It is said that St. Francis of Assisi, on his deathbed, wanted his dearest friends beside him, and one of these was Modonna Jacopa dei Settesoli, a Roman noblewoman who was very devout. He sent her a letter saying: "If you want to find me alive hurry and come to S. Maria degli Angeli and bring with you an ash-colored wool cloth and candles for the burial. I also ask you to bring me those sweets you always gave me when I was ill in Rome." The friars were looking around for someone to take the letter to Rome when there was a knock on the door, and Donna Jacopa had already arrived. Women were forbidden to enter the monastery, so the friars asked the saint what should they do, and he answered: "You cannot apply this rule to this woman whose great faith caused her to travel so far." She was allowed to enter, and had brought a sack with an ash-colored wool cloth for a cassock, as indicated in the letter as well as the requested sweets made with almonds, sugar, honey, and other ingredients, called "mostaccioli" in Rome.

Today these sweets are made in memory of the humanity humaneness of this saint who travelled across the Umbrian countryside on muleback. Umbria still feels his presence strongly. The sweets of Umbria are often tied to religious holidays. Perugia has the "frittelle di San Giuseppe" and for San Costanzo, patron of the city, they prepare "torcolo", a doughnut with candied fruits, raisins, pine nuts and anise seed. Assisi boasts "stinchetti" and "rocciata." The first are made with marzipan in the form of small leg bones, they are also called "ossa di morto" (dead man's bones) and are usually prepared for the beginning of November for the all saints and all souls day. "Focciata" is a roll of sweet pasta filled with almonds and chopped walnuts, dried fruit, apple, suger, and cinnamon. How can we not remember "serpentone" made by the Capucine nuns and the "pinoccate" ofChristmas, all very simple and old sweets: a gracious excuse to accompany the famous "Vin Santo."

Umbria, green and wise. Although crushed between Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, and Lazio, this region has managed to conserve its original simplicity founded on certain basic ingredients: olive oil, among the best in Italy, the hog, the lamb, durham wheat pasta of the best quality and the colombaccio, the wood-pigeon that Umbrians love.

Let's begin the roundup with a real speciality: the precious black tartufo from Norcia. Hunting this treasure is a secret jealously kept by its masters and it's hard to find a friend in Norcia who will take you along for the hunt because the locations are a secret handed down by one generation to another in the local families.

Norcia has another speciality: the treatment of hog meat. The term "norcino" means to butcher and prepare sausages, all excellent, and the extraordinary "mazzafegati" which are sausages made from hog's liver, orange peel, pine nuts, raisins and sugar.

Cooking in Umbria is varied: meat, fish, cereals, vegetables, spices, and herbs are equally important and combined with an enviable equilibrium, so it doesn't seem right to define this cooking as "poor." Perhaps "essential" is a better description with its proud and primitive disdain for any kind of sophistication. In Foligno, for example, delicious "minestroni" (soups) with a fresh vegetable base are made with egg pasta. Wild pigeons are served in the fall with a sauce made with oil, wine, vinegar, and herbs. In the local fairs stuffed "porchetta" is often served, young roasted pig served with a strong flavour of wild fennel. A favourite dish in Todi is sweet and sour ox tongue and at Cascia they prepare, with a very old recipe, veal with tartufo. In the towns around Lake Trasimeno the local fish is baked or braised, seasoned with fragrant herbs.

This is the land of the ancient Etruscans, and studies of frescoes in the ancient tombs show that the locals eat in a manner very similar to that of their ancestors.

Lamb with Truffles

Ingredients for 4 people:

1 Thigh from a young lamb
120 grams black truffle crushed in a mortar
anchovies
1 lemons
1/10 litre olive oil
salt

Cut the lamb in large pieces and brown it in a casserole, add salt to taste plus four anchovies with the spines removed and crushed in a mortar. Halfway through the cooking (about half an hour) remove lamb for a moment and pour out the fat accumulated in the pan. Add the juice of two lemons with a bit of water. Continue to cook over a low fire, check after twenty minutes for doneness, the meat near the bone should be tender and no longer pink, remove from the flame and add the truffles, carefully turning the pieces of lamb to mix. Cover the pot and let rest for ten minutes before serving.

Wine Regions

Umbria ranks sixteenth among the regions in size (8,456 square kilometres) and seventeenth in population (817,000).

