Lombardia cooking and recipes

To talk about the Lombard gastronomy is very difficult, but if we want to find a gastronomic lowest common denominator, it would clearly appear that the Lombard kitchen is one of fat and butter (like almost everywhere above the Appennino boarder), in which prevails the art of long cooking, boiling and stewing. Pasta alone recently has spread in mass by encroaching upon the historically acquired place of rice and polenta. Therefore it is said kitchen of broth, pucie (juices) and soups, it is a spoon kitchen, more than a fork one. It is a kitchen where one can enjoy dishes of the Padana or Alpina tradition, such as Risotto alla pitocca (a risotto prepared with chicken), il risotto alla certosina (a risotto made with frogs), vitello tonnato (veal slices covered with a sauce of mayonnaise and tuna-fish), tortelli filled with a pumpkin mix, Consonsei bergamashi (a particular pasta typical of the Bergamo gastronomy) or most of the typical cheeses such as gorgonzola (a blue cheese) and Grana Padano or the Cremona mustard (a sort of marmalade prepared with different fruits), pickled onions, and pan de mej (a cake prepared with corn meal). A hors d'oveure Nervetti or a fine dish of polenta traditionally concia or uncia (filled with other ingredients); of small lake fish carpionati (marinated); a nourishing soup of barley or bean soup with added pigskin (once served only on All Souls Day). This food surely is to experience!