Speck, dumplings and apples, in that order

At the table the region divides the way it divides by language. In Alto Adige people eat what is eaten beyond the Brenner, with German portions and German names; in Trentino the cooking is closer to that of the Veneto and Lombardy, with polenta at its centre. In between, in Val di Fiemme and Val di Fassa, the two things meet.

Speck

Speck is a boned leg of pork, salted, seasoned and lightly smoked over beech wood, then aged for five or six months. The local rule says little salt, little smoke and plenty of air. It has carried the Igp mark since 1996, and is cut in thin slices or thick strips depending on who is serving it; at a farmhouse it arrives on a board with rye bread and horseradish.

First and second courses

Canederli are large dumplings of stale bread, milk and speck, served in broth or with melted butter: they exist so that bread is not thrown away, like half of alpine cooking. The strangolapreti of Trentino are the version with spinach. Then there are green spatzle, goulash inherited from the empire, the carne salada of the upper Garda, which is also eaten raw, and the polenta of Storo, dark yellow because the maize is a different variety.

The cheeses and the puddings

There are dozens of mountain cheeses: the Puzzone di Moena, which has the name it deserves, the Vezzena of the high plateaus, the Graukase of the Aurina valley, made without rennet and extremely lean. Among the puddings apple strudel is the obvious one, but it is worth trying Kaiserschmarrn, a sweet pancake torn into pieces and served with blueberry jam, and Zelten, the Christmas fruit bread.

Apples are the other serious business: the Val di Non and the basins of Merano and Bolzano together grow about half of all Italian apples, in orchards that from the train look like a single row a hundred kilometres long.

To drink

Alto Adige makes mountain white wines: Gewurztraminer, named after the village of Termeno, Pinot Bianco and the Sylvaner of the Isarco valley. Among the reds are the light Schiava and the dark Lagrein. Trentino has Teroldego from the Rotaliana plain, Marzemino and the Vino Santo of Sorni and the Valle dei Laghi, and it produces Trentodoc, traditional method sparkling wine, born here in 1902.