Miacce - Typical Dish of Only One Valley of the Alps - Valsesia
You will not find it everywhere you go and it’s very likely you have to call the restaurant you want to go to for lunch and ask if they have them: the Miacce, a maybe less known local dish of Valsesia
Yesterday, I visited one of the most spectacular valleys of the Italian Alps in Piedmont - Valsesia. Probably, you could hear about its very interesting population - speaking XII centuries German Walser. Or you could visit mines of useful minerals. I did so for years and had my lunch in the local restaurants (it’s far enough from my home) but did not know that they have such a delicacy till my friends told me about it a year ago when I guided them to show my favourite places in this valley.
It’s a very simple but healthy and tasty food so I tried to make it when I turned home. That is why I can testify it’s incredibly easy to cook miacce in the home kitchen everywhere.
Unlike many other dishes and drinks which are hard to get at home with the same taste as it was in Italy such as pasta, for example, the ancient recipe of miacce are very essential: you need only a mix of cornmeal and buckwheat worked with milk (or water) and a piece of lard to grease the pan. Sure, they will tell you that you need eggs, cream, white flour or maybe other ingredients but if you want to taste the very very original dish, you need only these three.
They say miacce are mentioned very first time in a text of 1488 and there was no cornmeal or buckwheat in that period. Yes, it’s true. It seems that the first ingredient was millet flour and this is why these crepes have their name. Cornmeal and buckwheat arrive 2 centuries later. But the wheat arrives only in the XIX century here…
The local ladies told me that the essential recipe is also the tastiest one ( You already know that I love talking to the locals on my walks - no one of the most renowned guides can tell you as many amazing stories as locals) and I can confirm that it is really true: the miacce with more elaborate recipes are not as tasty as the original ones.
So, turn back to our origins miacce. What you will do with the dough you prepared? First, make crepes in a very hot pan. Put a slice of ham on one-half of the crepes and a slice of cheese, place the other half of the crepes on top of the first part and fry miacce on both sides just to heat the cheese.
Miacce that you see in my photos were taken in Rassa (that very “original” ;-) ) and from Varallo where I found a sign that showed me where to go to taste my favourite dish. In this case, the miaccia is made of wheat. Rassa is a really spectacular village that you have to go to when you come to Valsesia. I’ll tell you about it in my next post.