers consisting of raw or cooked salami, coppa, “os de stomec”, pancetta, soppressa, either grilled or with a splash of vinegar, not to forget the inimitable “grepole” or “ciccioli,” lard with toasted polenta, or with honey, risotto with “pestum,” pig’s trotters with beans, pork chops, the timeless pork bones (Oss de pursel), pig’s feet with beans, or soppressata di maiale, grilled or breaded steaks, sausages, ribs with cabbage, the traditional and marvelous Cassöla, liver in various versions, cotechino with different pairings, pig’s blood tart or “sanguanass,” and many more.

All ingredients for a celebration, a festival, a tradition that must not be forgotten. These nine dining spots will surely bring back those now especially interesting recipes, once standard in the homes of our farmers, as a common practice.

Participating Venues and Dates

These are the restaurants and farm stays that have joined this initiative, which will start on January 5 and continue throughout January, concluding on February 4: Da Achille, Antico Corlo, Da Ezio, Il Rustichello, La Campagnola, Trattoria Bettola, Le Bagnole, Il Rovere, and La Scalera.