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August 30, 2011 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Best Food in Italy: Bologna!

I’m not the first person to say it, and I won’t be the last. Bologna and it’s surrounding environs offer the best food in Italy! The city of Bologna, in the region of Emilia Romagna just north of Tuscany, is one of the most beautiful cities in northern Italy. Although it is one of the least visited by tourists, who generally race through this fertile region on their way to Venice or Florence, even a day spent walking around this incredibly rich city is well worth the effort it takes to get off the train and check your luggage at the deposito. But I recommend you schedule at least a couple of days so that you can be sure to sample all the traditional foods Bologna has to offer.

Many of Italy’s best food products originate in this area:

Prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano Reggiano, Culatello di Zibello, mostarda from Cremona and Mantova, and Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena, authentic balsamic vinegar, are just some of the better known products from the area surrounding the city. For great food tours of the area outside Bologna, contact my friend Alessandro at www.italiandays.it. He’ll pick you up at the train station and drive you around food producers in Emilia Romagna for the day!

A dazzling array of fresh, rich, homemade pasta such as tortellini, tortelli and lasagna, make this a foodie paradise. The Bolognese have a light hand when making pasta and it’s some of the most luscious pasta I’ve ever eaten. The most traditional pastas of Bologna are tortellini in brodo, rich tiny meat filled pasta cooked in a rich meat broth; tagliatelle al Bolognese, fresh egg noodles with rich meat ragu; and the best lasagna in Italy with fresh spinach pasta layered with ragu, besciamel sauce and parmigiano. True pasta heaven, they are light, tender and incredibly delicious!

In between meals you have to do something, of course, if only to make room for the next scrumptious plate of pasta. The architecture in Bologna is incredible and beautifully preserved, as are the numerous frescoes and paintings throughout the city. Taking walks around the city is possible no matter the weather because of the miles of loggia, or covered walkways. Bologna has the oldest university in the world, started in 1088. The medical school had one of the first theaters in the Middle Ages for vivisection of the human body, which is possible to view at their museum.

My favorite church, Santo Spirito, is actually an ancient composition of seven churches. Begun in Roman times and added on to until it reached its present maze of ancient brick designs and columns, it has a mystical feel. Some of the windows don’t contain glass at all but have the original thin sheets of marble, more for design and beauty than to illuminate the church. The fresco below was astounding because at first glance it was merely a wash of color, but as you looked closer you could see the original design and detail.

My favorite cathedral in Italy is the Basilica of San Petronius which has a rare meridian line inset in the floor. The area to the east of the main square, Piazza Maggiore, is covered with old shops and stalls selling seasonal fruits and vegetables along with meats, salami, fish and horse meat, a regional specialty.

The people of Bologna are open, gregarious and festive. I ran into these two guys in the market having a morning coffee at the bar who insisted on helping me find a great place to eat fresh pasta for lunch. And they didn’t steer me wrong, the restaurant was lovely and the pasta excellent!

Bologna also has a fun aperitivo culture in the evening and there are many bars with tables outside where you can enjoy a glass of wine and plate of sliced cold cuts for lunch.

mortadella, coppa di testa and parmigiano at Tamburini

Here’s an authentic recipe for Ragu Bolognese from my friend Grazia, who was born and raised just outside the city. Note that it is very meaty, not seasoned with herbs or garlic, and with just a little tomato for taste and color. The milk helps to soften the flavor of the ragu and this sauce is always served with fresh egg pasta, never with dried semolina pasta from the South, like spaghetti.

Ragu Bolognese

2 lbs ground beef, pork and veal, any combination

1 large onion

2 celery stalks

1 carrot

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp tomato concentrate

2 cups tomato sauce

2 cups white wine

1 ½ cups milk

Salt, pepper

Place the onion, celery and carrot in a food processor and puree. Brown the meat in a small amount of olive oil, breaking them into small pieces and removing to the side when browned. Add the vegetables and sauté well until softened, then add the meat back in with a little salt and pepper. Add the wine and cook off completely, then add the milk and cook off completely. Add the tomato concentrate and sauce, cover and allow the sauce to cook for 2 hours, tasting for seasoning and adding additional salt and pepper. If it’s very thick, add a little water and watch it while it cooks to make sure it doesn’t burn or get too dry.

Buon
Appetito! Gina

August 27, 2011 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Antipasto Platters are Perfect for Summer Entertaining

One of my favorite ways to eat is to just nosh on lots of little things, and both Spanish tapas and Italian antipasti platters are perfect for this, in fact they have a lot in common. When it’s this hot and you don’t want a heavy meal or to spend a lot of time cooking, but you want to have all your friends over for drinks and dinner, putting together a large assortment of antipasti is one of the easiest ways to entertain. A couple of good cured meats like salami, prosciutto or mortadella, some sliced provolone, chunks of parmigiano and some pickled vegetables like giardiniera or pepperoncini are perfect for putting together various little mouthfuls.

