There really isn’t any reason to seek out Moiano, tiny village north of Perugia and south of Lake Trasimeno: unless you’re here in Umbria at the end of June – and you’re crazy about snails. We are in Umbria, of course, in late June and Pino IS appassioned of lumache so we detoured to the Sagra della Lumaca just north of Perugia on our way back from Lake Bolsena recently. There might not be much in the modern-looking village of Moiano, but people from all over filled the plank tables – set up in the town meeting area – feasting on snail, grilled meats and other Umbrian rural culinary specialties.
Snails star on the menu of this sagra
Sharing the goodness at the Moiano snails feast
As at all the Umbrian sagre (ten-day food festivals), young people run trays of paper plates of foods to the tables, adults volunteer to cook up the goodness in the food tent – and the elderly volunteer to handle clean-up.
Volunteers of all ages unite to cook and serve up the goodness at Umbrian sagras
And every sagra seems to have booths of trinkets or local foods encircling the tables: at this sagra the ubiquitous bijoux booths, but also a beekeeper offering tastes of his honey and a woman ready to measure your feet for a handmade pair of boots, “made in Italy,”
I browsed the booths while Pino put in our food order and then joined him at the table for our feast: I opted for the homemade tagliatelle with a tasty rich meat sauce of snails while Pino chose the lumache alla moianese, plucking the snails out of the shells with a toothpick, then discarding the shells. After all, at this sagra, snails star – and the pleasure is joining with your friends and feasting at a “snails’s pace.”
Pino uses a toothpick to pluck out the juicy snails
Friends feast on snails…at a “snail’s pace“
Tagliatelle alle lumache: my choice
Pino’s choice: lumache alla moianese
Read about another sagra where snails star
Read about another sagra near Perugia
Read about a late-April sagra near Perugia
Click here to read about a fall sagra near Assisi
Read about another festival where la porchetta is a headliner
Click here to read about a January legume festival
Read about an April wild asparagus sagra
Read about a festival where wines star
Click here to read about a June cheeses festival
Click here to read about a pici pasta sagra
Read about an August chili peppers festival
Click here to read about an a local bean sagra in October
Click here for news on an October mushroom sagra
Click here for news on a November hazelnuts sagra
Click here for news on a November honey festival
Click here for news on an October saffron festival
Click here for news on a November chestnuts sagra
Click here for news on a November white truffles festival
Click here for news on a November chestnuts black truffles festival
Click here for the menu
Read about another winner of a sagra near Perugia
Click here to read about another June sagra – but near Assisi
Read about a favorite place to eat snails near Bevagna
Pino looks as if he’s in Heaven!!! Great report Annie – you must visit Cherasco, near Cuneo, during the annual Lumache Symposium. Local Cherasco snails, Asti truffles and a good Barolo … you will never get Pino home again. That is where my Sonya learnt so much about snail farming, growing out and processing, pioneering the industry in Australia. Best wishes from Down Under.
This would be my kind of sagra. I like snails and can’t imagine how good they taste prepared in various sauces. Pino’s picture (of him eating a snail) actually made my mouth water!