A Party in my Mouth

Lunch in Montefalco, Umbria

This trip has been very much about eating and drinking. Traveling with Suz, a chef and two other gourmands who really appreciate food, has made Italian cuisine an underlying theme.

We are in the middle of a four day swing through the province of Emilia-Romagna, the food soul of Italy that encompasses the vast floodplain of the lower reaches of the Po River. It has been my job to coordinate the driving and get us to the best places to try local foods.

Wine tasting in Assisi, Umbria

Places like Bologna, Forli, Rimini, Modena, and Parma are historically important cities dating back to Roman times and in some cases earlier. On the map, they form a straight line along the foothills of the Appenines, having formed as trading post along the venerable Via Emilia, the original Roman road laid out traversed by Caesar himself. But these cities also lie in the vast area of farms that feature grains, vineyards and orchards that feed the country. Here also lies the best food that Italy offers. Not as many tourists, particularly Americans, hit this area, opting for Rome, Florence, Venice and the Amalfi Coast. It’s a shame, because one’s idea of Italian food changes radically.

Bologna is called ‘Il Grasso’ by the Italians: ‘the Fat,’ because of the culinary tradition of the best cuisine. The first night we ate at an old traditional restaurant that first opened its doors in the 1920s, Ristorante al Papagallo, to see what this food was about. We were not disappointed.

Dinner at Il Papagallo

My starter salad of arugula, pear and gorgonzola was light and flavorful, dressed with only the finest olive oil; the gorgonzola was creamy and strongly flavored and the pear slices were so thin, they were transparent, but added just the right amount of sweetness. For the primo piatto (the first course in an Italian meal, which almost always is a pasta dish) I had the taglietelle alla Bolognese, the classic pasta dish with the slow-cooked meat sauce; this ragu is unlike any meat sauce I have had in America- no pasta drowning in a sea of sweet tomato red sauce, just light and meaty.

For the secondo piatto, main course, I had carpaccio (raw beef, thinly sliced and marinated) with greens and thin slices of Parmesano-Reggiano. Again, simple but excellent: each flavor was strong and individual. The parmesan had a fine, almost crystalline grain with a heightened nutty flavor- this was top of the line cheese.

The critical element you find in great Italian cooking is the excellence of the individual ingredients. Put together the best you can find and the combination can only be amazing. This has been true for almost all places we have eaten (as long as you remember to avoid the obvious tourist places, and get a sense of where locals eat; also guide books are invaluable). The cheeses, salamis, fruits we have eaten have seemed to have a hightened flavor to what I am used to back home.

A visit to the market in the city center of Modena showed the variety of great local products. It is a bustling place where stalls sell everything you need for a meal- all of high quality and a range of choices. I counted ten types of mozzarella, six kinds of local cherries, eight kinds of tomatoes, etc. They sell prepared foods like roasted vegetables and meats and pastas, which we bought for a picnic along with fresh apricots and cherries.

Scenes from the Central Market in Modena

Lunch in the Gardens of the Duke of Parma