My visit to Parma and the Festival of Parma Ham was sponsored by the Parma Ham Consortium. This is the first of two posts on Parma ham. Check out the second post, which is my recipe for fantastic fried bread dumplings, gnocco fritto. (You do NEED to make them and they are easy too). One of my favourite things and a perfect snack. 

Emilia Romagna is a much visited part of Italy for me. Known as the belly of Italy, you can see the attraction. Home to some of the most recognised Italian food products: parma ham, parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar of Modena. Mortadella is originally from Bologna too, and that most recognised of British dishes spaghetti Bolognese is inspired by the original Tagliatelle with Ragu from Emilia Romagna, and it takes its name from Bologna. Although best not to mention spaghetti bolognese to anyone there, it tends to enrage them (and when you have the pasta there, you can see why).

Emilia Romagna is a joy to travel around. Small cities with their own proud specialities are easily accessible by train (or by car if you prefer). There are common threads in each city. You will always see tagliatelle with ragu, stuffed pastas like tortelloni, passatelli (beautiful parmesan noodles) and cappelletti in brodo, a gorgeous small stuffed pasta in rich broth. Added to all of this, each city will have its own specialities. In Parma, those are specifically Parma ham and parmigiano reggiano (aka parmesan cheese). 

Festival del Prosciutto / The Festival of Parma Ham 

Each September, the people of Parma celebrate their ham with gusto at the Festival del Prosciutto. In its 20th year this year, the Festival of Parma Ham is a celebration of all things prosciutto di parma with a pop up bistro downtown serving freshly sliced ham and excellent ham sandwiches packed with it. There are also Finestre Aperte, or Open Doors, where Parma ham producers open their facilities to the public for tours and tastings. 

What makes Parma ham special?  

The production of Parma ham is highly regulated and controlled via regular inspection. It has a designated PDO (since 1986), a Protected Designated of Origin. A PDO is only awarded when there is a group of producers who can prove that their product can only be made in their geographic area and in a particular traditional way. Champagne has it, parmesan has it, and Parma ham has it too. You can recognise Parma ham by a crown stamp on the skin of the leg. In Europe only this ham can be sold as Parma ham and it is very tightly regulated.

Parma ham is simply Italian pork leg cured with pure sea salt and time. The pork is from Large White, Landrace and Duroc pigs fed on maize, barley and whey from the production of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Each leg is approximately 8-10kg weight. Traditionally the process would start when the weather changed with the advent of winter, now with refrigeration it is possible to make it year round. 

Finestre Aperte / Open Doors at G. Tanaro in Langhirano 

Langhirano, Parma

I visited G. Tanaro in Langhirano during the Parma ham festival as part of the Finestre Aperte, and was brought on an excellent tour of the facility by owner Paolo Tanara. His father Giancarlo started the facility, and they still make the ham as his father did. Paolo detailed the procedure and brought us through the ageing rooms.  The smell is sublime as it ages, every food lover should stand in a Parma ham ageing cellar at one point in their lives. Divine. The tour finishes with a tasting of their wonderful ham. These tours are also available to the public at the time of the Festival of Parma Ham. 

How is Parma Ham made?

The legs are salted on arrival by the maestro salatore (a highly trained salt master) and hung in temperature and humidity controlled conditions. A second coating of salt is applied a week later, and the legs are left to hang for up to 18 days. The hams then hang for between 60 and 90 days in refrigerated and humidity controlled rooms. The hams are then washed and dried to remove excess salt and impurities before being dried on frames in long rooms lined with windows which are opened when the temperature and humidity are favourable. This is key to the flavour of the ham. After about 3 months the exposed parts of the ham are greased with pork lard and salt to protect them, and then the hams are dried further in ham cellars, rooms with less air and light. All Parma ham is cured for a minimum of 1 year (from the first day of salting), up to 3 years.  

The hams and facility are inspected many times over the process, both internally and by consortium inspectors. Any hams that do not pass muster are discarded. The quality of the ham is tested using a needle made from a horse bone. It sounds medieval, but the horse bone communicates the smell of the ham as it ages purely and directly to the trained nose of the ham makers. 

And now you know why it tastes so good, right? Parma ham and your many makers, I salute you. 

For more information on the Festival of Parma Ham please see: http://www.festivaldelprosciuttodiparma.com/en/  

It makes me cheerful to know that right now, the kitchens of San Mario are bustling with Nonnas making their Christmas pasta, cappelletti in brodo. Pasta is being hand rolled by expert hands, and being filled with a mix of beef, pork and chicken with some parmesan and nutmeg (and other family secret ingredients, of course), before being shaped into delicate cappelletti which will be served in a Christmas capon broth (a capon is a castrated cockerel and an incredibly flavourful bird). It is a gorgeous dish, rich and light and delicate all at once. I want it for Christmas lunch also.

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Pasta is one of the great joys of life. My life certainly, and lots of Italians. And you too, right? I love to make it from scratch but I also love cooking best quality dried pasta, which is so misunderstood. You can read more about why we should eat pasta, and why we certainly shouldn’t view it as anything near a guilty pleasure on another post that I wrote – Blasting Pasta Myths – Reasons Why You Should Eat Pasta.

Pasta Production in Italy

Pasta is made all over Italy with many regional variations extending to the flour used, whether just water or water and eggs are used, or just eggs. Shapes differ, how they serve it differs widely too. In general, the North makes more fresh pasta, and the South has more dried.

This is fiercely protected in terms of the dried pasta that you purchase from Italy. There are laws governing it: dried pasta must be made using durum wheat semolina flour, and egg pasta can only be made with durum wheat semolina flour and a minimum of 4 hens eggs weighing 200g without shell, per kilogram of semolina. Croissant production is also regulated in France, incidentally, and more on that soon. 

Pasta Production in Abruzzo

Abruzzo has a long history of producing some of the best Italian dried pastas (along with Gragnano in the South). In central Italy to the East of Rome and Lazio, Abruzzo is on the opposite coast on the Adriatic Sea, with sea and mountains, snow and sunshine, and a wonderful food culture dotted regionally among small towns and villages. I have been to Abruzzo twice. A gorgeous spot, under the tourist radar and who knows why? You need a car to get a round, as is the case for much of Southern Italy below it, it is worth the effort.

