Florence’s Street & Finger Food Festival at the Cascine

Friday, April 6 – Sunday, April 8:  FINGER FOOD FESTIVAL. Ippodromo del Visarno (Cascine Park). Open Friday from 6 pm – midnight, Saturday from noon – midnight, Sunday from noon – 11 pm. Free admission.

Bring an appetite to the Visarno racetrack at the Cascine: street trucks will offer craft beers and regional specialties from Emilia Romagna to Sicily with some vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options for all to taste while enjoying music and the greenery of the park.

The weekend will showcase a variety of street food including arrosticini, a lamb kabab from Abruzzo, to buffalo milk mozzarella (mozzarella di bufala) and burrata cheeses, from Campania and Puglia.

Have a taste of Calabria by having a panino with a unique nduja spread, made of spicy salami, and spicy grilled sausages, or have enjoy the flavors of Emilia Romagna with fried dumplings, fried fish, tigelle (a special type of bread which is fried on a skillet), meatballs, and tortelli (stuffed pasta).

Another first course is the orecchiette di grano arso, a traditional dish from Puglia that uses toasted wheat as its main ingredient.

For meatier options, there will be lightly fried seafood, bombette, which are small pork rolls filled with cheese and herbs from Puglia’s Valle d’Itria, and also hamburgers made from Chianina, a rare, lean, and high-quality beef from the Tuscan region.

Grain-based breads include Ligurian farinata made of chickpea flour, Genovese focaccia, and sciatt della Valtellina, a buckwheat cheese fritters from the Lombardy region.  A gluten-free alternative is supplì, a fried rice ball Roman speciality served with tomato sauce.

From Sicily, come traditional arancini, fried rice balls with a center of ragù and cheese, and authentic cannoli for dessert.

Looking for vegetables? The festival offers carciofi alla Giudia, a famous Roman-Jewish deep fried artichoke dish, or a variety of Ascolan olives and fried zucchini from Le Marche.

For something sweeter, there will be pettole. These fried dough balls from Puglia are served with honey or powdered sugar. Another dessert to taste is pasticciotti, a small puff pastry from Puglia filled with ricotta cheese or egg custard.

Don’t forget to sip on an artisan beer from the Lorenzetto Brewery in Veneto and Bruton Brewery in Tuscany while you savor the flavors of the meal.

The food fair will also bring a few dishes from outside of Italy, including Spanish paella (a friend rice dish full of spices and veggies and potentially meat and seafood), churros, Mexican tacos, Argentinian fillets, American smoked barbecue, Angus burgers, and Greek Souvlaki (meat and vegetable skewers) and Tzatziki, a Greek yogurt sauce.  (anna rosin)