Traditional Trentino dishes: what to eat and drink in Trento

Golden Suites Italy editorial team · Updated on 22 October 2026 · 4 min read

Trentino cooking is mountain cooking: bread, cornmeal, potatoes, alpine dairy cheeses, meat and apples, with Tyrolean and Venetian influences. In Trento you find it in the trattorias of the centre, and it is best enjoyed with the local wines, from the sparkling Trentodoc to the reds of the Piana Rotaliana. Here are the dishes not to miss.

First courses

Canederli (bread dumplings)

These are large dumplings made of stale bread, milk and eggs, enriched with speck, cheese, spinach or mushrooms. They are served in broth or dry, with melted butter and grated cheese. They are the emblematic dish of the mountains of Trentino and South Tyrol.

Strangolapreti (spinach gnocchi)

Green gnocchi made of bread and spinach (or chard), dressed with melted butter, sage and grated cheese. The curious name, which means “priest stranglers”, has given rise to more than one legend, often tied to the days of the Council of Trent.

Main courses

Carne salada (cured beef)

Beef topside left to cure under salt, with herbs and spices, for several days. It is eaten raw, sliced thin like carpaccio, or lightly seared, often with beans: it is a speciality of southern Trentino and the Trentino shore of Lake Garda.

Polenta

Made from maize, but also from buckwheat, it accompanies mushrooms, melted cheeses, stews and sausages. The maize flour from Storo, in the Giudicarie, is one of the best known.

Tortel di patate (potato fritter)

A fritter of grated raw potato, pan-fried until crisp, served with cured meats, cheeses and beans. It is typical of the valleys of western Trentino.

Cheeses and cured meats

Trentingrana, made with milk from the Trentino valleys; Puzzone di Moena, with its intense aroma, and Spressa delle Giudicarie, both with protected designation of origin; and the summer cheeses from the alpine dairy huts. Among the cured meats, speck and luganega, the Trentino sausage.

Desserts

Apple strudel, made with apples from the Trentino valleys, raisins, pine nuts and cinnamon, is the dessert for all seasons. At Christmas comes zelten, a sweet bread with dried and candied fruit. In autumn you will find desserts made with chestnuts.

Wine and spirits

• Trentodoc: Trentino's traditional-method sparkling wine, with second fermentation in the bottle and at least 15 months of ageing. The Istituto Trento DOC was founded in 1984. It is the wine of the aperitivo in Piazza Duomo.
• Teroldego Rotaliano: the red of the Piana Rotaliana, north of Trento, fragrant and intense.
• Marzemino: the red of the Vallagarina, south of the city, also mentioned in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
• Nosiola: a native white; its dried grapes produce the Vino Santo Trentino of the Valle dei Laghi.
• Müller Thurgau: the white of high-altitude vineyards, such as those of the Val di Cembra.
• Trentino grappa, to finish the meal.

Where to try them

In our guide to where to eat in Trento you will find the restaurants we recommend: at Pizzeria Alla Grotta, for example, there are strangolapreti and carne salada, and at Ai Vicoli 25 wines by the glass. Guests staying in Golden Suites homes get a discount reserved for them. To get to know Trentodoc where it is made, many wineries offer visits and tastings by reservation, and at the end of September there is the Trentodoc Festival.