Food and drinking at Lake Garda

Tasty food of three regions

If you think Italian cuisine consists mainly of pizza, you will be more than satisfied around Lake Garda, even though you are wrong. There is no such thing as typical Italian cooking, the food varies considerably according to the region. Therefore, what you will get is not typical Italian, but typical Lake Garda food. That is, if you venture so far as to order things you don’t know rather than sticking to familiar pastas and pizza.

Three regions meet at Lake Garda: Trentino in the north, Veneto on the eastern and Lombardia on the western shore. In good restaurants you will be able to make out the differences between dishes from each region. What all three have in common is that fish features very prominently.

As for whether this really is always fresh from the Lake, as landlords proudly claim, is a matter of belief.

The kitchen of Trentino

Being an alpine region, Trentino’s cuisine is the most rustic. Some dishes are almost too heavy for a hot summer evening, laden with cheese and bacon. This kind of food suggests that it might be nice to be at the Lake in winter, too. All is very different and quiet, and the biting cold winds make you really enjoy a hot, filling meal. Another advantage of being at Lake Garda in winter is the truffle (“tartufo”) harvest, which takes place in December on the slopes of Monte Baldo.

Pasta is popular, of course, like “tajadele co’ i fonghi”, tagliatelle with mushrooms. Risotto is also popular, even though the rice grows further south, in the Po valley. Very common is risotto with porcini mushrooms. An indispensable side dish is polenta, made from coarsely ground maize. Naturally, there are heavy wines to go with this kind of cooking. Two examples of top-quality reds produced only in Trentino are Teroldego and Marzemino.

Speciality wine

Red Bardolino is the typical wine of the eastern lake-shore. It is immensely popular, maybe unfortunately so, because this means it is produced in far too large quantities, and not always satisfactory quality.

If you want to learn more, follow the “Strada del Vino”, visit wine cellars, try different wines and buy some bottles to take home. In the south-east, there are also good white wines, like Lugana, which is grown around Sirmione.