Pasta in production & drying at the Rustichella pastificio

The terroir (the mountains, hills, spring water, soil and proximity to the sea) is important here. The flour produced from the local grains, combined with the local water sourced from the mountain springs produced great pasta. The prevailing winds and humidity in the hills ensured that, in season, the pasta could be dried at a pace that produced dried pasta of a superior quality that could be used throughout the year. Slow drying allows fermentation which creates more intense flavour, and also makes pasta more digestible. Some of our best foods (in terms of flavour and ease of digestion) are a result of preservation and fermentation, pasta is an excellent example of this. 

How Dried Pasta is Made, from Grain 

Once the grain is harvested, it is cleaned, tempered and milled. To make the pasta, the flour is mixed with water and kneaded. No salt is added at any point, which is one of the reasons why it is so important to salt your pasta water properly. This is how you season it. When the dough is ready the pasta is extruded through bronze dies and then dried in the prevailing winds. Traditionally, the pasta was arranged on racks and dried naturally as the wind blew through the long rooms lined with windows on either side of the pastificios (pasta factories). This is now managed using a technical process in a climate controlled room, and takes approximately 24 hours for a high quality dried pasta. The wheat production is seasonal, and so pasta was (and remains in some places) a seasonal product. We are used to seeing it on shelves all year round, and so we forget that. 

The First Harvest in Abruzzo 

I went to Abruzzo last summer for the first harvest or Primograno (first grain) at Rustichella d’Abruzzo. A family owned and run pastificio producing high quality dried pasta in Abruzzo since 1924 (starting in Penne, yes, there is a town called Penne!). Four generations later, Gianluigi Peduzzi wanted to bring back the flavour of the pasta that he remembered from his grandfathers mill in Penne, using 100% Abruzzo wheat derived from four specific heirloom varieties which can be traced back to the wheat used in his grandfathers time. Four different primograno pastas are made with this heirloom flour, which is grown by 14 farmers over 60 hectares near Pianella in Abruzzo. 

To celebrate we had dinner (with lots of pasta, naturally!) and then watched the Pupe dance. A large papier mache doll with a man dancing inside to music, and fireworks flying off her head.

Wonderful, and only in Abruzzo. 

Rustichella d’Abruzzo hosted my stay in Abruzzo, but all editorial is my own, as always. Primograno is a seasonal product, and when in season, it is available at Odysea online, who also sell other Rustichella pastas, which I recommend (and use in my kitchen). Irish readers, I bought some Rustichella d’Abruzzo pasta at Sheridan’s when I was last home (the orecchiette is superb!), and I just checked, and some Rustichella products, including pasta flour, are available online.

You have not been to Rome? You must go, make it your next trip away. You have been already? Go again! Rome is constantly evolving and on top of wonderful traditional old school restaurants, there are lots of new and exciting things to explore when you next visit. And it is Rome, the Eternal City, a very special place. There are some cities that I will always try to spend a few days in if I am passing through. Rome is one, one of the first world cities that I visited at a very naive and tender age of 19. I didn’t leave Ireland until I was 18, so it was an exciting time, and I loved it.

Rome was magical for me. I had spent the summer in Nice, and hopped on the train to Florence for a princely sum of about £25, Irish pounds, there was no euro yet. The trains were still quite old school then, little rooms with wooden doorways and glass windows, with six seats in each. There was a lady with a cat in a box opposite me and it all felt so exotic and utterly European, I travelled wide eyed and excited, I mean imagine travelling with a cat, didn’t they just stay at home? (I was VERY naive). I hadn’t told a soul, it was my secret. This was really the awakening of my sense of adventure.

I stopped first in Florence but I found it it too quiet and there were so many old people (did I mention I was 19?) so I headed to Rome. Rome captured my heart swiftly by virtue of its sheer gorgeousness and further via channels of potato pizza, pasta and gelato. I couldn’t quite believe how beautiful was. I felt small, I felt overwhelmed, I felt every inch a part of it.

It was in Rome that I had my first coffee, becoming a daily cappuccino, the start of a fully fledged coffee obsession. I discovered chickpeas, I mean what were these things? In tins, but no tomato sauce? You said they were beans?! My childhood diet had been a very traditional Irish one, and I was experiencing a sensory overload. I stayed in a hostel near Rome’s Termini station and met people from so many different places all over the world. Rome changed the way I thought about food and the world that I live in. It sparked something joyful in me.

I have now been to Rome five times. Each time is different, that is just the way Rome is. There are so many areas, so much to discover and it is evolving and changing all the time.  I do have favourite restaurants that I always try to return to there are always lots of new ones to explore. I have stayed in many different places, Prati a couple of times (near the Vatican), Termini (near the main train station) and the last two times I have stayed in the Aventino, a sleepy residential hill in Rome just next to Testaccio.

Aventino is wonderful. A residential hill peering over the Tiber with Tesctaccio to the side, it is sleepy and calm. There are lots of trees, few people (although there seems to have been a segway tour invasion recently) and a beautiful quiet orange grove overlooking the whole city. I highly recommend it for the sanctity and the calm.  Last year, I sat in that orange grove and watched two young nuns gather pine nuts and eat them while I supped on a little glass of wine (smuggled from my hotel).

Rome is a calorific city but in a glorious way. Don’t even think about calories when you are in Rome, for me. Rome grabs you by the chops and forces you into submission. Romans love cheese, they love guanciale (the best bacon made from the jowl of the pig), they love pasta, which they in turn love to coat with cheese, bacon and egg. Romans love to fry things, they are famous for their fritti. And Romans will cut an enormous slice of Roman pizza for you using a scissors, or better still, a sandwich made from porchetta in pizza bianchi, as big as you want. I always order more than I can eat. I just can’t help it. And then I walk everywhere, at least 10 miles a day. It all balances out.

WHERE TO EAT PIZZA AND PASTA IN ROME 

PIZZA

Yes, Rome does pizza too. In Rome there are two types: pizza al taglio and Roman pizza. Pizza al taglio is made in large rectangular trays and served at Tavola Caldas (places that sell hot food to go or eat in, translating as hot tables). The best of these are Pizzarium or Panifico Bonci, both owned by Gabriele Bonci. The pizzas here are excellent, as are the suppli (Roman croquettes made with pasta and other bits and bobs).  At Panificio Bonci there is also tremendous porchetta which is served in a sandwich of pizza bianchi, an olive oil brushed flat bread and a must in Rome. Head to Antico Forno Roscioli for their pizza bianca which they are deservedly famous for. 

