; The intense green of the dense forests of oaks, turkey oaks and downy oaks are the altar to the products that most characterize the culinary imprint of our lands: the products of the forest.
Speaking of them, we can only begin our journey into the flavors of our land starting from the most prized, the Truffle .

But it’s easy to say Truffles, in reality we should talk about truffles.
The White Truffle (TuberMagnatum Pico) also known as Trifola is the king of this family.
To be born and develop, the white truffle needs particular soils with equally particular climatic conditions: The soil must be soft and humid for most of the year, it must be rich in calcium and with good air circulation.

In the vast Pietralunghese territory there are numerous so-called “Tartufaie”, that is those particular places where truffles, thanks to the favorable conditions of the soil and the climate, grow in abundance. The most famous areas for Trifola are found in the surroundings of Pietralunga and in the vast ridges that surround Gubbio , but every “quarryman” keeps his best truffle grounds with the utmost secrecy.

The less noble relative of the prized white truffle is the black truffle which is divided into its summer variety called Scorzone and the winter variety called Nero Dolce .

All these varieties, together, have extraordinary importance in the culinary culture of our territory, capable, with their excellent aromas, of making even a simple plate of gnocchi special, perhaps prepared with the renowned Pietralunga potato.

For this reason, a real industry flourishes around the truffle, made up of quarrymen, transformation and processing companies, and trade and trade fairs. The menus of all the many trattorias that offer the greedy visitor first, second and even desserts containing this precious and unique ingredient are full of truffles.

The story of the Pietralunga hazelnut is one that deserves to be told.

The idea of planting hazelnut groves in the pre-Apennine Umbrian hills dates back to the 1970s.
In those years the University of Perugia, in collaboration with the imported Perugian confectionery industries, decided to experiment with the cultivation of some varieties of Italian hazelnut to shorten the Umbrian production chain.

After careful evaluations, it was decided to plant in Pietralunga, in the valley of the Soara stream .
They found them unique characteristics: a perfectly balanced soil, incredibly fertile, very rich in potassium, minerals and organic matter, well drained and with enormous availability of irrigated water due to its proximity to the stream. All positioned between the hillside and the valley floor at 500 meters above sea level

Kernels of the “ Tonda Gentile Romana ” variety were planted using the ” Nocchione ” as a pollinator.

Cultivation was successful but the experimental project was however abandoned a decade later, and the field slowly reabsorbed by the native vegetation.

In the 2000s, an enterprising agricultural entrepreneur from Pietralunghese rediscovered the hazelnut grove and sensed its enormous potential. So it was that with a lot of work and immense passion it was put back into production.
The plants, now fifty years old, have found a simply unique environment in Italy , and give extremely abundant and superb quality harvests.

The fruit is skilfully processed on site, giving life to many products, among which the spreadable, very pure and organic Hazelnut Cream, capable of making anyone enthralled by it stands out.

Dark red in color, it has a rounded shape, and for the most romantic it resembles a heart.

Juicy and acidic, when ripe it seems tinged with blood.
It is the sour cherry, “sour” cherry ( Prunus Cerasus ) which, together with black cherries and morello cherries, differs from the “sweet” sisters ( Prunus Avium ), commonly and commercially more known.

Always widespread in the piedmont territorial areas of Marche and Umbria , it has never enjoyed rational plants and has never represented a substantial income for the peasants who, however, have never stopped harvesting the fruits and working them to give life to precious preserves and delicious drinks.

In Pietralunga you can come across small family productions that survive thanks to the ability of the stubborn inhabitants.
The local sour cherries, harvested at full maturity around the end of June, are delicately crushed and added to the wine produced with grapes from the small family vineyards. After removing the stones from the mass and adding alcohol and sugar syrup, the mixture matures for 45 days before being filtered with a cloth made on a loom and bottled.

Next to the family micro-productions there are also those who have created a real small cellar of sour cherry liqueur by elaborating the original recipe of Giuseppe Polchi , historical pharmacist of Pietralunga. The sour cherries were pitted one by one and filtered with a linen cloth: he had well understood the multiple properties of sour cherries and had thought of creating a balanced and usable production for everyone.

Visciolato today is a fortified wine, with a fragrant and complex flavor, suitable for accompanying the end of a meal but also for tastings of blue cheeses.