Are They Nuts?

I wanted to write that today was the first time I ate a Brettljause with nuts in it, but then quickly remembered that many of the better cold cuts containing cheese also feature walnuts. It is definitely the first time, however, that I see pistachios on my Brettl, still in their shells.

Honestly speaking, I don’t know what one had in mind when adding pistachios to the dish… Probably this was driven by the same sudden impulse that was responsible for the greenish herb butter. A perfectly good herb butter by itself, it did not really go together with anything – neither with the Speck, nor with the Kaminwurzen, nor with the cheese. The pistachios, on the other hand, combined very well with apple slices, which were actually the best part of the Brettljause for me. The other good thing was the chutney, which made the otherwise boring cheese (I still don’t know if there were one or two types of it, though the menu mentioned “mixed” cheeses) much tastier.

Nevertheless, all these peculiarities, awkward as they were, eventually turned the dish into something special. What also helped, of course, was the superb quality of the Speck, but I would not have expected anything less from the South Tyrol, of course. And Knödelglück is also a cute little place with a great view over Merano. Everything about it says “relax and don’t care.” So I don’t care about the pistachios either.