Wild boar tagliatelle festival

Monticiano (si). Traditional Sagras

Original name: Valzer delle Tagliatelle al Cinghiale)

Place: Iesa (hamlet), in municipality Monticiano, in Siena Province.

First year of the festival: 1979

Period: first half of June

2023 scheduled on: Friday 9, Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 June

Opening times: Friday (only dinner), Saturday, Sunday (lunch and dinner)

Local Specialties:

  • Appetizers: bruschetta, bread with olive oil salt and garlic or tomato;
  • First courses: tagliatelle al cinghiale, wild boar tagliatelle; zuppa di fagioli, beans soup; polenta;
  • Second courses: carne alla griglia, salsicce e bistecche, grilled meat, sausages and T-bone; cinghiale in umido, wild boar stew; fegatelli, pork liver;
  • Side dish: fagioli all'uccelletto, beans with tomato sauce;
  • Dessert: torte, local cake.

In this festival, it's possible to taste many cornerstones of the traditional Tuscan cuisine. The special dish is, as obvious, the tagliatelle al cinghiale, wild boar sauce tagliatelle. It's a kind of pasta from Emilia region, so not of Tuscan origin, but as Tuscans had mostly soups in their own cuisine, they just "borrowed" the tagliatelle from their neighbors Emilians for many first course pasta dishes, especially with game sauce. That's why tagliatelle were widely used in Tuscany since ever and a very important part in the traditional Tuscan cuisine.

Anyway, the other dishes in the menu are very important too: like the bruschetta, an appetizer made with a simple Tuscan bread with olive oil or the zuppa di fagioli, beans soup, here one of the best Tuscan soups. Not to mention polenta, a dish which origin goes back at least to the ancient roman time, very common among peasants but today rarely found. You may also want to try even the grilled meat, with the very popular costoleccio, a pork rib, the cinghiale in umido, wild boar stew, the fegatelli, pork liver, a dish which was a staple in the peasants' diet and the fagioli all'uccelletto, another great recipe straight from the tradition.

The strange name of this sagra (waltz) alludes to the ballroom music unfailingly scheduled after dinner.

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