Carnia, · Friuli-Venezia · Giulia Techniques

Friuli's distinctive irregular pasta: roughly torn or cut flat pasta pieces from a buckwheat-wheat flour dough — the name comes from 'blec' (rag or irregular piece), and the rough, uneven shape is the point rather than a defect. Made from 60% buckwheat and 40% wheat flour with eggs, rolled thick (3mm) and cut into irregular rhomboid or torn shapes of varying sizes. Dressed with a sauce of slow-cooked onions, butter, smoked ricotta (ricotta affumicata), or game ragù from the Carso plateau.

Carnia's most complex filled pasta: half-moon pasta filled with a sweet-savoury mixture that varies by village but typically includes potato, spinach, sultanas, candied lemon peel, cinnamon, nutmeg, sometimes cocoa or apple — a medieval-rooted sweet-spice-savoury combination that survives in the Carnic Alps. Dressed simply with melted butter (browned to beurre noisette), fresh ricotta affumicata (smoked ricotta from Friuli) grated over, and cinnamon. The sweet filling with savoury-smoked cheese and butter creates a flavour register unique to Friuli.