Umbria

Olive oil flavors most of the dishes of this hilly region, and ventresca and guanciale, cured meats, also lend their distinctive taste.

Meat, usually grilled, roasted, or baked, is a staple of Umbrian feasts; not to be missed is the roasted lamb, agnello arrosto, traditional at Easter. Porchetta, a roast suckling pig stuffed with its entrails and flavored with herbs, is a signature dish, and game is prepared many ways: doves are cooked in salmì, and pigeons are combined with tomatoes, olives, vinegar, juniper berries, and prosciutto.

The lentils of Castelluccio, served with cotechino and zampone sausages for New Year throughout Italy, are one of Umbria's most important products, and garner a high price on the market.

Norcia is renowned for its cured meats (norcino means pork butcher in Italian, the master of salami and cured meats), and the entire region offers stupendous cheeses, including caciotta, fresh and salted ricotta, and Pecorino, making the cooking of Umbria flavorful in its simplicity.

Black truffles from Norcia and Spoleto feature in specialties like spaghetti alla nursina and trota al tartufo, trout with truffles.

Desserts include cicerchiata, a wreath-shaped sweet served at Carnevale and Christmas, the pine nut-studded pinoccate, the medieval, spicy pan pepato, and tisichelle, anise-flavored macaroons.

Among the notorious wines of Umbria are Orvieto, Torgiano, Montefalco Sagrantino, Montefalco Rosso, Colli Altotibertini, Colli Perugini, and Colli del Trasimeno.