Thursday 23 August 2012

The 'sagra'

Last week my boyfriend suggested that we go to a 'sagra'. What on earth is that? I asked, secretly hoping it would be something to do with food, the beach or shopping. Well, it was the former. Result! A sagra is a type of food festival that takes place in lots of the smaller towns and villages in Italy. A town often has more than one per year, and each festival has a food 'theme', so to speak. It could be pasta, a type of meat or a particular vegetable. The sagra that we went to was in a small town called  Casalnuovo in the 'Subappennino Dauno' zone between Puglia and Molise. And their choice of food for said Sagra? Boar. My word it was simply delicious. (Even if I did feel a bit sad seeing the picture of the boar and then, well, eating it)



After walking through the little streets (following our noses of course) we came across a plaza with lots of big tables and a marque with a long queue of people (who knew, maybe Italians can queue!). We joined the line, paid our 10 euros, and ended up with a (rather school canteen-like) tray full of amazing food. Pasta, meat and contorno- the vegetables/salad that accompany your meat. And bread of course. No meal in Italy is complete without bread.

food
close up of food
very very happy Amy eating food
 The meat was absolutely exquisite. I was full to bursting by the end but kept nibbling on the pasta. I just couldn't resist it! After filling our bellies we went and watched some dancing. We didn't join in due to my excessive consumption of food. Maybe next time! Because we will be going to another one of these festivals. I'm still dreaming about the amazing pasta even now...

dancing
eating

2 comments:

  1. Sagra's are part of the delight of living in Italy, it has been a very busy summer of sagra's this year. By coincidence I have just posted about a recent one in Marta.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Given our location up north, much of the sagre that we attend are concentrated in Lombardia and perhaps the regions bordering it. I would so love to attend the ones in the south as I hear that the food is great and the food is a lot! Thanks for sharing this....your post popped in my google alert.

    ReplyDelete