Italy Culinary Trips: Summer Gnocchi Festivals

We love celebrating food festivals and, quite frankly, food and drink we just plain like! In Italy food festivals, called “sagre,” “feste,” or “fiere” are common, and can feature something as specific as a particular type of snail or as general as wine. Communities across the peninsula and on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily organize the festivals, often in association with local holidays or harvest periods. And it should come as no surprise that certain ingredients and certain dishes receive more than their share of festivals throughout the year. Case in point? Gnocchi! Learn all about gnocchi.

Gnocchi, those soft, potato-pillow bites of heaven, are popular in many Italian regions. If you feel like checking out a gnocchi-themed festival during your trip to Italy, here are some option! Travel to Italy on a culinary vacation with TIK. Santa Maria di Monteleone d’Orvieto (Umbria) Generally held in mid-June, the festival has been held since 2000, when the community decided to institute a summer festival for the community. Santa Caterina di Lusiana (Veneto) Held annually in mid-August (around the Italian August 15 holiday of “Ferragosto”), this large festival features of course plate after plate of delicious gnocchi, but also activities, music, and dancing for adults and families. Selva di Trissino (Veneto) This late-August/early-September festival also features a “concorso sughi,” or sauce competition. In past years the most requested sauces included radicchio, mixed wild mushrooms, and a creamy cheese sauce with arugula, as well as the ever-popular truffles, walnuts and “speck” (a type of smoked ham), ragù meat sauce, mascarpone and peppers, and a ragù made from Paduan geese. Montescudo (Veneto) The “sagra della patata di Montescudo” (Montescudo’s potato festival) is historically the second weekend of August, and of course gnocchi is one of the main stars of the menu, along with such traditional items as baccalá (salt cod) with potatoes and piadina (flabread), and such unusual items as potato doughnuts and even potato ice cream! San Lorenzo Nuovo (Veneto) Also held in August, the festival takes place in the beautiful octagonal piazza in the center of town and boasts gnocchi with four traditional sauces: ragù (meat sauce), butter and sage, vodka-tomato sauce, and pesto. Last year some four TONS of gnocchi were served during the course of the festival.