PASTA

Rome = pasta joy. There are four main pastas of Rome that you have to try: cacio e pepe (pecorino and black pepper), gricia (pecorino, black pepper and guanciale), carbonara (pecorino, black pepper, guanciale and egg) and amatriciana (pecorino, tomato, guanciale, chilli). So that is your list to start, and here is where you have them.

The carbonara at Roscioli is a must. Roscioli is a superb restaurant in a deli. Far from undiscovered, there are lots of tourists here but lots of locals too. Again, order the lardo, a lardo selection, I die. Burrata with anchovies (or sun dried tomatoes) is wonderful, and the carbonara is one of the best in town. 

Flavio al Velavevodetto in Testaccio is one of the favourites of lots of local food writers. I liked it a lot. The pasta used is rigatoni which makes a nice change from spaghetti (which no matter how much I eat, I can only love). 

Da Felice a Testaccio is properly local. Everyone orders the Cacio e Pepe here, which they combine with speed and vigour and the help of a fork tableside. HELLO. I had a wonderful plate for fritti to start and a pretty lovely tiramisu to finish.

Head to L’Arcangelo in Prati for sublime Gnocchi di Patate alla Amatriciana. Pillow soft with a rich fruity sauce sharp with guanciale. 

Lots more coming soon – I am working on comprehensive food and drink guides for everywhere I have visited, but as you can imagine, it ain’t a small job!  You can always look at my instagram and twitter and search for places I have visited. I always put the places I loved there. 

I left Barolo full of the joys of Spring, or was that the intense heat of summer? The first half of my walk was joyful, through the upper terraces of the Barolo vineyards, passing gardens rich with vegetable bounty, courgette flowers, plums, so many tomatoes. The occasional yappy dog, they do love them in Italy. I knew I was tired when I was overtaken by an elderly man walking two tiny dogs as I approached Monforte d’Alba, yet another of Piedmonts beautiful hilltop towns. I was in no rush, I smiled, attempted to communicate in Italian, and carried on. 

My arrival was less glamorous. The Hotel Villa Beccaris, a beautiful four star property at the top of the hill was beautiful, relaxed and had the most glorious views. But after a long walk in the sun, the hill was a challenge. It surprised me that it ended with a sprint, one of those yappy dogs fled his old lady owner in pursuit of me when he decided that my ankles were much more appealing. Speckled with mosquito bites, sprayed with deet, and covered with sunscreen, who could disagree? She yelled at him, I shrieked and ran. And there I was in Monforte d’Alba. 

The evenings are lovely there, in July still warm and scented with jasmine. Monforte d’Alba is lively, there is lots of music, particularly Jazz throughout the summer. One of my evenings there on my walk home uphill, I was enticed enough to descend again by the sounds of live jazz on the soft summer breeze. I followed it, winding down and around the narrow streets and up some steps where I met a crowd watching a jazz band playing on an open piazza. 

I had two nights in Monforte d’Alba, one of my non walking days (although plenty of options are offered for those that want to keep going). I focussed instead on the food. 

Lunch at Trattoria della Posta

I only realised after eating at Trattoria della Posta that it was featured on The Trip to Italy last year. In a country house a few kilometres outside of Monforte d’Alba, the first thing I noticed was the beautiful large country kitchen which you can see from the reception desk. I sat outside in the hint of a breeze and chose between primi and secondi – I know, but truly, I can’t do a crazy large lunch and a large dinner too, this much I have learned.

There was a very enticing rabbit roasted in lardo on the menu but the pasta was too good: I ravioli verdi di caprino con salsiccia di Bra e porri – green ravioli filled with a fresh goats cheese with cooked Bra sausage on top. It was gorgeous, the pasta so thin and delicate, the cheese bright and so fresh and the sausage a beautiful crumbly contrast. I also had a very pleasant vegetable soup, why I ordered hot soup on such a hot day, I will never know. I will be back for the rabbit some day. 

Dinner at Il Giardino da Felicin

Il Giardino da Felicin is bubbling. A restaurant set in a garden, also a hotel, the terrace was packed and very lively the evening that I ate there. The food is based on tradition but is not conventional. I had a beautiful handmade pasta, but I also had a salad which is a twist on fried chicken (it is tasty and fun). The details are impressive, tiny herbs picked fresh from the kitchen garden garnish the dishes, and the flavours are bright, the tomatoes in particular were divine. There is an impressive cellar for wine lovers wishing to explore the region with dinner.   

Dinner at Osteria dei Catari

The night I arrived in Monforte d’Alba, I was taken by the sight of this little alley, painted in bright colours with a cat at the top of it. I was still making my way to the hotel, but I made sure I found out what was down there, and it was Osteria dei Catari, one of the restaurants at which I had planned to eat at. Another open courtyard restaurant (you can eat inside in the winter as with da Felicin), Monfortina ham with summer truffle was gorgeous, the colour seductive and the flavour intense, almost like a bresaola. For primi I had buckwheat maltagliati (misshapen pasta) with bra sausage and fresh tomato. They really care about the sourcing here, sourcing mainly from local small farms, and you can taste it. 

Breakfast at Hotel Villa Beccaris

The breakfast at Hotel Villa Beccaris is buffet style, as with most Italian restaurants. There are eggs you can boil to your liking, pastries, beautiful jam tarts and juices. But what is most impressive is the incredible glass room in which it is served. It is like a Victorian greenhouse. I loved my mornings there. 

My Gastronomic Walking Tour of Barolo was sponsored as part of a #30activedays project, a partnership between Captivate Digital Media and Headwater Holidays to celebrate 30 years of  activity holidays by Headwater Holidays, including Gastronomic Walking and Cycling Trips. I maintain full editorial control of the content published on this site, as always.

Barolo is an aspiration, in every way. I want to drink the wine, all the time. The Barolo, the Arneis, the Barbera and the Chardonnay. I had wanted to visit there for a while, who wouldn’t want to go to the epicentre of Barolo production, home to truffles in summer & winter, the food must be good too, right? 

