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The Cuisine of Lombardy

The gastronomic variety in Lombardy is as exciting and diverse as the region itself

Although Lombardy's capital, Milan, is its best-known city—Milan has been important both politically and economically for more than ten centuries and is famous for dishes such as risotto alla milanese and costoletta alia Milanese—the region's other cities and provinces each have their own charms and culinary specialties.

Cremona is as renowned for its piquant mustard as for its finely crafted violins. Pavia is home to one of Italy's best universities and is known for its magro, or meatless dishes. Brescia and Beigamo boast the gilded look of small, wealthy cities and serve equally brilliant yellow dishes of polenta. Mantua offers a Renaissance cooking style that derives from the famous Court of the Gonzagas—spices and sweet-and-sour combinations are prevalent.

The lake district of Lombardy, home to Lakes Como, Maggiore, and Garda, is a beautifully groomed vacation area where fabulous freshwater fish is served, and frog's legs are a surprisingly common ingredient. And the northern part of Lombardy, the Valtellina, is an alpine haven with fabulous food such as pizzoccheri (buckwheat pasta) and bresaola (air-dried beef) and wines. Indeed, Lombardy houses perhaps the widest range of cooking styles of any region in Italy, hence resulting in food that is as exciting and diverse as the region itself.

One area in which Lombardy's diversity is truly astounding is cheese. Some of Italy's best cheeses are made in Lombardy, and the region produces an overwhelming number of different types.

Grana Lodigiana is seasoned for one to two years and fashioned into large cylinders weighing from 50 to 80 pounds (24 to 40 kilograms). It has a hard, golden yellow crust and is traditionally eaten both as a table cheese and grated.

Lombardy is also home to creamy Mascarpone, a snow-white to straw-colored substance that is more cream than cheese. Mascarpone is, in fact, coagulated cream aged just 24 hours. It is often eaten on its own, but is also an important ingredient in tiramisù and other dishes. Stracchino, which today basically refers to Crescenza but also includes Taleggio, Gorgonzola, and some robiola cheeses under its etymological umbrella, is slightly acidic and has no crust. It is milk-white and can be spread like butter. Strongly-scented Taleggio, on the other hand, has a soft texture and delicious taste, and it is a full, rich cheese and slightly sweet. Spicy Gorgonzola, is marbled with the green mold that gives it its unmistakable aroma; it hails from a town of the same name.

Other cow's milk cheeses include compact and strongly flavored Bagoss from the Bagolini mountains of Brescia with its hint of bitter herbs from the mountain pasture. Bagoss is eaten as a table cheese after two months ripening or allowed to mature up to six months for a more piquant, harder cheese that is used for grating. Bitto hails from the mountains of Gerola and, traditionally, contains one-fifth goats' milk. It is eaten either as a table cheese or, after ripening for up to three years, as a hard, grating cheese. The flavor of Bitto displays a hint of hazelnuts. Branzi of Bergamo is sweet when young but grows increasingly aromatic and spicy as it ages. The robiola cheeses of Valsassina are semihard and fall somewhere between sweet and spicy on the flavor scale. A reddish-brown rind that develops after the cheese has ripened for several weeks characterizes robiola.

In addition to its wide selection of cheeses, Lombardy offers many cold cuts, including bresaola—salted, dried, and lightly smoked beef filet. Berna is sheep's meat dried in the sun at 2000 meters (Tonale is famous for it). Busecchin is a blood sausage found throughout the southern Milan area. Coppa is a kind of salami made from the upper neck of a pig (Pietragavina is the main source). Cotechino sausage is made with spiced ground pork rind and pork thigh. Cuz is young lamb cooked and preserved in its own fat, typical of Val Camonica.

Different varieties of cheese, served at the Il Griso restaurant in Lecco.

Monza's luganega pork sausage is excellent both on its own and in risotto. Mortara is the place to go for goose salami, Mantua and Cremona for cooked pork salami. And finally, Valchiavenna and Com-podolcino prepare violino, a goat—or occasionally sheep—thigh brined with herbs and spices and then dried and smoked.

No midday Italian meal is complete without a primo, or first course, but while in the rest of Italy that usually indicates a pasta dish, Lombardy has stretched the definition of primi to include polenta (which may also serve as a side dish) and all types of risotto. Pasta appears here, too, of course, mostly in the form of casonsei and tortelli. These are both stuffed pastas, the first filled with various types of meat, and the second available in numerous versions, including those with meat, cheese, or vegetables.

Food is tied to age-old traditions throughout Italy, but in Lombardy some of the most ancient cooking methods are still in use. The Lombards—the Germanic people who ruled Lombardy from 568 to 774, and lent their name to the region-introduced clay cooking there in the 6th century. This method is still used in Valcuvia, most commonly with pheasant. The bird is seasoned, wrapped in clay, then placed in an oven. When the clay shell cracks all the way around, the dish is cooked. The clay is then shattered, and the meat eaten at its fragrant best.

However, the Lombardy oven is more commonly used for making the region's famed cakes and other sweets than it is for clay cooking. The best known Lombardy cake is panettone (see right). This sweet yeast bread with citron, candied orange peel, and sultanas is traditionally prepared at Christmas time and is now eaten throughout Italy. There are various myths surrounding the origins of its name: one claims that it derives from pan de Toni, or "Toni's bread," supporting the theory that a baker named Toni was the first to make it. It may also come from pan de ton, or "fancy bread." Colomba pasquale is another seasonal treat—this one associated with Easter—that originated in Lombardy but is now enjoyed throughout Italy. Colomba pasquale means "Easter dove," and this cake is baked in a special bird-shaped pan.

Along with the Duomo and Teatro alla Scala, Cova's panettone—the finest example of this typical Lombardy Christmas cake-is a symbol of Milan.

Lombardy has much more to satisfy a sweet tooth. Bussolano is a typical Mantua doughnut; cannoli and tortina come from Lodi; Carnevale offers chiacchiere. There are fave dei morti, offelle from Parana, and oss de mord (literally, "bones of the dead"). Pan de mein is eaten with cream on Saint George's day. Bergamo has sweet polenta, while both Mantua and Cremona lay claim to sbrisolona (the Mantua version contains almonds, while the Cremona version is rich with walnuts). Finally there are also the almond cakes of Pavia, Cremona's torrone, and torta di latte. In short, Lombardy's sweets are as varied and tempting as all its foods, and provide a most luxurious ending to any fabulous meal in the region.

The most well-known restaurant in Milan—the Savini restaurant.