The Sagra Part II

Local pop groups have set up their acoustic guitars and drums and a singer is trying out her repertoire. They seem to be popular despite their rather deafening volume as people start dancing. There may also be theater representations with plays in the local dialect and with improvised actors. In other words, an evening of fun out in the open, in the piazza, with the ever- present castle as backdrop and for once no need to cook a meal for their families.

My favorite is the Sagra del Bosco, a festival highlighting the bounty to be found in the woods this time of year. Porcini mushrooms (photo mushrooms) and truffles. Wild boar pappardelle. In a little over a month with the estate di San Martino or Indian summer chestnuts will take center stage. (Photo chestnuts) And before that visits to the vineyards and wineries and wine tasting. And later the new oil, peppery, when poured on slices of dense grilled country bread. Legumes such as lentils and small purgatorio beans have always been on the menu, probably from Roman times. The small tender purgatorio beans are generally offered in a banquet for Ash Wednesday, in other words for purgatory, hence their name. The town of Monterubiaglio, not far from Orvieto, is known for its polenta with sausages or buglione – a spicy pork sauce (sometimes called a stew and elsewhere might be lamb) made with the leftovers after the hams have been trimmed before being cured. This generally takes place in December when the pigs meet their creator and prosciuttos are salt-cured and hung up to age. Polenta, not the instant type, heaven forbid, is simmered for as much as an hour. When ready and creamy, and the guests have their forks on the ready, the polenta is poured out on a cutting board and then divided into sections, with the sauce in the center.

Gnocchi come when the new potatoes are dug up, roast goose banquets when threshing is over and the bread for the coming year is a certainty. Snails. Croutons or crostini with liver patè. Names you had forgotten, appear on the posters, such as strozzaprete or priest choker, a reference to a type of hand-rolled spaghetti which either choked a priest when he ate it or referring in its shape to a cord used to strangle a priest. When under papal domination and with too many taxes the housewives hoped the priest would choke.) They are a variety of umbricelli or hand-rolled spaghetti made only with water and flour. And of course umbricelli alla carbonara, the origins of which are debated as are variations in the recipe, but as far as I’m concerned the only real carbonara have guanciale or pork cheek, an egg and freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese, with a good sprinkling of pepper.

There are also the typical desserts or sweets, but generally they are simply part of the allover offerings. Hard twice-baked cookies with almonds or hazelnuts, to be dipped in the sweet liqueur, vin santo, from grapes left to dry in the attic before being pressed and then aged. Monterubiaglio also insists that they were the ones who originally made vin santo. Aside from zuppa inglese, which I figured out was the English trifle, and jam tarts, there are cream puffs or bignè, with bakers vying with each other.

Another volley of fireworks lighting up the sky and then one louder bang, and everyone goes home.
Summer is over.