Pan e sopressa

A slice of bread, a slice of sopressa cut thick. You don't need anything else, and that's exactly the beauty of it: in the Treviso area (the Marca trevigiana), “pan e sopressa” (bread and sopressa) is the snack people have always had, the one that goes on the table when someone drops in.

The wineries' snack

The Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Consortium describes it as something homely: in the wineries of the hills, pan e sopressa goes with Prosecco tastings, and you find it in taverns and restaurants, where some chefs make it their own way. The Consortium also notes that “pan e sopressa” is a figure of speech: it's said of a straightforward person, someone who speaks plainly.

How we make it

• The bread: fresh, with a crust, in slices that aren't too thin. It has to hold the sopressa without bending.
• The sopressa: in thick slices, because it's soft and a thin slice breaks. Take the skin off first: how to slice it, step by step.
• The timing: take it out of the fridge a little beforehand. Straight out of the fridge it's hard and has little aroma; at room temperature it turns soft again.

In winter, instead of bread, there's polenta: hot, or toasted on the grill, with the slice of sopressa on top, just warming through.

Prosecco or Raboso?

With Prosecco it's the pairing of the hills: the bubbles clear the fat from your mouth, and you're happy to go back for the next slice.

Raboso is the shop's suggestion. It's the red wine of the Piave, famous for its strong acidity: with a mild, fatty salume like sopressa it does the same job as the bubbles, with more body. In the days of the Serenissima, the Venetian Republic, it was called “vin da viajo”, the travelling wine, because it stood up to long journeys; its most important version, Malanotte del Piave, takes its name from a hamlet of Tezze di Piave, in the municipality of Vazzola (Consorzio Vini Venezia).

It isn't a tradition written down anywhere: it's what we recommend. Try it with the sopressa or with the sopressa investida, which has its heart of fillet in every slice. And if you'd like the Raboso inside the salume too, there's our salame al vin Raboso.