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Sampling the best tastes of Emilia-Romagna

WHILE Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana Modena wows the world in distinctive Italian style as the world’s best restaurant this year, the region where the restaurant is located is again getting attention for its culinary excellence.

Northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region is an area famed for its fast cars and some of the best food produce Italy has to offer: balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese, Parma ham and culatello.

The region, with its long plains in the Po River valley and its rich soils, has always been the greatest food-producing area of Italy. The main cities in the region are all located on Via Emilia, an ancient Roman road. Each city is unique and special in its food traditions, though the region as a whole relies heavily on cured meat and cheeses.

The lovely city Parma, for instance, is where the world-famous antipasto prosciutto di Parma was born. The melt-in-your-mouth texture, sweet delicate flavor, pale pink flesh marbled with pure white fat is a delicacy known all over the world. Though the prosciutto industry is large now, the old artisan methods of treating and curing continue locally.

The Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma was set up in 1963 on the initiative of 23 producers with the objective of safeguarding the genuine product, its tradition and the image presented by the “Parma” designation. Nowadays the consortium includes 150 producers of Parma ham. By law, genuine Parma ham is cured at least one year (starting from date of first salting), but some hams are cured as long as three years.

Prized pork

Aside from prosciutto, Zibello makes the highly prized culatello from high-quality pork butt matured in the bladder of the animal. Among the region’s pedigreed charcuterie, the crowning glory is its Culatello di Zibello.

Hand-rubbed, salted and air dried, it has a unique sweet-musky flavor and velvety texture that is considered the pinnacle of the country’s artisanal food culture. Local journalist and humorist Giovanni Guareschi once defined it as “the essence of Parma’s gastronomy.”

A traditional, authentic culatello experience can be experienced at Antica Corte Pallavicina not far from Parma next to the banks of the Po. The place has been completely restored by Massimo Spigaroli, who is the keeper of the secrets of culatello.

Here, cellars built in the 1320s by the marquesses of Pallavicina were used for curing salumi and maturing cheeses, for aging wines and storing produce from their lands. This is where they cured the culatelli they sent to the Dukes of Milan (the Sforza family), who served them in banquets at Sforza Castle.

The unique cellars where the Marquesses Pallavicino cured their pork are full of culatelli once again and the old cheese maturing room has resumed its old function. One can visit the amazing cellars, understand the curing process, and taste its amazing flavors at the restaurant.

In this region, the entire month of November is dedicated to pork. The November Pork festival takes place each weekend for the whole month, with different villages along the “Pork Road” doing hosting duty. In addition to all the market stalls where you can find local products, regional restaurants feature special menus to showcase their pork dishes.

Pastas and breads

One of the region’s great strengths is its vast range of hand-made egg pasta. Bologna is probably the right place to sample its vast variety. Here, the tradition of rolling pasta out by hand continues by specialists.

One can watch a specialist rolling out pasta and making tagliatelle, tagliolini, tortellini and others at many restaurants and groceries.

Bologna celebrates a rich food legacy. Many of us know the ragu, or Bolognese, sauce was created here but Bologna has much more to offer.

Bolognese tortellini is a specialty pasta traditionally stuffed with veal and pork, mortadella, prosciutto crudo, parmigiano reggiano and nutmeg. A small amount of stuffing is placed into each square and expert hands delicately fold the dough into dumpling-like spheres. Watching a true expert making each tortellini is an act of art itself.

The tortellini are served in meat or chicken broth during winter, or with meat or cream sauces when the weather is hot.

Traveling from Bologna to the Romagna there’s an area of wooded mountains, fertile plains and sea coast. Along the Via Emilia, one finds cities such as Rimini, Cesena and Forli.

Romagnols are proud of their local specialty bread, piadina. This simple flatbread is both a street food and a comfort food. When made properly, it’s filled with local ingredients like prosciutto crudo, squacquerona cheese and arugula.

In a region that prides itself on its simplicity and traditions, the piadina holds special place in the hearts of the local people. Visitors will find more piadinerias here that operate like pizzerias, with mostly take-away only.

The bread is made with simple flour, salted water and pig lard. It is sold at over 2,000 kiosks in Romagna, many of which offer their own unique filling choices. In Rimini, the traditional piadina is large and thin, but as one moves northward and inland, to Forli and Faenza, the piadina becomes thicker and shorter.

Coastal locales like Rimini and Cesenatico are paradises for seafood lovers. These seaside spots have a great variety of fish and are famous for their seafood soups.

At present, Emilia Romagna boasts 43 PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) products, including the renowned Parmigiano Reggiano, Culatello di Zibello and Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena, in addition to quality DOC and IGT wines, 15 slow food presidia and more than 200 traditional products named in the ministerial register.

The region is also referred to as Food Valley because of its world-known culinary traditions, ranging from Michelin-rated restaurants to street-side treats like piadina.

How to get there:

Emilia Romagna is in the north of Italy, just over the Appenine Mountains from Tuscany. Its international airport in Bologna has connections with China and elsewhere via major European and Italians hubs.




 

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