In the area of Pavia, the “culture of pig” is deep-seated: quand’s gà fam, ghe’l pän e salàm (“when you are hungry, you can have bread and salami”) is still a common saying. In the past, breed a pig meant having a life insurance and when it was killed, once a year, in order to check whether the meat prepared to make salami was good, a little part of it was used to prepare a risotto.

Tahchin Morgh is a rice-based dish. It’s made of two parts: the lower layer, called Tahdig (Tah=lower + dig=pot), obtained by mixing chicken, saffron and the other ingredients and the upper layer made only of white rice. In Farsi, Tahchin means “spread at the bottom” and Morgh means “chicken”.