Originally posted by Wendy Werneth on the nomadic vegan Sure, it's great to sit at a table with a red and white chequered tablecloth and be serenaded by a teenage accordion player as you dine al fresco, but what if you don't have the time, or the money, to eat all your meals in fancy restaurants while you're in Italy? Don't worry, in addition to all the delicious vegan dishes on offer in Italian restaurants, the street food scene in Italy also includes plenty of vegan options that will keep you fueled while you're on the go. Put on your walking shoes. It's time to hit the cobblestones in search of delicious vegan street food snacks! Arancini Their name means “little oranges”, and it's not hard to see why. Though their shape can vary from a perfectly round ball to something more like a cone, the fried breadcrumbs they are coated with do tend to give them an orange tinge. Stuffed with rice and any other fillings you fancy, a batch of these is the perfect way to use up leftover risotto. While vegan fillings can be scarce on the ground, one place where you can definitely find them is Arancina in Syracuse, Sicily. Puccia Puccia is a type of bread from the region of Puglia that is baked in a wood-fired oven. Crispy on the outside and hollow on the inside, they are the perfect shape and size for turning them into sandwiches. And on the streets of towns and cities throughout Puglia, you will see establishments known as “puccerie” doing just that. Since they are made to order on the spot, you can ask for whatever fillings you like, so it's easy to make them vegan. And if you're in Lecce, head to Andrew's and order yours stuffed with a vegan burger patty! Focaccia While the most famous focaccia hails from Genoa in the coastal region of Liguria, this versatile oven-baked bread comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be thick and chewy or thin and crusty. It can come plain with just rosemary and sea salt, or piled high with all kinds of toppings. And, while it's wonderful eaten plain, you can also slice it in half and stuff it with a filling of mushrooms, braised onions, artichokes...anything really. The dough itself is about as simple as it gets and totally vegan, so just pick one with plant-based toppings or fillings and you're good to go. Local breads (e.g. scéblasti) It's fun to compare the different forms of focaccia as you move from one region to another in Italy, but it's even more fun to seek out the local types of bread that are sold only in one town and nowhere else. For example, there's a tiny town in Puglia called Zollino that's famous for its scéblasti – which in the local dialect means “shapeless”. It might not have much shape, but it's got plenty of flavour! More than just a piece of bread, really, this shapeless lump is packed with pumpkin, olives, onions, zucchini, peppers and capers. Just be careful not to break a tooth on the olives, which are baked into the scéblasti whole, pits and all. Farinata (Photo by judywitts, used under CC license) This thin chickpea pancake is eaten in Liguria and Tuscany as well as on the Côte d'Azur in neighbouring France, where it is known as “socca”. This incredibly simple street fare can be made with just three ingredients: chickpea flour, water and olive oil, which means that, not only is it vegan, it's also gluten-free! While in Liguria it's usually cut into irregular slices and eaten by itself, in Tuscany, where it's known as cecina, it's stuffed into small focaccie or between two slices of bread and eaten as a sandwich. Panelle Similar to the farinata found in the North, panelle is the Sicilian take on chickpea flour snacks, which in this version is fried into fritters rather than baked. The chickpea flour is mixed with water and cooked into a polenta-like porridge before being cooled and allowed to set, then cut into pieces and fried in olive oil. Like its northern counterpart, panelle can be eaten on its own or stuffed between slices of bread and served as a sandwich. This vegan street food snack is particularly popular in Parlermo but can be found throughout the island of Sicily. Gelato What better way to wander the streets of Italy on a hot summer's day than with a cone of sweet, fruity gelato in hand? You might assume that ice cream is a no-go for vegans, but not so fast! The fruit-based flavours of gelato are almost always sorbets, which means they are made only with fresh fruit, water and sugar. And, with the growing demand for more dairy-free choices, many gelaterie now offer soy versions of some of their non-fruit flavours too. There's even a 100% vegan gelateria in Rome! Polenta You might be wondering how polenta could possibly be a street food snack. Isn't it all gloopy and messy and has to be served on a plate? Nope! It also comes in cones! In some of the more northern regions of Italy, polenta is an essential staple and is eaten much more frequently than pasta. That being the case, it should come as no surprise that the locals have found a way to take polenta with them on the go. Acqua & Mais in Venice does a roaring trade in the stuff. [Note: While the polenta at Acqua & Mais is vegan (they don't use butter like some places do), I was told later by a reader that the batter used to fry the vegetables I topped mine with (pictured above) contains eggs. If you go there, try ordering polenta with the white beans in tomato sauce instead.] Pizza al taglio (Photo by Elliott Brown, used under CC license) The Neapolitans get credit for inventing pizza, but it was the Romans who figured out that you could serve it “by the slice”. While the pizzas served in restaurants are round and generally considered to be a single serving size for one (hungry) person, in pizza al taglio places they are baked in large, rectangular trays and are sold by weight, so you can ask the pizzaiolo to cut a slice as large or small as you like. Since they are pre-made, you can't just order one without cheese like you can in a restaurant. That's generally not a problem though, as you will often find cheeseless pizzas on offer anyway. Some of the simplest and most common types are pizza rossa (with only tomato sauce) and pizza bianca (with olive oil, rosemary and garlic). Indeed, the line between focaccia and pizza is somewhat blurry, and you can generally find both in a pizza al taglio establishment. Pettole Pettole are a festive snack eaten around Christmas time and during other holiday periods, particularly in the south of Italy. They are basically doughnut holes, a.k.a fried batter, but unlike doughnuts they come in both sweet and savoury versions. In their simplest form, they are made with just flour, water and oil, though savoury ones might also include extras like olives or sun-dried tomatoes. If you prefer your pettole sweet, look for the ones that have been dipped in sugar, jam or vin cotto – a thick, concentrated grape juice. Are you ready to taste some of these delicious vegan street food snacks for yourself? Then check out the tours Vegano Italiano has planned for later this year. You can nibble on pettole in Puglia with renowned vegan cheese maker Miyoko Schinner, savour a creamy gelato with plant-based dietitian and author of The Vegiterranean Diet, Julieanna Hever, on the Amalfi Coast, or chomp down on some arancini in Sicily with vegan pastry chef Fran Costigan! This post contains affiliate links. Any commissions made will help to keep this blog up and running, at no extra cost to you. Win win! Originally posted by Wendy Werneth on the nomadic vegan
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Originally posted by Wendy Werneth on the nomadic vegan I'm always going on about how vegan-friendly Italy is as a travel destination. And it's true – no matter where you are in the country, you'll always be able to find a vegan meal of some kind, whether it's a pizza marinara, a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce, or just an antipasti platter loaded with grilled vegetables. And as simple as these options sound (and they are), they're pretty much guaranteed to be delicious. Simplicity, after all, is the secret of Mediterranean cooking. Pizza marinara - Mediterranean simplicity at its finest But there's so much more out there! The really fun part of eating in Italy is discovering the local specialities that can only be found in a particular region, city or town. And while there are vegan specialities to be found all throughout Italy, they definitely start multiplying as you head further south. In search of the true plant-based soul of our favourite world cuisine, this time Nick and I went waaaay down south, all the way to the heel of the proverbial boot. In the 10 days we spent exploring the wonders of Puglia, with a quick dip into neighbouring Basilicata, these are just a few of the mouthwatering discoveries we made. We're going way beyond the run-of-the-mill pasta and pizza options here. OK, so there's still some pasta thrown into the mix, and there's even one dish that sort of resembles a pizza. But there are also plenty of legumes, and quite a few leafy greens! This is real Italian food. Healthy, hearty, no-nonsense food that will sustain a peasant during a long day of work tilling his fields. And yet, it's also food that's deemed fit to serve in a fine restaurant with linen tablecloths. These fruits of the land are a hallmark of southern Italy's culture and traditions, and one that its people are justly proud of. 1. Orecchiette con cime di rapa Orecchiette (literally “little ears”) are one of the most popular pasta shapes in the south of Italy, where they are still made by hand with semolina flour and water (no eggs!). A common way to serve them is tossed with broccoli rabe leaves (cime di rapa in Italian). While in Puglia this dish is usually topped with anchovies (which can be omitted on request), in Basilicata you'll likely find them sprinkled with peperoni cruschi instead. These are dried, sweet peppers that can be eaten as a snack like potato chips! 2. Fave e cicorie Often served at the start of a meal as an antipasto, this dish can also stand on its own as a primo piatto. Fava beans are blended into a purée and served with chicory leaves, sometimes with the two side by side, other times all mixed up together. Recipes vary, so in some places the fava purée is thick like hummus, and in others it's much thinner, more like a soup. In all cases, though, it's bound to come with a side of crispy, toasted bread to dip into all that yumminess. 