A note on getting good Italian cured meats in the US: good luck! There are only three kinds of Italian DOP cured meats that legally can be brought into the states: Prosciutto di San Daniele, Prosciutto di Parma and Mortadella di Bologna (the frontrunner and granddad of bologna/baloney, minus the fat chunks, and the reason it’s called that). While it’s possible to find some good pancetta, coppacola or salami, they will be domestic products.

Whatever you get, it’s important that the cured meat has been stored and treated properly in order to ensure a decent product. Beware of paying a lot of money for one of the imported meats that has been stored in a cold refrigerator with constant circulating air; it dries the meat out and makes it stiff and crumbly instead of soft and tender. Ask to sample a slice before buying. The other abomination that I often see in the US is cutting all the fat off of prosciutto before slicing it and then charging $25 a pound. The fat is an important part of the whole taste experience, balancing the saltiness of the meat with the sweetness of the fat. If you want to take it off at home, so be it, but you should be given the choice. That fat isn’t there by accident or laziness on the part of the prosciutto maker!

In addition to putting out some coldcuts and cheese, I like to go the next step and make some quick dishes that make the whole experience more interesting and filling. They don’t take long to make and can round out the antipasti into an entire meal. Most importantly they all go great with a glass or two of wine! These are dishes that are common to both Italian antipasti bars as well as Spanish tapas bars. (our use of the word “bar” is so limiting in the US!)

Some of my favorites include baby octopus or squid stewed in a spicy tomato sauce; fried sweet peppers with tomatoes and small mozzarella balls; ceci or cannellini beans with diced tomato and garlic; shrimp in a garlic and parsley sauce; small fried sardines or smelts. All of these are wonderful served on little plates with a slice of hearty bread ready to catch the juices and wipe the plate.

Some other vegetables that are lovely with cold cuts and cheese are roasted peppers and grilled zucchini or eggplant with olive oil. Called sott’olio there is a wide variety of vegetables that can be roasted or grilled, either in the oven or over coals, and then covered with olive oil, garlic slices and parsley. It keeps for several weeks in the fridge and is ready whenever you need to put it out.

roasted pepper spread with toasted crostini

Fried Summer Peppers with Tomatoes & Mozzarella

1 lb sweet Italian peppers, tops broken off

1 pint cherry tomatoes

2 garlic cloves, minced

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Small mozzarella balls

Heat a large sauté pan with olive oil and fry the peppers until they are cooked all around and browned, tossing and stirring. Remove them to a bowl, wipe out the sauté pan with a paper towel, add a little more olive oil and the garlic and sauté gently before adding the tomatoes. Cook until softened and toss together with salt and the peppers. Serve as an antipasto with the freshest, best mozzarella you can find.

Moscardine con Sugo Arrabiata (Tiny octopus with spicy tomato sauce)

500 gr small octopus or squid

3 garlic cloves

olive oil

hot peppers, one or two

2 cup crushed tomatoes

parsley

white wine

Sauté the garlic in the olive oil gently, add the hot peppers and parsley and cook a few minutes, then add the octopus or squid and sauté until cooked. Add the wine, allow it to cook off and then add the tomato and simmer for 30 minutes, salting to taste. Serve with bread as an antipasto.

Buon Appetito! Gina

August 24, 2011 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Summer’s Ripe Tomatoes, Part I

It’s the full swing of summer here in Tuscany and it’s hot hot hot; which means the tomatoes are beautiful, plump, dark red and full of flavor. While many Tuscans prefer their tomatoes green and crunchy, I like mine red and ripe, sliced and sprinkled with salt and olive oil, a little basil with some good bread to sop up the juices.

The tomato is a member of the nightshade family, which also includes peppers, eggplants and potatoes, as well as tobacco, belladonna and mandrake. Interesting mix of alkaloids, some of which are deadly!

Originating in Central and South America, where it is a perennial, the Spanish are credited with distributing it around the world, to Asia through the Philippines and to Europe through Spain as well as southern Italy. The tomato is so closely linked with “Italian food” that most people are surprised to hear that it has only been used in Naples and the south since the late-17^th Century and in Rome, Tuscany and northern Italy since the late 18^th or early 19^th Century; and the reason for its introduction at all was Spain.

