Turle: sheperds’ potato and cheese dumplings

Turle are a typical first course of the so called “Cucina Bianca” literally White Cuisine. It is the traditional cuisine of the villages that rise on Monte Saccarello, in the Ligurian Maritime Alps close to the France border. This culinary tradition was born among the small mountain communities dedicated to sheep farming that inhabited the top of the mountain during the periods of transhumance of the flocks. The name (attributed to this gastronomic tradition only in the 60s) derives from the fact that, due to necessity and seasonality, the foods that characterize it have all a very light color: garlic, leeks, onions, cabbage, turnips and potatoes, beans and then chickens and eggs and, of course, flour, milk and dairy products. The only color note are herbs, aromatic and / or spontaneous, which never fail in the Cucina Bianca.