3. Ciceri e tria Tria is another type of pasta typically found in the south. Cut into long, thin strips, it's similar to tagliatelle. Except, you know, without the eggs, 'cause that's how southerners roll. In this dish the tria are tossed with chickpeas in a simple vegetable broth-based sauce, but the real kicker is that, while most of the pasta is boiled as per normal, about a fourth of it is fried instead, until it's crispy and golden brown. How genius is that! 4. Pasta con crema di fave e cipolla Remember fave e cicorie (No. 2 above)? OK, now take the fava bean purée, add some fried red onions, and pretend it's pasta sauce. Pour it over your favourite pasta and, ecco! You've got this plate of deliciousness. While I do love to get my daily serving of leafy greens, if I'm being honest, I like fave served this way even better. Just be sure your bread bowl stays full until the end, because you'll want to mop up every last drop. 5. Puccia Italian street food at its finest, pucce (the plural form of puccia) are sandwiches made with a special type of bread baked in a wood-fired oven. The streets of Lecce and other cities and towns in Puglia are dotted with puccerie – sandwich shops specializing in this local type of take-away. Fillings are limited only by your imagination. The one pictured here is from Andrew's in Lecce and is stuffed to the brim with eggplant, zucchini, lettuce, tomato and a vegan burger patty. 6. Frisa So, on the island of Crete in Greece they make this thing called dakos, which is basically barley rusks soaked in water and olive oil and topped with tomatoes and a type of locally-made cheese. While travelling around Crete, I once ordered dakos without the cheese and was told that dakos without cheese is not dakos. Nope, it isn't. It's frisa! I was amazed to discover that southern Italy has virtually the same local speciality, except that they don't put cheese on it! The most basic frisa (or frisella if the rusks are smaller) is topped with just tomatoes, salt and olive oil, but there are plenty of other possibilities. The one pictured here is stacked with olives, pickled eggplant and so many tomato slices that you can barely see the rusks underneath! 7. Fagioli e cime di rapa alla barese Here is yet another combination of those two nutritional powerhouses - leafy greens and legumes. This dish, popular in the city of Bari and in the surrounding seaside towns, is a simple combo of the ever-popular broccoli rabe and cannellini beans. Whereas in orecchiette con cime di rapa it's usually only the leaves of the broccoli rabe that are included, in this dish the buds go into the mix to. This is the part that looks like a head of broccoli in miniature, but it has a taste that's all its own. 8. Ciccio Here's another speciality from Bari and the surrounding area. Ciccio takes the simplicity of Mediterranean cuisine to a whole new level. Imagine a pizza as you know it, then take off all the toppings, the cheese, and the tomato sauce. Stay with me here. Granted, if you ordered this at Pizza Hut, you'd have a big round pan of greasy, tasteless nothing. But when made with fresh, quality ingredients, a true Italian pizza base really can stand on its own with nothing but salt, oregano and olive oil! That's the most basic recipe for ciccio anyway, but if you prefer you can add some of those toppings back on. The one pictured here was listed on a menu in Trani as ciccio vegetariano and was topped with grilled eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. 9. Ceca mariti I bet you thought we were all done with greens and beans, didn't you? Nope! Ceca mariti is a hearty soup made from a whole grab bag of different legumes cooked with friarielli and served with fried bread. What are friarielli, you ask? To be honest, I'm not sure whether there's any real difference between friarielli and cime di rapa (broccoli rabe). I've seen sources claiming they are the same thing, but I've also seen them sold as two separate items in the produce aisle. I suspect that friarielli might be the very young, tender shoots of the plant. But leafy greens are an immense topic in the world of southern Italian cooking, so it's hard to keep track! Whatever they are, they're delicious. 10. Strazzate OK, enough with the savoury stuff, it's time to finish off this list with a little something for your sweet tooth. Strazzate are cookies from the extraordinary town of Matera in Basilicata, famous for its sassi cave dwellings. These almond-flavoured cookies are traditionally eaten during the Christmas season. Their name is derived from a word meaning “to tear apart or mangle” and refers to their rather haphazard shape. Hard and crunchy on the outside, soft and crumbly on the inside, these are sure to keep you coming back for more. Though you may see them made with chocolate, and/or with eggs, the ones pictures here contained neither. I have to say, a chocolate version does sound pretty good though! Originally posted by Wendy Werneth on the nomadic vegan |
AuthorWriter and Blogger Brittany Lucero studied both PR and Fine Art and graduated with honors at Reinhardt university. Upon completion of her certifications, and after saving funds earned from nanny and restaurant jobs, she took two months to travel Europe alone. Since then, Brittany has made her way to several countries, including Thailand, Iceland, Japan, and recently, Ireland. Through her experiences traveling, she discovered another passion of hers: whiskey-making. From the Bourbon Trail to Japan, she's explored this subject, and currently wears many hats in her role at a local, organic distillery in Chicago while still finding time to travel- of course. Archives
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