Revò the Town

Pan, vin e zòca e lassa pur che ‘l fiòca.

Bread, wine and firewood - and let it snow outside.

Revò is pronounced “rev-VOH”.  It is Sofia’s families ancestral village in the Italian Alps.  Just about 2 hours from the Austrian border.  Revò once belonged to the Austrian Empire, the Crown Land of Tyrol.  But it became a part of Italy in 1918.  Many people from this area call themselves Tirolean.  The region Revò is in is called Trentino-Alto Adige, or Trentino-South Tirol.  It borders Swizterland and Austria.  Revò Italy lies at about the same elevation as Leavenworth Washington and at about the same latitude as Mt. St. Helens.  One of their main crops is also the Golden Delicious apple. 

 

Polenta has been a food staple in Revò since the 15th century.  It would be made at night for dinner, then the following day served for breakfast and the leftovers wrapped in cloth to be taken to the fields for lunch.  Polenta in Italy was known as the peasant food, or the poor man’s food.  It is hard to believe for the people from Revò that it has become a gourmet dish.  Nonna Domenica would never have believed it!  Traditionally polenta is cooked over fire in a copper pot.  In Revò polenta is served firm, or Dura.  It is not ready until the glava can stand straight up in the polenta on its own.  In the photo you can see Nonna Irene in Revò cutting the polenta with a string.

Revò is famous for their Groppello red wine.  It is usually drank while still fresh and not often aged.  It’s so important to Revò that Groppello leaves appear on the town seal.  Recently the area Revò is in was officially named the Groppello Region. Unfortunately Groppello is not easy to come by in the United States, but Café Revò is working on it! Mueller-Thurgau is the traditional white wine made in Revò.  Most households make their own wines from their own grapes. 

Many of the people that live in Revò today grow their own apples and grapes.  The apples are sold through a co-op called Melinda.  Melinda apples are exported all over the world, even as close as Canada.  After a hard day working in the field, it is traditional in Revò to have a pick-me-up in the late afternoon called espresso con grappa.  It is a shot of espresso with a shot of grappa poured in.  You can look forward to enjoying this at Café Revò!  Most households have their own homemade grappa, that is made after they have made their homemade wines.  Mamma Anna in Revò is 97 years old and looks not a day over 70.  She still is out in the fields pruning each year.  She has a shot of grappa a day and tells us ‘auito’, it helps.  In the photo is Chef Chano helping Zio Luciano bottle his homemade grappa in Revò.

The food in Revò is different than the Italian food to its South.  Around the time Revò became a part of Italy, tomatoes were a rare commodity.  When real tomatoes were first introduced, many people would not eat them because they thought they were poisonous.  As the Italian influence became more strong, they would use canned tomato paste, but that was the only tomato really used in the early 20th century.  Later pasta was introduced to this very Northern region, but they would rarely serve it with marinara, usually with tonco, or meat sauce.  Now it is more common than before, but still the tomato is not used as much as it is in the more Southern parts of Italy.  The photo is of a community dinner held in Revò when Chef Chano and Sofia were there in February.  As you can see they did serve penne pasta with a red tomato sauce, along with a spinach crepe and mushroom risotto.  Of course it was served with locally made Groppello from the Zadra Vineyard and Fanta!