Can you get a meal ready to eat at an Italian open air market? Sure, and in less than a minute, we'll teach you what you need to know to shop by pointing and answering a few questions in Italian.
The market depicted in the video is in Brugnato, an interesting tourist destination in Liguria.
Brugnato is known for the Infiorata del Corpus Domini, a festival in which the residents carpet the narrow streets of the historic center with flowers to be trampled by the faithful during the celebration of Corpus Domini, held 9 weeks after Easter. See our Infiorata Video for more.
But in this video, in under a minute, we'll let you in on a little secret: It's easy to buy some fantastic ready-to-eat foods at an Italian open-air market, even if you don't know Italian. You'll be introduced to the savory Italian torta, very popular in northern Tuscany and in Liguria. It's a flaky pastry stuffed with greens. In this video the woman buying the torta has her choice of verdura (usually field greens) or carcofi (artichoke). There are also potatoes in these torte.
For a torta recipe typical of Lucca, see Torta Cò Becchi alle Erbe from chef Aurelio Barattini. To see how we do it in the Lunigiana, see Torta d'Erbe.
