Typical products

Fagagna cheese

The most important product is the famous Fagagna cheese, heir to the tradition of the district’s dairy cooperatives. The Latteria Sociale di Fagagna – Fagagna Social Dairy – set up in 1885 – was among the first cooperative structures in Friuli. Today there are three dairies that continue to ensure the quality of a cheese made using only raw, unpasteurized milk and an unmistakable flavour as a result of the plants present in the hay meadows around Fagagna.

This is one of the oldest cheeses in Friuli and was created in 1865 in the Fagagna cooperative dairy, founded by Luigi Pecile. It is a fat cheese, with a slightly soft to hard consistency suitable for short or long maturation. Fresh (60 days.), Medium (6 months) and mature (one year), it bears the name branded on the rind. In the area there are three dairies: the Paludo district, Centro district and that of the Riolo district.

Lard “pestât” of Fagagna

Another product strongly linked to the traditions of the town of Fagagna is “pestât”, also recognized as a Slow Food. Pestât is a simple way to store the flavours of herbs and vegetables from allotments in the autumn in pork lard. Once minced, it is added to carrots, celery and onion that have been reduced to small pieces together with chopped sage, rosemary, garlic and parsley. Salt and pepper then finish off the paste which at this point is placed in a sausage-skin and left to mature.

The use of pestât is very distinctive, it is not in fact consumed as a sausage but is sautéed in such a way that the fat melts without burning the vegetables and used as the basis for many dishes in the local traditional cuisine, in particular to flavour minestrone, brovada, stewed meat and roast potatoes.

Other gastronomic treasures of Fagagna

Already at the time of Napoleon in Fagagna there was a trade in piglets. We are not far from San Daniel, where the air coming down from the Carnic Alps meets that rising from the Adriatic, becoming a balm for hams. Therefore, cured meats and the traditional recipes for pork, brovada and muset (sauerkraut and a type of pork sausage), cabbage and salami and so forth, triumph in this area.

One of the particularities of Fagagna are goose dishes, cooked in great style in an old renovated farmhouse that is now an agriturismo. Given the strong bond with the town fair, donkey is offered ever more frequently as a meat in the local cuisine, such as sausage, in pasta sauces or as main courses with a marked and characteristic flavour. Finally, one should not forget the wines, especially the rare Picolit, the production of which was started here in 1761 by the Count Asquini and where the culture of the grape is still present.

The specialties of the Fagagna’s festival

During the September festivities and certain traditional events in the course of the year, there is the chance to sample some of the gastronomic specialities of Fagagna, produced and served by our Pro Loco.

Here are the dishes that can be tasted at the festival:

• Crostini with Pestât of Fagagna
• Dumplings and noodles with donkey meat sauce
• Stewed donkey
• Donkey mortadella
• Fagagna cheese with polenta
• Fantasy of Fagagna cheese (cottage cheese, feagnute, mozzarella, fresh and seasoned cheeses)
• Fagagna cottage cheese with hot raspberries

All products come from local famers and the dishes are carefully prepared by the expert hands of our chefs.