While traveling in Friuli, I kept seeing the book Un Amore Chiamato Friuli on display in restaurants throughout the region, but despite searching in every town I visited, I was not able to find it for sale in any bookstores. Upon my return to San Francisco that year, I wrote to the publisher, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato e Agricoltura di Udine (Udine’s Chamber of Commerce division of industry, crafts, and agriculture), inquiring as to where I could purchase it (along with their newly published book Il mondo di Bepi Salon). Months later, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a package containing complimentary copies of both books.
Written by Luigi Cremona, Un Amore Chiamato Friuli is a beautiful coffee-table book packed with information about Friuli’s culture, history, and cuisine. Divided into four main chapters—”Da Udine per i Colli e le Valle,” “Verso il Mare,” “Ville e Magredi,” and “La Carnia e i Canali”—readers are taken on a journey through Udine province’s hills and valleys, coastal towns, central plains, and northern mountains. Each section features a handful of notable restaurants, along with recipes for several of their signature dishes.
As with my other Friulian coffee-table book, Friuli: Via dei Sapori, it was satisfying to recognize a few of the restaurants I’d been to: Albergo Ristorante Salon (Arta Terme), Ristorante Kursaal (Sauris), Ristorante Alla Pace (Sauris), and Ristorante Alle Vecchie Carceri (San Daniele). A number of their recipes were quite helpful in my process of recipe testing, particularly those for frico (fried cheese), salame all’aceto (salami cooked in vinegar), boreto alla graisana (fish steaks cooked in vinegar), gnocchi alle erbe (herb gnocchi), and toç in braide (polenta with ricotta sauce).
Though the book is written in Italian, the main bodies of text are translated into both English and German. There is even an appendix with translations of all the recipes.
