Recipe for 15 people:
500 gr Flour
3 Eggs plus 3 egg yolks
100 gr Sugar
40 gr Butter
Pinch of Powdered yeast
Pinch of Salt
1 Small Glass of Rum or Sambuca
300 gr Honey
Candied Fruit
Grated Rind of 1/2 Lemon
Peanut Oil for frying

On a pastry board make a well in the flour and mix in the eggs, butter, sugar, yeast lemon rind, salt and the liquor. Knead until the mixture is homogenous, then shape into a ball and let stand for half an hour.

Lightly flour the pastry board and roll dough into into long round strips that are no wider than your pinky.  Cut the strips into tiny pieces the size of chick peas and place on a clean kitchen towel sprinkled with flour.  Before frying take the excess flour off the dough by shaking them in a sieve.  Fry until slightly golden and drain on paper towels.

Pour the honey into a large double boiler and heat until it is liquified.  Add the fried dough and mix gently, making sure that the honey pentrates evenly over all the balls.  Add the candied fruit and stir again.

Pour onto a plate.  (The traditional composition is made by placing an empty jar in the middle of the plate and pouring the honeyed mixture around it in order to form a ring.  When the mixture has cooled, carefully take away the jar)

The area around present-day Vairano has been inhabited since prehistoric times: first by the Oscans, the Etruscans and then the Samnites.  In 290 B.C. the territory was conquered by the Romans.

After the fall of the Empire the region was overrun by a series of barbarian tribes. The Longobards lived here in the 6th century and were themselves conquered by the Normans in the 11th.  These in turn built a fortress designed to defend them from Saracens invaders. In 1191 the fortress was given as a gift to the Abbot of Montecassino by Henry VI of Hohenstaufen.

In 1590 Vairano was purchased by Baron Mormile who turned the military fortress into a residential castle where generations of his family lived for over two hundred years until the year 1806.
In nearby Teano the treaty of the Unification of Italy between Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II was ratified in 1860.

Housed in what was originally the manor built into the battlements of the ancient fortress, the restaurant overlooks the medieval town of Vairano Patenora and its fertile green fields.

Restaurant owner and chef Antonio Ruggiero is a well-known expert on wines and oils and offers creative renderings of traditional dishes.

Program
10:30am - Arrival at Vairano Patenora
Sample Menu (recipes will vary depending on the vegetables that are in season)
Ravioli made with borage and stuffed with meat, mozzarella and tomato concassé
Black Casertan Pig with pappacelle (pickled peppers)
Baked Sheep Ricotta
Diced oranges with citrus-flavoured bavarian cream and extra-virgin olive-oil sauce

After lunch you will visit the Franciscan Monastery at Roccamonfina.

Price: 120,00 euro per person (4 people or more)
200,00 euro per person (2-3 people)

price includes: cooking course, ‘Oil Apèritif’, meal, wine, personal guide and interpreter

It is possible to visit a mozzarella cheese producer early in the morning.

(based on this original article)

Wikipedia defines transhumance as the “seasonal movement of people with their livestock, typically to higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter”. Until fairly recently, cattle-driving along the Apennine mountain paths or tratturi was a tradition that had been going on long before Romulus or Remus met up with mamma wolf.

There were four main highways: the Aquila-Foggia, the Castel di Sangto – Lucera, the Centurelle – Montesecco and the Pescaseroli - Candela, or Regio Tratturo.  From the hilltowns of the Sannio, the mountain path of preference was the Regio Tratturo, or royal track, which wound its way down to the huge plateau known as the Tavoliere della Puglia.

Since time immemorial and until as late as the 1970’s, it was uncommon to house animals in barns during the winter, because it meant large investments in buildings and fodder.  Instead, in late autumn, between the third week of October and S. Martino (November 11th) millions of cows, sheep and horses, together with their pastori, or shepherds, swept south along the ancient mountain paths.  The trek began at the full moon and took 12 days.  Horses and cows had better eyesight and could continue through the night, but the sheep, though better protected from the cold, did not have good night sight and were held in temporary pens that were set up each evening.

The cattle path was wide 60 neapolitan paces (sessanta passi napolitani) and there were rigid laws governing passage.  Overtaking was forbidden; one herd could not pass another, possibly to avoid the mingling of herds, but more probably to avoid a rush for the best land, which would have further tired the animals, many of which were already pregnant.

Cattle-driving was a tough life so is no longer in vogue and most of the tratturi themselves are slowly disappearing under man-made mountains of concrete.

“E vanno per tratturo antico al piano;
quasi per un erbal fiume silente,
sulle vestige degli antichi padri.”
D’Annunzio, I pastori

Click here for the original article by Miti Vigliero

How the Ruzzola, or Tumbling, Came to be the Official Form of Entertainment at Carnival in Pontelandolfo.

Once upon a time in the Middle Ages, the wealthy Baron of Pontelandolfo had a  passion for gambling and would find any pretext for a good game as long as it was loaded with substantial stakes.

On the last Sunday of Carnival he was having a late-night card game with his farmhand Pasquale: it was a tense competition with victory often changing sides. In the end, dawn saw Pasquale the winner of two farms and pasture hills.

Taking no notice of the change of ownership, the Baron’s cows continued grazing happily on what was now Pasquale’s land.  Pasquale complained to the Baron about the trespassing, “I think, since I’m feeding your cows, I should be entitled to a share of the cheese from their milk!”

“You wish!” the Baron retorted, “They are grazing on grass that was grown before you won the land, therefore it’s still my grass.”

Now the townfolk of Pontelandolfo could look forward to a good, hot blooded battle between the two factions.  To add insult to injury the lord had a big wheel of cheese hung on Pasquale’s window. The farmer, furious but clever, and not wanting to stir up turmoil, challenged his opponent by saying, “What began as a game should be resolved with one: I shall wait for you tomorrow in the square!”

The following morning, surrounded by a shouting crowd, the two men started what was to be a decisive cheese-tumbling tournament.  According to the legend the game never ended and it is said that their ghosts appear in the nights of Carnival, still playing!

The Origins of the Game

There are clues to possibly very ancient origins of the Ruzzola: an Etruscan fresco in Tarquinia’s Tomb of the Olympiad, shows an athlete in the act of swinging a “disc” that looks much like a cheese.
Even Galileo took an interest in the game: in his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems there is a quotation from Aristotle about the rotating motion and speed of ruzzole.

The Game as it is Played Today

Since 1861 the players gather and start the course of some 700 metres beginning at the main square, to Palazzo San Rocco and back, throwing their wheels of cheese.
These can weigh from 6 to 35 kilos and are swung using a rope called a zagaglia, which wrapped  around the perimeter of the cheese and the player’s wrist.  The team that uses the least throws, or cùlp wins.

Although today the game is properly organized in a Federation, its peasant origins make it popular in many regions of Italy; often the cheese is replaced by a wooden disc, which is cheaper and lighter.

©Mitì Vigliero