Bologna, the best food in Italy!

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!

rows of prosciutti & culatelli

culatello di zibello

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!

tortellini in brodo

tagliatelle with Bolognese

lasagna with spinach pasta

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.

Santo Spirito

Fresco of the Madonna, Santo Spirito

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!

Two buddies hanging in the market.

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.

Buon Appetito! Gina

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.

Winter Holiday Chestnuts

When I come back to the US for Christmas, I always bring a few food goodies I know I’ll want to cook with, and this year I brought sacks of dried chestnuts and chestnut flour. Once upon a time, chestnuts were an important part of the winter diet for Tuscan peasants, high in protein, low in fat, and readily available for free in the woods. These days we start collecting them in the woods in Tuscany, or buy them in the grocery stores, sometime in November and eat them roasted over the open fire or boiled with fennel seeds. They are perfect at the end of a meal with that extra glass of red wine and some clementines.

The American chestnut was once an important source of hardwood in the United States and made up more than 25% of the trees on the east coast, prolific in the Appalachian Mountains from Georgia to Maine. Chestnuts featured prominently in American cooking from the colonial times. In the early 1900’s an Asian fungus brought from China caused a blight which wiped out most of the chestnut trees on the eastern seaboard, and in decades changed the makeup of the forests there. While they aren’t extinct, they rarely get big enough to produce nuts before the fungus finds them and wipes them out. Today the majority of chestnuts in our stores in the winter are from Italy, many of them from the hills around Montella in Campania, my grandma’s hometown, where it is a major local industry.

In big cities like New York, London and Rome, this time of year brings out the street vendors selling chestnuts roasted, and sometimes burned, over a small fire. I’ve always loved buying a little sack to warm my hands and munch as I walk around town looking at Christmas lights.

Street vendors in Trapani, on the island of Sicily, also roast them over a small fire, but they have a special twist that produce the best roasted chestnuts I've ever had. Close to Trapani are ancient salt flats, where they have been producing high quality sea salt for almost 3000 years. The street vendors there roast the chestnuts on top of tall stove-pipe chimneys, tossing salt on the burning coals, which surprisingly coats the skin of the chestnut and adds a lovely saltiness while you’re peeling and eating them.

To cook chestnuts you can either boil them or roast them, depending on what you’re going to do with them. To use them in soups, stuffings or braised dishes, just cover them with water and bring them to a boil, turning down the heat and simmering for about 20 minutes or until they’re cooked through. The chestnut has a shell as well as a brown paper-like peel on the meat inside and you must remove both of those before eating. Chestnuts peel best when they’re hot and if you’re having a hard time getting the brown peel off you need to put them back on the stove to get them hot again.

One of my favorite ways to finish a meal at the holidays is with roasted chestnuts. To roast chestnuts you have to make a cut in the shell, just one slit about an inch long will do, put them on a sheetpan in a 350 degree oven and cook them about 30 minutes. Make sure you cut through the skin because if you don’t the chestnut will explode in the oven, and believe me, that exploded chestnut meat goes everywhere and is hot! I had one explode in my face once and I don’t recommend it. Serve the chestnuts hot, along with some clementines or tangerines and a good bottle of red wine. It’s a lovely way to relax after the meal, just peeling the nuts, drinking some wine, giving you a chance to stay at the table just like the Italians do!

Following is a recipe for chestnut soup, one of my favorite winter dishes. If you can find canned chestnuts feel free to use them, just make sure they don’t have sugar added for use as dessert.

Whether boiled or roasted, chestnuts add a richness and meatiness to soups, stuffings and braised dishes and make holiday dishes seem extra special.

Buon Appetito and Happy Holidays! Gina

Zuppa di Castagne (Chestnut Soup)

6 oz pancetta, diced

1 small onion, chopped

1 leek, chopped

½ bulb fresh fennel, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 tbsp butter

1 sprig rosemary, chopped

4 cups chestnuts, or two cups meat

water

salt

2 bay leaves

½ - 1 cup cream

Boil the fresh chestnuts in enough water to cover for 20 minutes. Peel the chestnuts, taking them from the pot of water one at a time. If they are at all difficult to peel, put them back in the water or reheat the water. Chestnuts peel easiest when very hot. If using dried chestnuts, place them in boiling water, turn the fire off and leave them to soak until softened.

