Lavanèlle e fasùle: the pasta and beans of Faeto and Celle di San Vito

Lavanèlle e fasùle (handmade tagliatelle and beans) is one of the dishes that best tells the peasant cooking of Faeto and Celle di San Vito, the two Franco-Provençal villages of the Alta Valle del Celone. Fresh pasta made by hand, beans slowly cooked with pork rind, few ingredients and a method that belongs to family memory. A hearty recipe, born of the need to use what the land and livestock provided, able to turn simple foods into a dish rich in flavour and history.

Faeto and Celle di San Vito lie in the heart of the southern Monti Dauni, in a territory of woods, pastures and small farm plots. They are two communities sharing a special history: the presence of Franco-Provençal, a Romance language that arrived here in the Middle Ages with settlers from beyond the Alps. A linguistic and cultural closeness that is also reflected in food traditions, the names of dishes and the customs of home cooking.

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The Monti Dauni bean: a product of the farming tradition

The traditional recipes of Faeto and Celle di San Vito were born of a cooking of necessity, which accompanied the life of farmers and shepherds in the Daunian Subapennines for generations. Lavanèlle are a fresh pasta made from a hand-rolled sheet cut with a knife. A simple preparation in which flour, eggs and water, according to the recipe documented in Faeto, become thin strips of pasta destined to meet the beans. A technique that required experience and skill, handed down in home kitchens through gestures repeated for generations.

The bean of the southern Monti Dauni is a Traditional Agri-food Product (PAT), recognised by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2005. Grown in the mountain area of the province of Foggia, it is known for its thin skin, ease of cooking and delicate flavour. Its qualities are linked to the environmental conditions of the territory, where growing pulses was long a fundamental resource for family food. In Faeto, as in the other villages of the Monti Dauni, beans were also grown in rotation with cereals, following farming practices adapted to the soils and climate of the Apennines. A product that tells of the relationship between people and the land, and of the ability of rural communities to build their diet around the resources available.

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The recipe: a pignatta, few ingredients and slow cooking

Making lavanèlle e fasùle follows the logic of frugal cooking, in which every ingredient had a function and nothing was wasted. In the traditional recipe documented in Faeto, the beans are cooked slowly with pork rind, cleaned beforehand, and with a seasoning that may include carrot, celery, garlic or onion and a few cherry tomatoes. The rind, from the pig’s skin, gives body and flavour to the broth. Once cooking was done in the pignatta, the terracotta pot used in peasant kitchens, often placed near the fire and left to simmer slowly. It was a method that took time but produced a substantial dish, particularly suited to the cold months.

The lavanèlle are made by rolling out the dough, which is then rolled up and cut with a knife. They are not necessarily the regular tagliatelle we are used to buying in shops, but an artisan fresh pasta whose shape depends on the handwork. In the Faeto method, the pasta is first cooked in water and then transferred, shortly before it is done, into the pot with the beans and rind. Here it finishes cooking, absorbing the flavour of the broth and helping to thicken it with the starch it releases. The result is a dish in which pasta and beans blend together, with a soft, enveloping texture. Depending on family custom, it may be finished with extra virgin olive oil and, optionally, grated cheese or chilli.

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What to eat in Faeto and Celle di San Vito: cooking as memory

Visitors to Faeto and Celle di San Vito discover a food tradition that keeps a deep relationship with the history of the two communities. Lavanèlle e fasùle are one of the most significant examples of this continuity: a dish combining the growing of pulses, the home making of pasta and the old practice of using every part of the pig. The recipe belongs to a shared food heritage, although methods and seasonings may vary from family to family. It is also through these small variations that traditional cooking continues to tell of people’s lives and of how knowledge was passed from one generation to the next.

The typical products of the southern Monti Dauni, from beans to cured meats, from potatoes to cereal-based dishes, convey the image of a territory where food has always been closely linked to the landscape. In the two Franco-Provençal villages this relationship takes on a special meaning, because culinary memory goes hand in hand with linguistic memory. The names of dishes, ingredients and utensils keep traces of a cultural heritage that still sets Faeto and Celle di San Vito apart from the other villages of Daunia. For those walking the trails of the Alta Valle del Celone, among beech woods, ridges and old country paths, knowing these traditions adds a dimension of people, stories and flavours to the journey.

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Discover more flavours and villages of the Alta Valle del Celone

Lavanèlle e fasùle are just one expression of the culinary richness of the Alta Valle del Celone. In Faeto and Celle di San Vito, as in nearby Castelluccio Valmaggiore, traditional cooking preserves dishes linked to farming life, livestock and family occasions. Every village keeps recipes, names and customs that help tell the history of the local communities, offering visitors a different way of getting to know the territory.

Keep exploring the site to discover the typical products, nature itineraries, folk traditions and historic heritage of the Alta Valle del Celone. From the flavours of peasant cooking to the Franco-Provençal villages, from the woods of the Monti Dauni to the old paths crossing the valleys, every experience is a chance to approach a territory where memory does not belong only to the past but lives on in everyday gestures and habits.