Getting to Barolo (when already there) is a mission, when on foot, at least. I could not believe my eyes when faced with a sneaky hill seemingly hidden behind of and leading into this pretty town. I was in denial at this point, you see.

But, it was worth it.

I spent the bulk of my day there, choosing to walk early in the morning to Barolo from the top of that hill where Castiglione Falletto is perched. That hill. That vicious one. It was a gorgeous walk, through vineyards, by a stream, under boughs of elder tress laden with enthusiastic overarching elderberries. It seemed as though they were playing in the sun. It was hot, and so I paused by a fountain and in a moment of sweet release, poured a bottle of water over my head. Finally a use for long thick hair in that heatwave, soak it and let it cool you down. 

It was hot, I walked from tree to tree, stopping for some shade each time, up the hill to the arch through which you walk (or drive), to reach Barolo. One of the nicest towns in Piedmont (and they are all pretty gorgeous) Barolo is well set up to cater for tourists, there are wine tastings everywhere, lots of shops selling local food and wine, a wine museum and a corkscrew museum, and plenty of places to eat. Yet, it doesn’t feel in any way tatty, as some tourist towns can be. It is elegant, and refined, and in general tastes really good. I had planned two lunches, an early and a late one, just you know, so we know where is best to go? I did this for you, and for me. Oh yeah, I did, really, you know I did. Don’t look at me like that.

I started with Barolo & Friends, a trendy modern affair, and the first place I spotted when I turned into Barolo after that wretch of a hill. A glass of Barolo to start, some very good veal crudo (a veal tartare essentially), with summer truffle on top, a whisper of what is to come with the white truffles in the Autumn. Then some pasta, some plin ravioli filled with three kinds of meat, very good too. The good thing about Barolo & Friends is that it is open all day, which is rare in this part of the world. It can be difficult to eat outside of meal times in Italy.

As charming as it is, I would suggest that if you are in Barolo for just one meal head up the road a little to the wonderful Rosso Barolo. I am so glad I decided to have a late lunch here, just at the end of service. I loved everything about it, the room, the service, the lovely wines by the glass and the food. It was my perfect kind of lunch, I just had my book for company, and all the time I needed to enjoy it all.

I started with vietello tonnato, sliced veal with tuna mayonnaise, particular to the region. I think this is the best version of that dish that I have ever had. I struggled to finish the large portion, and at one point raised my eyes from my book to see that the lady of the house had her eyes level with my unfinished dish, at which point she looked directly at me, intensely, she tutted, in a slightly stern but funny way, and then she walked away. I finished it. For primi, I had a wonderful tajarin with fresh summer truffles, tajarin is a local fine pasta noodle, and it was handmade, of course. And that was all I could eat. 

I proceeded back down the street and sat on a bench in the shade next to two local ladies gossiping intently about everyone who walked past, saying hello and then passing comment as soon as they were gone. I allowed the sun to go down a little, and then I proceeded on my walk from Barolo to Monfort d’Alba. This was my my favourite walk of the week through the vineyard terraces out of and above Barolo, affording the most gorgeous views of that prettiest of Piedmont towns.

My Gastronomic Walking Tour of Barolo was sponsored as part of a #30activedays project, a partnership between Captivate Digital Media and Headwater Holidays to celebrate 30 years of  activity holidays by Headwater Holidays, including Gastronomic Walking and Cycling Trips. I maintain full editorial control of the content published on this site, as always.

Have you ever had a nemesis? Something that makes you want to swear and shout, a thing that you think that you can’t beat but you still try, something that makes you want to throw your arms in the air and fall down and not think of getting up again for a while? Maybe just stay there, you know, forever. Was it ever a vineyard on a hill? 

Yeah. I am deadly serious. 

One day of my recent trek from town to town in Piedmont, my last kilometre or so was up a hill. It looked bad as I walked down the hill before to get there. I say a walk, more of a slow deliberate trot through woods and vineyards, winding and meandering and looking at that hill with Castiglione Falletto perched on top.

I had my book, my saving grace, and every now and then when the heatwave became too much, or the hill started to defeat me, I would stop in the shade of a hazelnut grove or a vine, crouched low, avoiding any spot of sun, and remove my head from the situation for 10 minutes, immersing myself instead in the West of Ireland at Christmas time via Anne Enright’s The Green Road. I could almost feel the cold. 

You shouldn’t think badly of Castiglione Falletto, of course, even though it is the villain of this piece. It is a hilltop Piedmontese town of less than a 1000 people, all seemingly perfectly harmless and lovely, ensconced on top. When I arrived, triumphant, I was shattered but I felt good. I could see that it was a pretty little place with a bar perched over the hill, a favourite stop for weary walkers, and just beyond that the main piazza with the Locanda del Centro, and next to that a shop selling all sorts of things, staffed by a sleeping elderly lady with her shoes kicked off. Castiglione Falletto is charming. 

For dinner I went and raised a glass to the hill, overlooking it. I may have been a bit gloaty (just in my head). Maybe more than one glass of wine, I had beaten it, I had triumphed after all. I had more than earned it.

I spent my evening at Ristorante L’Argaj which has a terrace overlooking those fateful vineyard terraces beneath. Sun setting, wine in hand, and my book that gave me the illusion of the cold, I had lightly fried courgette flowers, not stuffed but stiff and proud in their batter, and all the better for it.

Lasagnetta with buffalo mozzarella and courgette was a light small flavourful lasagne crisp with cheese on top.

How could I resist the milk fed suckling pig to finish? I couldn’t and it was very good served with pink lady apples and fennel.

After all of that walking I still had room for dessert – this rarely happens, I always prioritise savoury – and had ripe peaches (which I had been looking at longingly on the trees as I walked), lightly oven roasted with chocolate gelato and almond sauce.   

And with that, back to bed, and to sleep, for the next morning, I was walking to Barolo.  

In Castiglione Falletto, I stayed at Hotel Le Torri. My Gastronomic Walking Tour of Barolo was sponsored as part of a #30activedays project, a partnership between Captivate Digital Media and Headwater Holidays to celebrate 30 years of  activity holidays by Headwater Holidays, including Gastronomic Walking and Cycling Trips. I maintain full editorial control of the content published on this site, as always.

