The 3 Slow Food presidia in Lunigiana

The Testarolo of Pontremoli is a special type of pasta whose peculiarity is the expert artisanal cooking which is still carried out in the "testi": the two cast iron elements, the sottano and the soprano, are made red-hot on a wood fire, then inside it is poured a batter of flour, water and salt which, in a few seconds thanks to the high temperature, transforms into a soft and spongy dough with a circular shape.

Tradition dictates that testarolo is then cooked like pasta: it is then cut into diamond shapes, blanched in salted water for a few minutes and seasoned with oil and cheese, meat or mushroom sauces. But nothing stops you from toasting it lightly and pairing it with cured meats and cheeses for a tasty savory dish.

This ancient chestnut flour bread was born in Casola in Lunigiana, located in the side valley at the confluence between the Tassonaro stream and the Aulella stream, in front of the peaks of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines National Park. In the past, the only flour available here for bread was chestnut flour (the chestnut was in fact called "breadfruit"). To produce the flour, the "chestnut civilization" was busy all year round: from the harvest in autumn, to the slow fire drying in the "gradili", to the cleaning in which everyone was called to participate. The fruits were then taken to water mills for grinding.

To create the bread, chestnut flour was mixed with potatoes, which gave the typical spongy internal consistency. The exterior, however, is particularly hard and seems to have been defined with the dialectal term "marocat", that is, not very malleable, from which the name Marocca probably derives.

To date, only one oven in Casola regularly cooks marocca, which conquers for its simplicity and tastiness in combinations: from extra virgin olive oil to cheeses, to honey and without forgetting the Lardo di Colonnata.

We move to Zeri, the westernmost municipality in Tuscany. Here, among wide valleys embraced by the Ligurian Apennines, there are pastures that are home to a native sheep breed, the Zerasca. The geographical isolation of this territory has meant that this breed has maintained its genetic characteristics of a medium-large sized rustic sheep with a white coat. In Zeri, the lambs live among organic pastures in a bucolic context that is not very man-made, feeding on their mother's milk, particularly rich in protein, which makes the meat tender and fragrant.

A fundamental step in the traditional recipe is cooking the meat on the fire in cast iron "testi", accompanied by mountain potatoes.