Italian Autumn
From last harvest to first frost
Italian Autumn
Regional Food Guide
Autumn changes Italian cooking more than any other season. As the days grow shorter, cooking turns toward comfort: mushrooms, chestnuts and pumpkin move to the centre of the table, and slow, warming dishes take over from summer’s lighter plates. It’s a season built around what the woods and fields provide as the leaves start to fall.
Featured Recipe
Karst Venison with Juniper
As the weather cools, venison starts appearing on tables across Italy’s hunting regions. This is one of the clearest signs that autumn has arrived. This version from Friuli’s Karst plateau stewed slowly with juniper berries and red wine until it’s rich and tender.
Latest Autumn Recipes
Autumn brings a different kind of cooking into Italian homes. Foraged and wild ingredients, mushrooms, chestnuts and game, start replacing what came from the summer garden. Autumn brings some of the best comfort recipes of the whole year..
Ingredient in Focus
Porcini Mushrooms
Porcini mark the true start of the Italian autumn for many families, appearing in the woods all over Italy from September and drawing foragers out every weekend the season allows. Sliced simply with garlic, folded into risotto, or dried for the months ahead, they’re the ingredient most closely tied to the season itself.