Sunday morning was the day of my first Piedmont walk. And it was HOT. Italy is experiencing a heatwave right now. I gathered my bags and had my briefing with the Headwater team before they dropped me at my first stop.

A little about the Headwater setup first. As you will have read in my last post on Piedmont, my trip to Piedmont was part of the #30activedays blogger project with Headwater Holidays. 5 bloggers were involved in Italy, France & Austria, each doing an activity holiday. Not my usual travel style, although I am keen to be more active, I love slow travel and I love to walk. Headwater make it easy, the walks are already detailed in notes and maps which they send you before you go to Italy.

Every morning that you walk, the team move your bags to the next hotel, not just that, they have a wine delivery service and will pick up any wine that you buy too, delivering it to your final hotel for you to collect before you go home. Easy! Headwater also book your dinners (and they pride themselves on their local food and wine knowledge – the restaurants booked were testament to that). Lunch is your own affair with mention in the notes of local restaurants, trattorias and shops, picnic location suggestions and also advisory on where you can buy food en route. I stuck to the local restaurants, I love them and wanted to maximise my pasta scoffing opportunities while I was there.

My first walk started in Verduno, a sleepy place where all awake were at morning mass. The streets were deserted but I heard the familiar mass refrains and singing through a net curtained window. It was hot, very hot, so I hid every now and then in the shade an occasional wood might offer or in a hazelnut grove, arriving a couple of hours later at Roddi, my first stop, and where I had planned to lunch.

Roddi is a university town, not that you would know it to look at it. It is tiny, and there is hardly anyone about. But a university town it is and it is home to the Truffle Dog University, which was founded in 1880. Bright canines can be taught to sniff out one of the worlds finest delicacies here, Albas white truffles are some of the best. Have you ever tried one? They are incredible, so pungent and gorgeous with just an egg, perfect on a vacherin cheese. Truffles love fat, they are very indulgent, and quite pricey, but I do try to treat myself to one every year, just a small one for one dish. 

I had to eat. But it was Sunday and nowhere was open and I hadn’t planned anything. I started to worry, could my first lunch be foiled?! I spotted a restaurant down a side street. It didn’t look open, nothing did, but I was just the first customer. Around here people don’t lunch until 1pm and it was 12.30. La Crota was open and was serving home made pasta. Hello! I will have that, yes, please. 

I started with a typical dish, Tajarin with Ragu & Black Truffles. It is summer truffle season now and while summer truffles are just a hint of what is to come with white truffle season, when fresh as they are here, they are good. Tajarin is a thin cut egg pasta and the ragu here is served sparingly, as I have found often in Italy. Which on a hot day makes perfect sense. With some crisp white wine, a local Arneis, even more so. Then I packed my bag again and made my way. 

This was when it got challenging. It was hot. Really hot. So I continued to dip in and out of hazelnut groves having gentle rests and reading my book. Down a hill, and a gentle walk through some woods, a stretch on a quiet road, and then the ascent through a wooded park area to my next stop, Grinzane Cavour, home to a UNESCO heritage castle and the annual World Truffle Auction. I had a little lie down en route and luxuriated in the shade of a passing cloud. I ascended the final stretch, turned on to the street and, then – boom – loud speakers. I had landed there on the day of their annual fiesta, Fiesta della Madonna del Carmine.

Later that evening, all of the locals gathered in a marquee to eat a set menu cooked by some local volunteers. It was served by those in the area who had been born in 1997 (and they all had a t-shirt that said 97, too!). Next year it will be 1998 etc. It looked like fun but I was headed to Al Castello Ristorante.

Marc Lanteri is chef here, originally from Tende in the French Alps, Marc’s food reflects both cultures, but with a twist. Marc started cooking with Alain Ducasse at Louis XV in Monte Carlo, before working in Paris and then in Piedmont where he was worked primarily in michelin starred kitchens since. There is a terrific wine list too, which Marc’s wife Amy, front of house and a sommelier, looks after, matching being a keen skill, so do take advantage of that should you visit.

Hand chopped raw beef (or crudo, as it is called here), served with beautiful raw red prawns from San Remo and perfectly ripe buttery avocado started my meal. I ate lots of crudo in Piedmont, and this was one of my favourite executions.

Tajarin with piedmont hazelnuts and a wonderful rich ragù of pigeon and chanterelle mushroom followed.

Piedmontese beef is renowned, so I opted for it a second time in one meal, this time cooked as a steak served with potatoes and mushrooms with Barolo wine reduction. Served medium rare, the flavour of the meat was deep and the reduction rich but not overwhelming. I did also taste the duck, just a bit, and it was one of finest I had tasted in a while, I would order that on my return (which I hope to).

I couldn’t resist a cheeky dessert of spiced pineapple carpaccio with Piña Colada sorbet with a little rum on the side.

At which point something sounded like a canon, and I jumped out of my seat. I was in a castle after all. Seconds later I spied that it was the fireworks to finish the fiesta that evening, a lengthy spectacle, impressive for such a small town, which I watched through the castle window.

The party was still in full swing when I returned to Casa Pasevi, my hotel. A townhouse with a terrace perched over the hills and vineyards beyond, my room had a balcony overlooking it all. I had breakfast on the terrace before hitting my next Piedmont town, and my next walk. More on that soon! 

My Gastronomic Walking Tour of Barolo was sponsored as part of a #30activedays project, a partnership between Captivate Digital Media and Headwater Holidays to celebrate 30 years of  activity holidays by Headwater Holidays, including Gastronomic Walking and Cycling Trips. I maintain full editorial control of the content published on this site, as always.

I was in Italy this past week to walk it. Yes, I was walking in the country that is shaped like a boot. Specifically, Piedmont in the North, and its UNESCO protected vineyard terraces, castles and gorgeous hilltop towns and villages. 

This was quite the workout, ensuring that I earned every bite of pasta that I ate. And there was a lot to eat. And yeah, I did. Of course, I did! Italy is one of my favourite countries for food and I love the culinary education that I get with every visit. This wasn’t my first trip to Piedmont but I still discovered new pasta shapes and sauces, each enthusiastic forkful fired my brain and filled my head with ideas and plans for kitchen adventures. 

