This week I was excited to cook food from San Marino, because it’s essentially like a variation of Italian cuisine. This did also make it difficult to choose dishes, though—I was struggling to find any that weren’t just Italian dishes that happen to be popular in San Marino.
San Marino is completely surrounded by Italy, making it an enclave. It is the fifth-smallest country in the world.
San Marino was founded in 301 AD and named after Saint Marinus. He was a stonemason, later ordained as a deacon, who fled from his home in present-day Croatia. When he arrived in the region, he established a church, which was the beginning of San Marino. San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and the oldest constitutional republic.
San Marino is one of the wealthiest countries in the world based on GDP. It has a rare constitutional structure in which two heads of state, from opposing political parties, are chosen every six months by a democratically elected council. These heads of state have equal power.
What Do People Eat in San Marino?
Most of the food found in San Marino is simply Italian food. It is especially similar to that of the neighboring regions, Emilia-Romagna and Marche.
Popular dishes include ingredients such as pasta, beans, cheese, and meat such as ham, beef, chicken, and rabbit. Common flavors include garlic, rosemary, fennel, and onion. A lot of vegetables are also often used. Cheese, wine, and livestock are the primary agricultural products, so they are incorporated into many dishes.
When it comes to sweets, common ingredients include eggs, milk, chocolate, hazelnut, and caramel; there are also a lot of fruit-based dishes, some involving wine as well.
What I Made
- Nidi di Rondine (Pasta with Ham, Cheese, and Béchamel Sauce)
- Piadina with Burrata and Arugula (Filled Flatbread)
- Lasagne di Verdure (Vegetable Lasagna)
Scroll down to read about other popular Sammarinese dishes I didn’t make!
Nidi di Rondine (Pasta with Ham, Cheese, and Béchamel Sauce)
Nidi di rondine, or swallow’s nests, is a dish consisting of pasta sheets wrapped around ham and cheese. To be truly authentic, the pasta should be handmade, but I used lasagna sheets.
I began by making the béchamel sauce. I melted some butter, then stirred in an equal amount of flour, and slowly stirred in milk until I had a smooth sauce. I seasoned mine with salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg.
I cooked the lasagna sheets, then put them in an ice bath to stop them from cooking further and to make them easy to handle. I spread some of my sauce on each one, then added Parmesan, ham, and Fontina. I rolled up the sheets to make spirals.
I spread more béchamel over the bottom of a baking dish, and added my ‘swallow’s nests’ on top. I sprinkled them with more Parmesan, then baked them for about 25 minutes.
The cheese kind of all melted and went to the bottom of the pasta spirals but this still tasted really good. After all, it’s hard to go wrong with pasta, cheese, and ham!
The recipe I used is from Serious Eats.
Piadina with Burrata and Arugula (Filled Flatbread)
A piadina is a flatbread with a filling, which has many variations. I was told that spinach and straciatella cheese is a common filling in San Marino, and I decided to try an arugula and burrata version that I found. Not quite the same, but very similar.
For the dough, I whisked together flour, salt, and baking soda. Then I rubbed in shortening with my fingers (lard would be more authentic here). I stirred in milk, then kneaded my dough until smooth. I formed it into a ball and let it rest for about 20 minutes.
Next, I divided my dough into balls—one for each piadina. I rolled them into circles, pricked them all over with a fork, and cooked them in a lightly greased skillet. These cooked quickly over medium-high heat.
I tossed the arugula with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Then I tore up some burrata and combined it with the arugula for my filling.
I have to say, although this was really quite simple, it was delicious. The bread itself was easy to make, so I think I would make this again and maybe try out some other fillings.
This recipe is also from Serious Eats.
Lasagne di Verdure (Vegetable Lasagna)
Someone on Reddit suggested I make a vegetable lasagna, and that sounded good to me, so I went with it. There are all kinds of possible filling combinations, but I went with onion, potato, bell pepper, zucchini, and tomato, as well as plenty of cheese. The recipe I chose also included eggplant, but since I was halving it and didn’t want to have to find a use for the unused half of the eggplant, I added extra zucchini and potato instead. I am also not the biggest eggplant fan, though I think it would have been fine in something like this.
I started by sautéing the onion for the filling. Then, I added garlic, zucchini, and bell pepper. I stirred in the potato and tomato, along with salt, pepper, parsley, and basil, and let the mixture simmer until the vegetables were cooked through.
Meanwhile, I made a flavorful tomato sauce by sautéing a little garlic, then adding tomato sauce and simmering for a while. I stirred in basil and parsley and seasoned with salt and pepper.
To assemble the lasagna, I first put lasagna sheets in the pan. I topped them with some of the vegetable mixture, then with fontina cheese. Next, I added more pasta, more filling, and provolone. I followed this with another layer of pasta, more filling, and mozzarella. Finally, I added one more layer of pasta and spread my tomato sauce over the top.
I covered the lasagna with foil and baked it for around 40 minutes.
This doesn’t look that impressive, but it tasted really good! Better than I expected really; I did not miss the meat at all, though maybe all the cheese made up for it.
The recipe I used here is from Ciao Italia.
Other Popular Sammarinese Dishes
- Torta Tre Montin – San Marino’s national dish, a cake built from thin wafers stuck together with chocolate or hazelnut cream. Once assembled, it’s usually covered in chocolate ganache.
Final Thoughts
I loved everything I made this week! It was hard to choose a favorite food from San Marino, but I think I’ll go with the nidi di rondine.
Next time, I will be cooking food from São Tomé and Príncipe.