If we are traveling in Italy, you know, YOU KNOW, there is going to be foodie adventures. Italy and France...by far my favorite food destinations (though Malaysia/Singapore are right up there just haven't been there as much). And here we are starting in Bologna/Emilia Romagna, acknowledged as being one of the great food regions of Italy.
We are very fortunate that we are staying at an Airbnb apartment rental that is very close to the city center but in a residential/non-super tourist area. We are on a side street which leads in both directions to more major streets lined with all kinds of restaurants, trattoria, osteria, pizzeria, and bars. It is hard to not find a place to eat. As you may or may not know, eating hours in Italian restaurants tend to be very firm. Lunch is from 12:00 to 2:00 but if you come before 12:30 the only others you will find will be other non-Italians. Dinner is from 7:30 to 10:00, maybe later depending on the restaurant. Again, come at 7:30 and you will probably be in an empty restaurant.
On the day of our arrival, it had been a long time since we had eaten anything because of the timing of the meals on the plane and the time change. So although we were really tired, we were very hungry. Our first restaurant was the
Osteria Alle Due Porte. It's main virtues were it was close by and seemed to be open earlier than others...it wasn't. I called to make a reservation...which turned out to be unnecessary. In my past, I was a slave to the concept of 'must eat local' when traveling. However, the new, transitioned, chill de-I, is not such a slave any longer. (
Note: I know there are going to be certain, snarky daughters out there, or even snarky nieces, who are going to say, "de-I chill? Really? Is that chill as in the Ice Age is waning instead of waxing?" Other readers should not pay any attention to comments from these blood relatives! It's just their long-term relationship scars showing.) This particular place actually specializes in Pugliese food, from Italy's southern boot region of Puglia thought the reviews said the Bolognese food was good too.
We started off with a selection of Pugliese style marinated vegetables
You can probably recognize from 12 o'clock going counter-clockwise the olives, onions, mushrooms and artichoke hearts. At 3 o'clock was a stuffed pepper that our waiter warned us "was hot!" He was right. But it was still good. And in the center was a roll of eggplant with a tuna filling. I don't know how the eggplant was made but it had a very meaty type of texture which enjoyed as eggplant can be very squishy much of the time.
Wife ordered Tagliatelle with ragu. Tagliatelle is a wide pasta, very common to this area (Emilia Romagna). I got a home-made maccheroni with a lamb sauce, a Pugliese dish.
The bread served was interesting with these nuggets of bread stick type stuff
We got different condiments for the two dishes. The Tagliatelle came with Parmigiano Reggiano which of this region. The lamb pasta came with a different cheese (I don't remember the name) and powdered red pepper. I was warned that was "very hot". It was.
The Tagliatelle with ragu
The Maccheroni with lamb sauce
The cheese and pepper complimented this dish exceedingly well
For lunch on our first full day, there was a place recommended by our apartment host that reviews said was very authentic Bolognese and was on the route we were taking in the morning.
Trattoria Del Rosso
Traditional all the way
I had the Tagliatelle with Bolognese ragu
Wife had the Lasagna Bolognese - basically a cheese lasagna with ragu
Note that the ragu looks very similar to what Wife had the night before that was not labeled as 'Bolognese'.
A brief moment to rant -Please note that these ragu are decidedly meat oriented with maybe just a touch of tomato as part of the flavor profile. THEY ARE NOT TOMATO SAUCES. People like the chef at Farm and Table in Albuquerque who have the audacity to serve up a tomato sauce with some meat in it and say "It is my take on a Bolognese are either ignorant or purposely taking advantage of people who don't know any better.
Our second full day (which I haven't posted yet) was a day trip to the small city of Parma, a city rich in history of the wealthy Dukes of Parma and home to numerous food specialties of which Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma are the most notable. However there are many more. We were flagging in our energies. The tourist office told us to go to a particular street to get away from the tourist mainstream. But right around the corner from the Duomo (Cathedral) was this place, Ristorante
Gallo d'Oro, which had all the specialties we were looking for and at prices the same as we'd seen as standard in Bologna. I quick check on TripAdvisor showed this was ranked in the top 10 in Parma by their users. We stumbled in exhausted. They were open but not really but were happy to seat us.
Wife had a green salad to start but I went with the Culatello, a cured ham but from the shoulder. It was deliciously subtle and not overly salty
Our waitress strongly suggested this should be accompanied by the Torta Frita, or fried bread.
For those of you with New Mexican connections, do these look strangely familiar to you?
Yes they are almost the same as Sopapilla, our own fried bread. And yes they were the perfect foil for the Culatello.
Wife chose another specialty, Tortelli, some filled with cheese and herbs and others with a ground braised pork filling
I had Anolini - A pasta with a Parmigiano flavored filling in chicken broth
We went local for wine. I went on a limb and got a half bottle of Lambrusco.
Lambrusco has a bad reputation as being sweet will in the US
This was lightly effervescent, fruity but not sweet, and a great accompaniment to the salty cheese flavors of the day.
Need to see if I can find a good version of this back home
The sign of a successful culinary adventure
The happy Lambrusco drinker