I love slow travel, I wish that I could do it more often. Walking, boats, trains, time by myself where I can tune out and just be. Time to get to know the place that I am visiting and soak it all in, at pace. Piedmont is perfect for this. Piedmont is rich, green and undulating, dotted with small towns and villages perched on hills. All surrounded by stunning UNESCO protected vineyard terraces which weave through woods, hazelnut groves and the occasional cheerful field of enthusiastic sunflowers. If feels like it has stopped in time.

My walking tour was self guided, I did it on my own, and it was a joy. Walks were planned in detail with comprehensive instructions and maps, but there was plenty of time for leisurely lunches and there was lots of time snatched to read in the shade of trees and hazelnut groves, especially in the hottest part of the day. I love solo travel and I have so enjoyed wandering the vineyard terraces and admiring the beautiful views with nothing but my head to contend with. Headspace! The joy of it. I recommend it. 

While ambling there are a few things to consider. I was on my own and occasionally saw a farmer or a cyclist, once a guy riding a horse through the vineyards, but very occasionally I was on a road. Few people remember that Italy is home to the worlds fastest moving panda, a Fiat Panda, and you must look out for them as they zip around the corners, but honestly I think I was only on a road for 5% of the time. To the point where after a day wandering vineyards, hazelnut groves and woods, I started to notice just how loud cars are. Really loud! 

Lots more to come on the gorgeous towns of Piedmont including Grinzane Cavour with its UNESCO protected castle which I visited on the day of its annual fiesta; sleepy gorgeous Castiglione Falletto perched on the top of my most challenging hill; Barolo, perhaps the most beautiful, with that wine, and my favourite walk of the week; Monforte d’Alba, the most characterful and lively;  and Benevello, where I started and finished my trip.

My Gastronomic Walking Tour of Barolo was sponsored as part of a #30activedays project, a partnership between Captivate Digital Media and Headwater Holidays to celebrate 30 years of  activity holidays by Headwater Holidays, including Gastronomic Walking and Cycling Trips. I maintain full editorial control of the content published on this site, as always.

I spend a wonderful 4 days in Abruzzo earlier this year cooking and eating with the Grandmothers of Abruzzo. I was working on a recipe based project with the tourist board, and we put together a video of my trip there. Enjoy! 

See my previous Abruzzo post: Dispatches from Abruzzo, Italy: Cooking with the Grandmothers of Abruzzo and Where to Eat

I visited Abruzzo with Visit Abruzzo to explore the region and shoot a video with them, which I will share shortly. Londoners can fly to Pescara in Abruzzo from London Stansted, or you can drive (or get a bus) from Rome.

Have you been to Abruzzo in Italy? Do you know of Abruzzo? It is surprising that given the vibrance of the region, particularly in terms of food, and that it is only a 2 hour drive from Rome, that only a few are blazing the tourist trail from outside Italy, when you compare it to other regions.

Abruzzo is where Italians go on holiday and it is a gem. I visited on a whistle stop tour to shoot some video with Visit Abruzzo in the early Spring. All I could think on my return was, I wish that I had brought a bigger suitcase to bring stuff home (Abruzzo has wonderful wine, pasta, truffles and saffron, just to start), and it must not be long until I return again.

Abruzzo has seaside villages, snow capped mountain top towns (with only half an hour between them), and small towns threaded by winding country roads in between. There are cities too, but they won’t overwhelm you. Pescara, where I flew into, is small, buzzing and friendly. I arrived in the evening and had my first meal at Locanda Manthonè, a highly regarded local restaurant serving produce from the region. Sagne e fagioli was a perfect pasta dish with locally farmed beans and a hint of chilli (which features in the cuisine here like much of Southern Italy). Gallo all cafona (cockerel cooked contadini style) followed. A perfect start and wonderful introduction to the food of Abruzzo.

Locanda Manthonè, Corso Gabriele Manthone, 58, 65127 Pescara PE, Italy

The next morning we headed to Mosciano Sant’Angelo in Teramo to cook and have lunch at Borgo Spoltino. The restaurant, surrounded by fields and olive trees and with a view of Gran Sasso, has a beautiful kitchen garden where we began our day gathering ingredients for lunch. The chef and his mother cooked lunch with us, there is nothing quite like learning from an Italian Nonna, especially when it comes to pasta. We made a hand rolled and cut local pasta, the sagne from the night before, served this time with locally grown lentils. The chef demonstrated every dish, which we then ate in the dining room. So charming, and all served with lovely local wines also.

Borgo Spoltino, Strada Provinciale 15, Provincia di Teramo, Italy

We hit the road again, and headed for Civitella del Tronto, a village in the mountains, and home to a large ancient fortress which was literally in the clouds on my visit. It snowed that night, and we woke to a silent dreamy landscape where bright reaching rays of sun tried to wake up the land. I cooked with another local chef at Zunica 1880 where we made a saffron carbonara (saffron grows abundantly in Abruzzo. An interesting twist on a local favourite (there is some dispute between Lazio and Abruzzo about the origins of this dish).

Zunica 1880, Piazza Filippi Pepe, 14, 64010 Civitella del Tronto TE, Italy

A slow careful drive through the snow the next morning while I admired and soaked up the gorgeous views, brought us to the seaside. The weather was unusual and the normally calm sea was wild, which I quite liked, it reminded me of my own Atlantic. I cooked brodetto alla vastese with Maria, near their trabocchi, a fishing structure that dips nets into the sea, unique to Abruzzo. Farmers, who were afraid of the water, developed this technique to harvest fish from the sea. Brodetto alla vastese is a lovely tomato based fish soup made with a selection of fish sourced locally.

Cooking class organised by Italia Sweet Italia, and highly recommended.

My next cooking session was at the wonderful Agriturismo Caniloro, an agriturismo that makes most of their own produce, even their flour which they mill themselves. I had a couple of cooking sessions there with two fantastic nonnas. We made pizza scima (translated as stupid pizza) which instead of water, is made with wine, and cooked in a wood fire covered with a solid metal lid which is covered with fire also. You can image the gorgeous smoked flavour. Dinner that evening was a beautiful rabbit and potato stew with their rosé wine, all by a roaring fire. The next morning I made pasta with tiny Nonna Antoinietta (bear in mind that I am only 5′ 4″ / 1.6m tall!), a treat, and an inspiration.

