Sagra di'Pinolo - The Pine Nut Festival

Festival Location: Chiesanuova, Italy

Festival Type(s): Food Festivals, Food and Wine Festivals

Sagra di'Pinolo - The Pine Nut Festival

By: © Sonia Michaels 2009

A couple of years ago, on our last evening in Florence, our friend Monique crammed us into her Fiat and took us for a short drive, just a few minutes away from the city. The place was Chiesanuova, the time was mid-June, and the celebration was the Sagra di'Pinolo -- the Pine Nut festival. Monique explained to us that these local fairs are usually supported by the Church, sometimes with assistance from various political organizations. We weren't quite sure what to expect from the evening, but we were glad of the rare opportunity to be in a place where we were the only tourists, having spent the past few weeks traipsing around tourist attractions in various countries.

We parked in a haphazard gravel lot, cramming the car in next to a stone wall, beyond which we could see olive trees, with the occasional cypress spiking skywards. On the other side of the lot was the community hall and courtyard where the food was being served, as well as a series of booths selling wines, pastries, and other treats. On the playing field beyond, a rough stage was set up for the band that would perform later in the evening. Accompanied by a group of Monique's Florentine friends, including a large Collie/Shepherd mix by the name of Duchess, we headed for the food.

We seated ourselves at long trestle tables covered with paper cloths -- practical rather than exotic, but they added to the laid-back atmosphere. Our servers were elderly women wearing black, who recited the menu rapidly and without fanfare. Monique translated for us, and before long, the food started to appear, starting with two kinds of crostini, baskets of thickly sliced, unsalted Pane Toscano, and a Panzanella salad, containing meaty chunks of fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and roughly cubed bread. We drank fizzy mineral water, and red wine that arrived in a large carafe -- I don't know what it was, but it was good.

Funnily enough, although this festival was supposedly connected with pine nuts, we didn't see any on the menu. We weren't complaining, though -- the fish was moist and fresh, the Rosticciana (pork ribs roasted with rosemary) was meaty and salty (Duchess had the bones under the table) and the vegetable dishes were simple and wonderful -- white beans with tomatoes (fagioli all'uccelletto) and fresh, leafy spinach cooked with diced pancetta. The food was cheap, too -- the meal cost us far less than we had paid for any restaurant meal during our trip.

One of the best things about a meal in Italy, no matter how fancy or rustic the surroundings, is the marvellous amount of time it takes. Dinner can last for hours, and this one did. Wine, food, and good conversation -- about one fifth of which we could actually understand -- kept us busy for a couple of hours, after which we wandered outside (perhaps slightly unsteadily) to see the rest of the festivities. The eating and drinking wasn't over yet, though -- our next stop was the booth containing the enoteca, where we bought small glasses of various local dessert wines, including Vinsanto, the sweet wine made from slightly dried grapes. There were desserts in another booth -- Pinocchiati, a sticky, crunchy confection made with pine nuts (finally!), and a torta of some kind that we were simply too full to try. Duchess hung around, waiting for more crumbs to fall her way.

In the twilight, five or six teenage boys were kicking a soccer ball around, shouting the kind of friendly insults at each other that sound the same in all languages. The band started playing, opening with an enthusiastically performed Italian version of a Madonna song. They moved on to their Phil Collins repertoire soon after, with a couple of Police songs thrown in, all in Italian. At the outdoor tables, a group of men smoked and talked, arguing good-naturedly about sports by the sound of it, while their wives cleaned up in the kitchen. Three teenage girls were promenading near the boys with the ball, occasionally stopping to chat and flirt with the two good-looking young men who staffed the wine bar. Young children played in the adjacent playground, while their mothers sat chatting nearby. We sat on a bench near the rusty playground equipment, listening to the lead singer croon his version of "In the Air Tonight", and we felt relaxed, full, slightly drunk, and incredibly happy. Most of all, we felt welcome -- people smiled and said good evening as they passed, and although it must have been obvious to everyone around us that we were tourists, we felt more at home than we had at any other point during our trip. It was one of those evenings that is surrounded by a hazy golden glow in my memory -- a glow created by the combination of the food, the wine, the Tuscan sunset, and the very good company of eight people and one big and hungry dog.

by Sonia Michaels