It is known as the "Oil Capital" with its over 300,000 olive trees, but few know that Trevi, a charming snail-shaped village in the province of Perugia, produces a black celery of rare quality. As well as leafy vegetables.

Two hundred years of agricultural tradition that has found fertile ground in this area washed by the Clitunno river, not far from those sources celebrated by the writers of the "Grand Tour".
Today among the "sedanari" there are many young people like Michele Spellucci, experience as a musician behind him, who returned to Trevi to cultivate 35 hectares of which half a hectare of black celery (Slow Food presidium): "I started sowing 3 years ago on small plots called canapine, because they were once used for cultivation of hemp , explains Spellucci.

«It is a so-called“ rock ”area, gravely, draining, with a high content of clay and silt. Also for this reason the vegetables are generally sweeter than the others . And even more beautiful to look at since black celery, which weighs up to 2.5 kg per piece, is wrapped in straw paper and protected from the weather and the sun's rays. Every year the Trevani "sedanari" compete in one of the oldest festivals in Umbria, generally on the third Sunday in October.

Of the celery of Trevi, as it happens for the pig, nothing is thrown away: the external coast is ideal for velvety, the internal one for the pinzimonio, the extracted oil ends up in an excellent craft beer and with the dried powder at low temperature of the leaves bread and biscuits are flavored.

The single dish par excellence is Black celery stuffed with Trevana, substantial and tasty. Here is the recipe for Gherardo Mugnoz of the "Taverna del 7".

The recipe: black celery stuffed with Trevana

Ingredients for 4 people

2 celery
400 gr of mixed minced meat (veal, pork, Trevi sausage)
100 gr of grated Parmesan
8 eggs
Extra virgin olive oil
Sunflower oil
Salt and Pepper To Taste.

For the ragù
250 gr of peeled tomatoes
400 gr of mixed minced meat (as above)
Carrot, onion, olive oil for the sauté

Method

Clean the black celery being careful not to break it, remove the leaves and the hardest outer ribs. Boil for about forty minutes and let it cool. Separately, prepare the filling with the mixed minced meat, an egg and a handful of grated Parmesan.

Stuff the celery, tie them with kitchen string, pass them in flour and egg and then fry them in sunflower oil until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper, remove the string, arrange the celery on a greased baking dish and brushed with meat sauce and finally season with the meat sauce and plenty of Parmesan. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.
In combination, the chef recommends a good one Rosso di Montefalco 2011.