Agriturismo Caniloro, Contrada S. Onofrio 134, 66034 Lanciano CH, Italy

It was time to explore some traditional pastries, and so we headed back to the mountains to Guardiagrele to sample Sise delle Moniche pastries. Wonderfully fluffy and indulgent, don’t you love that the shop has a brush to wipe the sugar from your clothes after?

Then for lunch down the road to sample my first arrosticini, irresistible grilled mutton skewers (and that is one portion!) at Cantina del Tripio, followed by some handmade pasta. All in a local Abruzzo lunch!

What a wonderful experience. I found the people of Abruzzo to be gentle and friendly, it was a real pleasure to travel around the region and cook with them. I only saw a small slice of it too.

I visited Abruzzo with Visit Abruzzo to explore the region and shoot a video with them, which I will share shortly. Londoners can fly to Pescara in Abruzzo from London Stansted, or you can drive (or get a bus) from Rome.

Acetaia Pedroni, near Modena

In a small town outside Modena, there is an acetaia called Aceaia Pedroni. Here they make balsamic vinegar, the real balsamic vinegar, and the Pedroni family have been making it in this location since 1862. Now run by Italo, 80 and his wife Franca (who still cooks in the family taverna), they make balsamic vinegar and some wines, including lambrusco and pignoletto (local sparkling wines).

Italo, with his vinegars

We all know balsamic vinegar, but few of us know the real stuff. The Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena (which it must be called by law) takes a minimum of 12 years to mature through a patient process of evaporation and careful management in a family of at least five barrels, called a battery. This process is protected and governed by law, and the vinegar and acetaia are checked by government representatives.

The barrel batteries

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar starts with grapes, Trebbiano (a white grape) in Acetaia Pedroni’s case. These are gently crushed, now by machine, but before by children primarily, as it needed to be gentle. The grapes are then cooked and reduced to create a grape must. This must is fermented in batteries of barrels, some of which are ancient, as a balsamic barrel is never thrown out, it is repaired, sometimes by putting a new barrel on the outside but always keeping the old barrel, as this is where flavour is. A battery must have a minimum of five barrels, from small to large, each one increasing in size.

The acetaia, complete with confessional. The land used to be owned by the church but it is now owned by a collective of families and has been for hundreds of years.

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Blessed are the Facenna cheese makers :)

Tucked away behind a barrage of windy roads lies a small holding. On it, an old two storey house, battered with years and the breeze that besieges its hilltop position. Up some external stairs, there is a little one room apartment. A bed in the corner, windows looking around, a small kitchen and a table. There is no electricity. Below, an old living room with a large fireplace above which cow bells hang on collars of all sizes for the newest calves to the largest bull.

Outside the house, overlooking, is a field full of cows. These are Podolica cows, native to Southern Italy. Large working beasts. Beautiful. In front, and to the right of the house, a long shed. In here there are pigs and piglets. Lots of them. Then calves to the left of them and right beside the house, still milk fed by their mothers. Overlooking, literally, balancing on a stony hedge because they are not satisfied with their massive field, some goats. Peeking in. A cat supervises from the top of the stairs and a puppy is running around beside himself. Because puppies always are, aren’t they?

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When I visited Puglia, I was surprised to discover that locals consider it under the radar. Ok, I am food obsessed, but I have known about Puglia’s food reputation for years, and have long wanted to visit. I thought that everyone did! (And I think that food bods do). Who could resist the lure of the home of burrata and orecchiette, and all of that lovely fish?

When I arrived in Bari, I was surprised to see very few tourists. There were lots of locals embracing their city, tiny toddlers whizzing around, stumbling on foot, and older siblings speeding by on bicycles (ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling!). Nonnis and Nonnas sitting outside their houses chattering, perched on stools. Young couples ambling by, deep in romance. A wedding. A random guy shaving his legs in the middle of the street. Bari has character, and lots of them living there too. I was charmed.

Where we have corner shops, Bari (and Puglia generally) has salumerias. Small shops rich with meaty bounty, bulbous waxy cheeses dangle from the ceiling (cacciovallo), towers of foccacia blink (a specialty of Bari too) and there is fresh hand made orecchiette and cavatelli to take home. They will make you a sandwich with whatever you fancy too.

I used Bari as a base and travelled to Barletta, Tranni, Apricena & Polignano a Mare. A cosy four day trip and so easy from London with direct flights. Bari is a small city, with a population of approximately 320,000, a perfect antidote to London when in need of a break. I also visited a farm and a dairy, but more on that in my next post.

This is not a definitive list, and I intend to go back, so if you have any tips for me, please leave them in the comments below. Thank you!

BARI

When in Puglia, generally, you must have orecchiette, but particularly so in Bari. Try it first with pomodoro (tomato sauce) and caccioricotta (also called ricotta dura, a harder saltier ricotta). Foccacia is also king, and the best in Bari is said to be in the old city at Panificio Fiore (Strada Palazzo di Citta’ 38, Bari) – sadly I didn’t make this, but I had an excellent one from a downtown salumeria (the gorgeous Salumeria Nino).

Osteria delle Travi

A friendly family run restaurant in the old city, you can get excellent renditions of the local fare here – orecchiette with pomodori, fritture di pesce (with excellent local Adriatic fish) and braciole (a traditional horsemeat dish).

Osteria delle Travi, Largo Chyurlia 12, 70122 Bari

Ristorante La Cecchina

Located in the town square in the old town, and the perfect location to witness the local hustle bustle, try the wholewheat orecchiette with tomato and burrata and the excellent seafood pasta, and fritture de pesce as above.

Ristorante La Cecchina, Piazza Mercantile, 31, 70121 Bari

Sgagliozze, street food

The best sgagliozze in Bari is said to be cooked by Maria delle Sgagliozze (Maria of the Sgagliozze) outside of her house downtown. I didn’t find her on my trip, but there are plenty of others to sample. I found one as I turned a street corner and peered inside a shop, over a large pot of boiling extra virgin olive oil. Within were long bars of polenta, which had been air dried for up to 3 days, so that they are rendered perfectly crisp when fried, and then served with lots of sea salt. The Bari version of chips (dare I say better?), lots of people make it, just look out for ladies behind big pots on street corners. You can’t miss it. (I paid €1 for 6 too).