: Cuore di Bue (bulls’ heart tomatoes)

Southern Italy was a part of the Spanish Empire for almost 300 years, having won it in a war, and from the early 1500’s until the early 1800’s the Bourbon kings of Spain ruled Naples and Sicily. Having discovered the new world and the tomato with it, the Spanish were the natural carriers of this foreign vegetable to Europe. It took foothold in southern Italy, where it grew well in the hot summer sun and the rest, as they say, is history. Sabatino Abagnale, a tomato producer in Campania, tells me that the tomato was first mentioned in a cookbook of Spanish-influenced recipes printed in Naples in 1692 and since that time has heavily influenced the cuisine of that region to this day.

In the US, the heirloom tomatoes are o called because past generations grew these old varieties that then fell out of favor when everyone left their gardens and started shopping at the supermarkets. But in Italy the old varieties were never lost and, even though more people shop at a supermarket than tend a garden, the traditional varieties, all wrinkled and nubbled and thick-skinned, have continued their strong presence in both garden and kitchen.

There is one peculiar kind of tomato that is picked at the end of the summer and hung in bunches and left for use during the winter. They don’t dry out or get wrinkly because the skin is so tough and solid, and when you use them months later they are just as fresh as the day they were picked, only more velvety instead of juicy. They fascinate me!

Panzanella

One of my favorite Tuscan summertime dishes is panzanella, Tuscan bread salad. As anyone who’s ever visited Tuscany knows, the bread here is salt less and can be quite a disappointment at first. It’s a wonderful foil to their salty salami and stews but takes a little getting used to. The Tuscans are frugal people and the dish is born of la cucina povera, or the poor kitchen. Almost 500 years ago the governor of Tuscany put a heavy tax on salt and being both poor as well as austere, they started leaving salt out of the bread. Because of this the bread doesn’t absorb moisture from the air and, kept outside of plastic, won’t mold, meaning it can be kept for a good long time and used when needed. The Tuscans have developed an entire cuisine to make use of the old bread, of which panzanella is my hands down favorite! It’s simple: rehydrate old bread in a little salted water, squeeze it dry and crumble it into a bowl. Add what is fresh out of the garden: beautiful ripe tomatoes, a little salad onion, maybe a cucumber, definitely some torn basil and a generous slug of good extra virgin olive oil. Toss it well and enjoy it with a crisp glass of Vernaccia di San Gimignano!

Next time: Summer Tomatoes Part Two: canning San Marzano’s

August 22, 2011 by Gina Stipo

Yodeling our way through Alto Adige

When I was in the Alto Adige (pronounced awd- ee- jay) region of Italy a few weeks ago, in what used to be the Sud Tirol of Austria, I found myself walking in alpine meadows, listening to the wind in the pines and the lovely music of cow bells clanging softly, feeling very much like Maria Von Trapp in landscape that was decidedly not Italian. Nor was the food, the language or the way they dressed.

Typical costume for those working in a shop

but I'm pretty sure she's not going to work...

our waitress up on the alpine meadow! Not a costume.

The Sud Tirol was a part of Austria until 1919, when Italy annexed it after the Austrians lost WWI. The people hoped to be re-annexed by Austria after WWII but they lost that one as well and the Allies left the region to Italy.

The majority of the people there relate more to their Germanic roots with some lingering resentment over being forced to be Italian, and most of the Italians I met were up from the south on vacation, just like me. Occasionally we found people who spoke no Italian at all, just English, German or the local dialect, Ladino. It definitely has more of an Austrian feeling than an Italian one, even now.

We were in the area around the quaint town of Ortisei, just east of Bolzano and an hour north of Verona, known as the Siusi Alps. The food is strongly influenced by Austria, almost every menu boasted schnitzel, wurst and knudel, or dumplings, and the bakeries had seedy German bread and soft pretzels.

knudels, dumplings flavored with spinach and tomato

They raise a lot of dairy cows in the Alps, summering them on the high meadows and wintering them down below in the foothills. The cheeses from this area are all cows’ milk and very swiss-like and the people will happily melt it on bread for you for a cheese toast right out of “Heidi”!

Walking through the alpine meadows, you can stop for lunch at a little baita, or mountain hut, where they serve a hearty beef stew with dumplings or their own freshly made cheese and butter, spread on dense, salted bread and sprinkled with local edible mountain flowers.

cheese from Franz and the above cows sprinkled with mountain flowers

: Two pounds of butter that I carried down the mountain!

The libations were fantastic too! For a refreshing drink on a hot afternoon, especially just coming off a hike in the mountains, they mix elderflower syrup with cold sparkling water, and later on for a cocktail they just add some prosecco to that with a sprig of mint. The wines from the region are fresh and crisp, and they have a strong tradition of making grappa and eau di vie, many of them flavored with pine or pine cones.

cirmolo, an eau di vie flavored with pine cones

The next trip you plan to Italy, keep in mind this beautiful mountain region north of Venice and have a grappa and some melted cheese for me!