Grape must pudding: the grape-based dessert that tastes like September

There are recipes that do not need special occasions.

They simply arrive when it is their time.

For grape must pudding (sughi d’uva), that time is September, when the grapes are ripe and the freshly pressed must still smells of the harvest.

In the Bologna area – and also in nearby Modena – sughi are part of those simple preparations from the cooking of the past: few ingredients, no complicated techniques, and a flavor that belongs more to the season than to a written recipe.

Grape must, flour, and very little sugar.

That’s all.

And perhaps that is precisely why I like them so much.

What is grape must pudding (sughi d’uva)?

Sughi are a spoon dessert made by thickening grape must with flour.

The consistency is reminiscent of a soft pudding, but the flavor is completely different: intense, fruity, slightly acidic or sweeter depending on the grapes used.

They are a profoundly seasonal preparation.

It doesn't start with the idea of going to the supermarket to buy ingredients to make a dessert. It starts with the opposite: there is must from the harvest and you have to find a way to use it.

A kitchen that starts from what is there.

And which often, for this very reason, manages to be surprisingly good.

The recipe for sughi

This is the recipe we use.

Ingredients

For about 1 liter of grape must:

• 1 liter of grape must
• 100 g of flour
• 1 tablespoon of sugar

The amount of sugar can naturally be adjusted to the sweetness of the must: if the grapes are very sugary, you may need very little.

How to prepare them

Pour the must into a large pot.

Add the sifted flour a little at a time, stirring continuously with a whisk to prevent lumps from forming.

Stir in the sugar as well.

Place the pot on the stove and continue to stir as the mixture heats up.

When it reaches a boil, lower the heat slightly and continue cooking, while still stirring, until the must has turned into a thick, velvety cream.

Pour the sughi while still hot into the small bowls where they will be served.

Let them cool.

As they rest, they will acquire their characteristic soft and compact consistency.

They can be eaten at room temperature or fresh from the fridge, according to personal taste.

If you have a lot of must

This year I had 5 liters.

Following the proportions of the recipe, therefore, you need:

• 5 liters of must
• 500 g of flour
• 5 tablespoons of sugar

With such an abundant quantity, you just need to have a little more patience.

The important thing is to incorporate the flour well before the mixture gets too hot and to continue stirring during cooking, especially at the bottom of the pot.

Why are they called “sughi”?

It is one of those questions I asked myself, too.

The name might seem curious, especially today, because when we say sugo (sauce), we immediately think of something to put on pasta.

But in traditional cooking, the word also has a much older and simpler meaning: it indicates the juice, the liquid part obtained from something.

And in this case, everything starts precisely from the juice of the grape.

I am not interested, however, in turning this recipe into a short etymology lesson.

I prefer to think that the name has remained just as the sughi themselves have: passed down from one kitchen to another, without the need for too many explanations.

A dessert that lasts as long as the harvest

Today we can eat almost anything at any time of the year.

Strawberries in December, tomatoes in winter, products that arrive from thousands of miles away.

Sughi, instead, belong to another way of cooking.

They are made when there is must.

And when the must runs out, they run out, too.

You have to wait for the following year.

Perhaps that is also what makes certain traditional recipes special: they are not always available.

They arrive, they stay with us for a few weeks, and then they leave.

Like many good things linked to the seasons.

Simple cooking often starts like this

Three ingredients might seem too few to tell a story.

Instead, inside a bowl of sughi, there is the harvest, September, the freshly picked grapes, and that very practical way families had of not wasting what the earth made available.

There was no need to call it sustainable cooking.

It was simply cooking.

And it is one of the reasons why I continue to love these recipes.

They don't ask to be reinvented.

They only ask to be made again.

And perhaps, while we stir the must in the pot, to tell someone why we are making them.

Because that, too, is a way to preserve a tradition without turning it into a museum piece.

Keep bringing it to the table.