Food of Lucca and the Serchio Valley: A Guide from Dumfries

The traditional food of Lucca and the Serchio valley, the corner of Tuscany that Barga's emigrant families came from, is built on chestnut flour, farro (emmer wheat), olive oil and pork, with sweet breads and tarts from the city of Lucca. Three of its foods are protected by name in the EU: the Garfagnana's chestnut flour and farro, and Lucca's extra virgin olive oil. This guide comes from Ivano's Italiano, the Italian takeaway at 11 Whitesands in Dumfries, and every fact in it is sourced at the end.

Overhead view of pizzas, pasta, olives and fresh vegetables and herbs — Food from our own kitchen in Dumfries. The Lucca dishes in this article aren't on our menu.

In this article10 sections

At a glance

Where
The valley of the River Serchio, from the Garfagnana down to Lucca, in Tuscany
Chestnuts
Farina di Neccio della Garfagnana, protected (DOP) since 2004
Farro
Farro della Garfagnana, protected (IGP) since 1996
Olive oil
Olio extravergine di oliva Lucca, protected (DOP) since 2000
Lucca's own sweet
Buccellato, a sweet bread with raisins and aniseed

The valley

The Serchio rises in the upper Garfagnana near Monte Sillano and runs for 111 km to the sea north of Pisa. Its valley lies between the Apuan Alps and the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. The upper part is the Garfagnana; below it is the Media Valle del Serchio, the middle valley, where Barga is, along with Bagni di Lucca, Borgo a Mozzano and Coreglia Antelminelli; and further down the river comes Lucca itself.

Tuscany's own landscape plan names chestnut woods among the middle valley's main woodland, and notes that scarce local resources forced its people into temporary emigration, most of them as makers of plaster religious figures. Our article on Barga tells how so many families from there came to Scotland.

Chestnuts, the "bread trees"

For centuries, Visit Tuscany says, chestnuts were the main source of energy for the people of the Garfagnana, and chestnut trees came to be called alberi del pane, bread trees. Their sweet flour, farina di neccio, is protected as Farina di Neccio della Garfagnana DOP: the chestnuts must be dried slowly over a fire of chestnut wood only, and the area it can come from includes Barga. Its EU specification calls it one of the staple foods of the Garfagnana's country people for many centuries.

Necci: thin chestnut-flour flatbreads, cooked between long-handled iron plates called testi and often rolled round fresh ricotta. They're typical of the Garfagnana and the Media Valle del Serchio.
Castagnaccio: a flat chestnut-flour cake with walnuts and rosemary.

Farro and potato bread

Farro della Garfagnana is emmer wheat, protected as an IGP since 1996. Its EU registration says it's traditionally cooked whole in soups, broths with pulses and savoury tarts, and that in Tuscany the Garfagnana is the only area where farro has always been grown. The best-known dish is minestra di farro, a soup of farro with potatoes and beans, sometimes with a few chard leaves.

The Garfagnana also bakes pane di patate, a wheat bread with about 15 per cent boiled, mashed potato, baked in a wood-fired oven. It has been a Slow Food Presidium since 2002, and Slow Food says the tradition is still alive in the Garfagnana and part of the Serchio valley.

Pork from the hills

Two of the valley's cured meats are Slow Food Presidia:

Biroldo: a blood sausage made from the lean of the pig's head, spiced mainly with wild fennel, and traditionally made from October to April.
Prosciutto bazzone: a long ham, aged for at least 24 months, from pigs whose feed includes farro meal and chestnuts. The name comes from bazzo, a local word for a jutting chin.

Lucca's own dishes

Down in the city, Lucca's tourism office and Visit Tuscany describe these as local classics:

Dish	What it is
Tordelli lucchesi	Lucca's name for tortelli: pasta filled with meat and served with a meat sauce, a Sunday classic
Garmugia	A spring soup of the city of Lucca: asparagus, fresh peas, artichokes, broad beans and spring onions, with pancetta and minced beef
Zuppa alla frantoiana	A soup of the Lucca hills, dressed with local olive oil and mountain herbs

Lucca's olive oil is protected too. Olio extravergine di oliva Lucca DOP comes from the villages of the Lucca area, Versilia and the Garfagnana, from olives including Frantoio and Leccino, and Visit Tuscany describes its taste as mainly sweet, with light peppery and bitter notes.

Sweet things

Buccellato: Lucca's traditional sweet, a sweet bread rich in raisins and aniseed. The name comes from the Latin buccella, a mouthful, and the city's saying goes: "Chi viene a Lucca e non mangia il buccellato è come non ci fosse mai stato", which means whoever comes to Lucca and doesn't eat buccellato might as well never have been.
Torta co' becchi: a shortcrust tart with a sweet filling of greens, soaked bread, eggs, sugar, cheese and pine nuts. Becchi means beaks, after the little curls of pastry round the edge. Lucca's tourism office calls the torta d'erbi the traditional cake of Saint Zita, a saint dear to the people of Lucca.

And in Scotland?

We haven't found a reliable record of these dishes travelling to Scotland with the families who left, so we won't claim one. The food link that's best recorded runs the other way: Barga holds a fish and chip festival every summer, which our Barga article describes. For the bigger story of Italian families in this part of Scotland, read about the Italian community in Dumfries and south-west Scotland.

And at Ivano's?

None of the dishes in this article is on our takeaway menu. What we make at 11 Whitesands is Romana-style thin-crust pizza, pasta, chicken and risotto dishes, and a chip shop menu: see our menu, or the Italian words on our menu explained. Once we reopen, you can order at ivanos.uk, Thursday to Sunday, 4pm to 10pm.

Questions people ask

What food is Lucca known for?

Its traditional sweet is buccellato, a sweet bread with raisins and aniseed. Other local classics include tordelli lucchesi (meat-filled pasta with a meat sauce), garmugia (a spring vegetable soup), torta co' becchi (a sweet tart of greens and pine nuts) and Olio extravergine di oliva Lucca DOP, the area's protected olive oil.

What is farro della Garfagnana?

Emmer wheat grown in the Garfagnana, the upper Serchio valley, and protected as an IGP since 1996. It's traditionally cooked whole in soups, such as minestra di farro, and in savoury tarts.

What are necci?

Thin flatbreads made with chestnut flour, cooked between hot iron plates called testi and often rolled round fresh ricotta. They're typical of the Garfagnana and the Media Valle del Serchio, where Barga is.

Does Ivano's in Dumfries sell food from Lucca?

Not these dishes. Our menu is Romana-style thin-crust pizza, pasta, chicken and risotto dishes, and a chip shop menu, from our takeaway at 11 Whitesands.