Sauté the pancetta in a soup pot, remove to the side when lightly browned. Add the butter and olive oil to the pan and sauté the onion, leek, garlic and fennel until soft and translucent. Add the rosemary, then the pancetta and boiled chestnuts. Stir to coat with the oil, add enough water to the pan to cover, add the bay leaves, salt to taste and simmer for 30 minutes. Just before serving add the cream. Serve with croutons.

Italian Christmas delight: Chestnut Panzerotti

Some of the most joyous things of the Italian table are the desserts, breads and fried pastries that they make to honor holidays and which change according to the seasons and the holiday. Winter in general brings more fried goodies to celebrate religious holidays, like fried rice balls for the feast of St. Joseph’s on March 19^th or fried pastry strips for Carnivale before Lent starts. But Christmas in particular showcases many fried and baked delicacies that are only made at this special time of year.

Panettone has become symbolic of the Italian Christmas celebration, golden elastic bread studded with raisins. Originally from Milan, panettone is now widely found not only all over Italy but also throughout the US. Even small grocery stores and specialty shops, from Italian grocers to World Market to Walmart: if you want a good panettone for the holidays, it is easy to procure. From Verona comes pandoro. Less well known, it’s a delicate, molded cake, 10 inches high and sprinkled with rum powered sugar.

But I want to talk about all the wonderful fried pastries they make in Italy at Christmas. Struffoli, those little balls of fried dough piled high and drizzled with honey and colored sprinkles; or stracci, thin strips of dough that are cut with a zigzag edge and sprinkled with powered sugar; or frittelle, rounds of bread dough puffed up in hot oil and dredged with granulated sugar. My favorite though is the panzerotti that my grandma used to make and serve on Christmas Eve.

Similar to a ravioli, panzerotti are from southern Italy and can be stuffed with either savory or sweet. At Christmas they are stuffed with a puree of chestnut, cocoa and liquor, fried and then sprinkled with powdered sugar or rolled in granulated sugar. They can be made with sweet pasta dough, which is crispy, or a bread dough, which results in a chewy dough. Either way they’re delicious and elegant.

Merry Christmas and Buon Appetito!

Porchetta for the Holidays!

Porchetta is getting a lot of face time these days in restaurants and food magazines, with good reason. What’s better than roasted pork, tender and fatty? And what better way to celebrate the holidays than with a beautiful roast of pork.



In Italy, porchetta is a whole pig, deboned and stuffed with rosemary, sage, garlic and salt then roasted with the head on until the skin is dark brown and crunchy. You see the whole pig in markets and sold from trucks on the side of the road, sliced cold and put into a panino or wrapped in paper and sent home to be eaten later. A porchetta sandwich is simple, some tasty moist slices of roast pork with all the fatty goodness, sprinkled with the spices that were rubbed inside the cavity before roasting, and put between two slices of bread or on a roll. They weigh the meat before charging you, but before finishing the panino they cut off a generous slice of the crusty crackly skin, press it on top of the pork and that’s the sandwich. No fancy sauce, no mayo or lettuce or tomato, no pickled veggies. Just pure and simple: roasted pork.

A whole roasted pig would be difficult to duplicate with any regularity here in the US and in researching what’s available, I’ve found that chefs mainly are picking out choice cuts of the pig, tying them together and roasting them like that. Sort of build your own pig project. And it’s easily done at home.

First you need a pork belly, preferably with skin on although skin off is doable. Without the skin however, you don’t get the crunchy goodness, which is my favorite part. Get a pork loin or piece of shoulder and tie the raw pork belly around it, after generously rubbing the inside with a paste of rosemary, sage, fennel, garlic and salt.

Put it in a fairly hot oven and cook it until the outside is brown and crunchy and the internal temp of the pork loin reads about 150 on an instant read thermometer.

Serve it with some sauteed greens and lentils and it's a Very Happy New Year!

Buon Appetito!