Certain dishes taste their best in special surroundings—prosecco and potato chips on Venice’s Piazza San Marco, for example. Our latest pairing of plate and place is pumpkin and sausage risotto on the glorious Piazza della Borsa in Trieste. In case you don’t know the city, it’s just barely in Italy, sitting on the Slovenian border a few kilometers from Croatia. In fact, it’s only been Italian since 1919. For hundreds of years, it was the chief shipping port for the Austrian empire. Most significantly, it was the chief importer of coffee for all of Mitteleuropa. Without Trieste, there would be no such thing as “Vienna roast.” To this day, its citizens drink nearly twice as much coffee as the average Italian.

But we digress. The old city of Trieste is a gem. Imposing Austro-Hungarian imperial architecture surrounds the big plazas that face the harbor. (That’s the city hall at the top of the post.) They are lined with a myriad of historic coffee shops and a considerable number of outstanding gelaterias. Since we were driving from Padua to Croatian Istria, it made sense to get off the highway and stop for a civilized meal (as well as coffee and gelato).

Caffè Urbanis and Gangemi Dolceria sate body and soul

Located immediately between the two largest plazas of Trieste—Piazza della Borsa and Piazza Unità d’Italia—Caffè Urbanis and its next door neighbor, Gangemi Dolceria, entice the casual stroller with a blend of old-fashioned elegance and contemporary pizzazz.

Urbanis (Piazza della Borsa 15; +39 040 366 580) began life as a pastry shop in 1832, a date commemorated in the floor mosaics along with a charming personification of the Bora wind, a legendary cold wind that blows through the city off the Slovenian alps in the winter. Now largely a chic bar with evening entertainment and three light meals a day, it’s irresistible. All the good seats inside were taken (above), but since it was a sunny if cool day, we sat at cafe tables on the plaza and ordered the midday special—risotto alla zucca. The pumpkin risotto also contained crumbled pork sausage and rosemary and went perfectly with a glass of Friulano from the Colli Orientali, just a few kilometers north of Trieste. Our version of the recipe is below.

Dessert was a no-brainer. We walked a few steps to Gangemi, where dozens of rapt visitors were swooning over some of the best gelato in the city. Make that some of the best gelato in Italy. The young women shown here were tourists from Rome, and they certainly thought so. Would that we could replicate these remarkable scoops!

RISOTTO ALLA ZUCCA

With its dense flesh and low sugar content. Italian pumpkin is much closer to a North American winter squash than it is to North American pumpkin. Butternut or acorn squash captures the Italian flavor.

Serves 4

Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
7 ounces mild pork sausage, casing removed and crumbled
1/2 cup white wine
14 ounces butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
salt to taste
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
4 cups beef stock
1 1/2 cups carnaroli rice (arborio is also fine)
4 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
coarsely grated Parmesan to top

Directions

In a large pan, heat 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil and cook the shallots until soft. Turn up heat and add sausage, breaking into pieces with a wooden spoon; cook and stir for 5 to 7 minutes or until browned. Pour in the wine and scrape to deglaze the pan.

When the alcohol has evaporated, add the squash pieces, stir to coat and cook 5–7 minutes until just tender. Season with salt and add rosemary.

Heat stock in a separate pan.

Stir the rice into the sausage and squash mixture. Turn up heat. Stir and cook until rice becomes translucent and has absorbed most of the liquid. Reduce heat to medium and begin to add the stock, one ladle at a time. Stir after each addition and add the next when mixture begins to get dry. The rice will take about 16 minutes to cook fully. Rice should be toothy and mixture should be slightly soupy. You may not need quite all the stock.

Remove from the heat, add remaining tablespoon of butter and finely grated Parmesan. Let stand for a few minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Sprinkle with coarsely grated Parmesan and serve hot.