Canederli di Speck, photo from
“Italian Food, Wine, and Travel”
I just came across a delectable post on the blog: Italian Food, Wine, and Travel. Written by Chefbikeski, the Culinary Director and Owner of Italiaoutdoors Food and Wine, the yummy post is entitled: Canederli di Speck – Traditional Dumpling from Sudtirol.
If you travel through the provinces of Trentino-Alto Adige in northern Italy, you’ll find various versions of these heavenly bread balls on most menus. Stop at a mountain hut while hiking (also known as a Malga or an Alm) and canederli will be the main attraction, handmade with love in the back kitchen!
Canederli can be sweet or savory, made steamed or poached, with meat or no meat, eaten alone or in a bowl of broth. They are sumptuous dumplings created by combining leftover stale white bread with milk, butter, flour, eggs, seasonings and whatever else you want to throw into the mixture. Upon one of my visits to a traditional malga, I had a tri-color combo of canederli – white (made with cheese), red (made with beets) and green (made with spinach). The dish was delicious and VERY filling!
For a taste of our ancestors, stop by the Italian Food, Wine, and Travel blog and clip their recipe for Canederli di Speck. For those of you who have never tried “speck”, it is a smoked prociutto-style ham that is made in Trentino-Alto Adige. My mouth is watering just thinking about the salty, smokey slices of speck that always accompanied every breakfast when we visited the city of Bolzano in Alto Adige. Click here to read the full blog post by Chefbikeski.
Want to try your hand at other Tyrolean dishes? I found two cookbooks on Amazon that you might like:
Traditional Cooking – Tyrol (Amazon link)
Cook Book from Tyrol (Amazon link)
Our thanks to Italian Food, Wine, and Travel. Stop by and read more of their wonderful travel posts, illustrated with beautiful photographs of Italy.
The Genetti Family Genealogy Project 
Nana Leona Hayden and my mom Rosemary would make these Speck-ladened dumplings during our trips to Hazelton. They were amazing. Great memories. Thanks for recipe and I’ll be giving them a try. KH
I know this quite well My Mother made this dish often. We knew it by another name I can say it but can’t spell it I will try to send you our recipe
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Great Jean! I’d love to include your mother’s recipe on our blog!
My brother, Ray Branz,(3rd generation from sanzeno) is having me make these for our Branz Christmas celebration tomorrow!!!
Wish me luck!!! Cant decide between the broth or browned butter:-)
How did your canederli turn out Louise? Glad you are keeping traditions alive!