Canederli

The Trentino atlas quotes a recipe of 1889: "cut the bread into cubes and allow one loaf per person and two luganighe, salame and lard". Its own recipe soaks 1 kg of stale bread cubes in half a litre of warm milk for a few hours. It then adds crumbled luganeghe sausage, diced speck, parsley and garlic, two eggs, nutmeg and grated Grana Padano-Trentingrana, and dusts the dumplings with flour. Balls the size of an apricot are poached gently in water or broth for no more than 15 minutes.

The cheese version, canederlo al formaggio or gnoches da formài, comes from the Alpine valleys of Fassa, Fiemme, Primiero and Non. It uses diced cheeses, chives and parsley instead of cured meat and is 3-5 cm across. Italy's traditional-products list records canederli for both Trento and Bolzano (as Knoedel).