Vineyards cover 22,000 hectares (fourteenth) of which registered DOC plots total 5,600 hectares (fourteenth).

Annual wine production of 1,100,000 hectolitres (sixteenth) includes fifteen per cent or 165,000 hectolitres DOC or DOCG (thirteenth) of which more than 80 per cent is white.

DOCG AREAS

Torgiano Rosso Riserva R-Dr, Ag-3

DOC AREAS

Colli Altotiberini R-P-W-Dr

Colli Amerini (4 types) R-Dr, also Sup, Novello; P-Dr; W-Dr, Malvasia W-Dr

Colli Martani (3 types) Grechetto (also Grechetto di Todi) W-Dr; Sangiovese R-Dr, Ag-1, Rs Ag-2; Trebbiano W-Dr

Colli del Trasimeno R-W-Dr

Colli Perugini R-P-W-Dr

Montefalco (2 types) Rosso R-Dr, Sagrantino R-Dr or Passito R-Sw, Ag-1

Orvieto W-Dr, also Sw

Torgiano R-W-DR

OTHER WINES OF NOTE

R-Dr Cabernet Sauvignon
Casole Rosso
Foresco
Lago di Corbara
Merlot di Spello Monrubio
Pinot Nero
Rosso d'Arquata
Rosso di Assisi
San Giorgio
W-Dr Bianco d'Arquata
Bianco di Assisi
Borro della Sala
Casole Bianco
Chardonnay di Miralduolo Grecante
Grechetto dell'Umbria
Marrano
Pomaio

Others
Calcaia, W-Sw
Castel Grifone, P-Dr
Decugnano Brut, W-Sp
Lungarotti Brut, W-Sp Muffa Nobile, W-Sw
Pourriture Noble, W-Sw
Solleone, W-Ft-Dr

Umbria has long been renowned for white wine, thanks mainly to the historical prominence of Orvieto. But evidence grows that the hills of the "green heart of Italy" have an aptitude for a multitude of varieties, white and red, native and foreign.

Orvieto was once the most celebrated of Italian whites as a semisweet or "abboccato" wine, praised by the popes, princes, and painters who sojourned in the hill town north of Rome with its splendid Cathedral and sweeping views of the Umbrian landscape. But as tastes changed Orvieto has been modified from a soft, golden wine into a pale, pure, crisp creature of the technology of soft-crushed grapes and free-run musts processed at low temperatures.

Some laud the change, others deplore it as a travesty of tradition. But modern Orvieto is a commercial success as one of italy's best-selling DOC whites with a solid following abroad. Actually, some producers are turning back a bit, in a sense, striving for more character in the wine through lower grape yields and more meticulous selection and by letting the grapeskins remain in contact with the juice for a while before fermentation. Just lately Orvieto's "abbocato" has made a comeback as a dessert wine. Though Procanico (Trebbiano) and Malvasia prevail in Orvieto, growers in the zone have been working successfully with such outside varieties as Chardonnay, Sauvignon, the Pinots and Gewürztraminer, as well as the admirable local Grechetto.

But the most prestigious Umbrian wine is the red Torgiano Rosso "riserva", which has been given special status as DOCG (though the regular Torgiano red and white remain DOC). A modern classic based on Sangiovese, the "riserva", under the name Rubesco, has been known to age to unique splendour for a decade or two. Sagrantino, a vine grown around the hill town of Montefalco, is an intriguing native that yields both dry and sweet wines of unmistakable grandeur. Sagrantino di Montefalco has been scheduled for a DOCG separate from Montefalco Rosso, which will remain DOC. Among the many outside varieties planted in Umbria, Merlot and Barbera have been prominent for more than a century. More recently, Cabernet Sauvignon has shown promise, both as a varietal wine and in blends. Even Pinot Nero has given indications of more than the usual class here.

Umbria has numerous curiosities among its vines and wines, though few of the local rarities ever leave the region. Vin Santo, pressed from semidried Grechetto or Malvasia grapes, is usually sweet and most prized by Umbrians as a wine for any occasion.

ABBREVIATIONS

R = Red
W = White
P = Pink
Dr = Dry
Sw = Sweet or semisweet
Sp = Sparkling
Fz = Fizzy or faintly bubbly
Ft = Fortified
Rs = Reserve
Sup = Superior
Ag = Ageing, as required by DOC or DOCG