Euganean Hills in your dish: the best local food and where to taste it

Le best products of the Euganean Hills and where to taste them. 

The Euganean hill area, besides its beautiful landscapes and many cultural attractions, offers also an uncommon culinary richness which represents an essential part of its soul and history.
There are many delicatessen, some of those are handed down from one generation to another, across the centuries, and combine traditional recipes to modern reinterpretations.
We have made a selection of the best Euganean Hill products for you, together with our very personal tips of where to try them…a small tour to discover Veneto with Taste!

Sopressa – Agriturismo Buona Terra

• Sopressa: a real must of venetian kitchen! Produced with the best pork meat cuts, mixed with spices and seasoned from 2 to 6 months, sopressa is a “noble” cold cut that can be eaten in every season and combines to quite different flavors. A classic way of serving it is with warm polenta and mushrooms, as a starter, or in summer it’s delicious with figues. To taste it, we recommend Agriturismo La Buona Terra in Cervarese S.Croce, that for two years (2010 and 2016) has won the prize for “the best organic Sopressa”.

Bigoli all’anatra- Trattoria Balotta

• Bigoli with duck: perfect if you want to taste all flavors of the region in a single dish! Bigoli are a local kind of pasta, similar to spaghetti but thicker and with a rough texture, ideal to hold the sauces. Most restaurants made them by hand and their perfect, divine match is duck ragout. This dish has a century-long history, originally it was conceived as a recipe for autumn and winter and that’s because the way of cooking the duck was tasty but very fat (they used lard and offals as well) ! Antica Trattoria Ballotta , in Torreglia, reaches perfection with this dish. Here, besides tasting traditional food, you will experience a piece of history, since it claims to be the oldest restaurant of Euganean Hills (since 1605).

Pasticcio di cipolle- Osteria del Picchio

• Onion pie: among first courses, another must is onion pie, especially the one served by Osteria del Picchio in Selvazzano, a recipe that has been done in the same way over 30 years by the family who runs this restaurant: in this dish the tasty flavor of stewed onion matches with homemade pasta, bechamel just in small quantity…”almost” good if you are on a diet 😉

Padua hen

• Padua hen: besides first courses, on the Euganean Hill tables you can also find delicious main dishes: Padua hen, for instance, is one of our top local products. This very special hen, which is bred in Veneto since XIV century, was considered as endangered species until a few years ago and its rearing is now protected by “Slow Food”. The best place where to taste it is the restaurant La Montanella, in Arquà Petrarca, that also provides a certificate of origin for the meat. At La Montanella you can also find cold cuts and homemade typical desserts, like focacce and panettoni at Christmas.

Rabbit “Vicenza way”

• Roasted rabbit and rabbit “Vicenza way”: another traditional main course is rabbit: one of the most common preparations here is rabbit “Vicenza way”, which requires a long marinade in white vinegar, wine and laurel leaves and a cooking in tomato sauce and herbs. At the restaurant Al Pozzetto, in Rovolon, you can taste an interesting variation: rabbit with wild mint, great with polenta and roasted potatoes. Among their specialties of this family-run trattoria, you can find excellent pasta dishes and an original duck breast with citrus fruits.

Today our trip through Euganean Hill flavors ends here, but we hope to have awakened your curiosity and that this will be just the beginning of your “tasty” exploration of our region… Buon appetito!