The Fish Market

Located on the lungomare, just opposite Piazza Eroi del Mare, this is where the fishermen pull up in their small fishing boats and sell their wares. A great place to try the Puglian tradition of eating raw fish, sample sea urchin (I promise that it is rich, buttery & divine), mussels, or octopus which the fishermen tenderise by the water by beating it with a large wooden paddle (it is dead at the time, naturally).

Salumeria Nino

I don’t know if Salumeria Nino is the best Salumeria in Bari, I hazard there are many excellent ones, but I was charmed by it and went to stock up on treats to bring home. I highly recommend a visit.

Salumeria Nino, Via Vallisa 30, Bari

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Next stop: Puglia. This, I am very excited about. Puglia has a rich culinary heritage and diverse wine culture (I have been told there are 24 types of wine that I need to try – ok then!). It is the heel and spur, if Italy was a boot, and has lots of fresh seafood from its long Adriatic coastline. Orecchiete, burrata, friselli, taralli, pizzette, puccia and lots of other joys pepper too.

I am here for four nights to explore, indulge in the food scene and to broadcast all about it from Puglia to Dublin, live. Yes! If in Dublin, be sure to pop down to the roadshow at the Puglia Village on George’s Dock. Running until Tuesday 15th July there will be live music, wine tasting, cooking demos, food samples, and it is all free. They want to share the Puglia love.

I will be broadcasting to the Puglia Village on George’s Dock at 1pm and 4pm on Friday (tomorrow) and 11.30am and 1pm on Saturday. You can only catch this at the Puglia Village so make sure you get on down there if you can. If you can’t, or are not in Dublin, don’t worry, I will be sharing lots here too. You can also follow it all by tracking #WeAreInPuglia on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook.

(Pics above are from my first few hours in Bari – nice, eh?!)

I am in Puglia for #WeAreInPuglia, a collaboration between iAmbassador and the Tourism Board of Puglia supporting the #WeAreInPuglia European road show, sponsored by the Tourism Board of Puglia. All editorial is mine, as always.

One thing  that I learned on my recent trip to Emilia Romagna is that every recipe and every dish is personal. Passion exudes from every pore, and never more than when the topic of food or the particulars of a recipe are under discussion. People in Emilia Romagna are very animated over lunch, and they are mainly discussing the food that they are eating, and just that. I love that.

People get particularly excited about homemade tagliatelle with ragu. It originates there, and Emilia has one way, Romagna another. Within those regions different families have their own approach. Bologna has a meaty dense ragu of its own (hence, Bolognese sauce). The personal differences are glorious. I had so many different ragus in trattorias all over the region. Some dense with meat and assertive, one cooked in lard and layered with white pepper (my favourite, I think), some rich and fruity with tomato with the meat appearing to surf it.

Romagnola ragu, ready to dish up.

I cooked ragu with two people in Emilia Romagna. The first was Anna, a wonderful lady based in Savignano sul Rubicone in Emilia Romagna. Romagna, to be precise, so the ragu here is different to Bologna, which is in Emilia. Anna learned from her mother, a recipe that has been passed down the generations. Anna’s ragu is a rich sauce made from a mixture of minced beef, pork and (Italian) sausage, with soffrito, red wine and passata. The second was Walter, from Lazio, but we cooked in Bologna style. I will share that another time.

Hand rolling the pasta in Anna’s kitchen. now my new favourite thing!

Today I am going to share Anna’s ragu recipe with you. She is extraordinarily generous, and gave me her time, as well as her family recipe. She is a joy to watch and to learn from, cooking with love and care, and her ragu is incredibly frugal (as I think a lot of Italian food is).

It will feed 10 people, which is quite striking when you see how little meat is involved. You probably aren’t feeding 10 people, but you know, it tastes great the next day. I love all the little extra steps in Anna’s recipe. Set aside an afternoon and make it, and think of that lovely lady Anna, who took the time to share it with me, so that I could share it with you.

Do make the effort with the homemade pasta, if you can. It makes a huge difference. It is so rewarding, too. There is a link to and Emilia Romagna homemade pasta recipe and instructions in the method below.

Thank you, Anna!

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Bologna is a fantastic city for food and drink lovers. You will be instantly charmed by the narrow streets lined with 40km of grand porticoes, some grand and others crumbling, that shelter from the Northern Italian rain and the sun in summer. The rust red walls, sometimes teasing red, yellow and brown. An ancient place with the first recorded university, there are lots of students here and it is a young buzzing city, despite its age. In Emilia Romagna, an Italian province nestled between Milan, Florence, Venice and Genoa, it is actually two historical provinces, Emilia & Romagna, both with their own food & wine identity, but with common threads.

Home to Parma ham, parmsesan cheese & balsamic vinegar, and those are just the most famous ones that you have heard of, it is also the home of pasta, specifically tagliatelle with ragu, lasagne, tortelloni and tortellini in brodo. There are several local breads, gnocco fritto (called torta fritta in Parma), a fried puffed bread that you stuff with salami, and tigelle, small patterned breads traditionally made in stacks of heated round terracotta tiles, now in pans over a fire.

The capital, Bologna is a great city to start from. Easy on the eye, brown, orange and yellow buildings are lined with porticoes – arched walkways – which protect from the rain in winter and the sun in summer. It is a gorgeous bohemian city, the perfect size for a weekend exploring, and has much to offer in terms of trattorias, gelaterias and salumerias. It is a great base from which to explore the rest of  Emilia Romagna. Trains are reasonable and frequent, if you have a car, the countryside has lots to offer too and you would miss much if you didn’t explore it.

Lambrusco and Sangiovese are the most prolific local wines. Lambrusco, a gorgeous sparkling wine, whose reputation has sadly suffered due to lots of cheap imitators in our supermarkets. My favourites were the dry sparkling reds and rosés, some rich and thick, and others light and transparent. Lambrusco is the wine of Emilia, which is perfect for clearing the palate after the rich foods usually cooked in butter there. Sangiovese is more commonly found in Romagna, where olive oil is the cooking fat of choice. Both use lard too.

There are many dishes particular to this region that you should try in Bologna. Start with tagliatelle with ragu (there is no such thing as spaghetti bolognese in Bologna), then tortellini in brodo and lasagne. Every local you speak to has a preference and strong opinion on all of these dishes. The Bolognese ragu tends to be very meaty and served with a toothsome homemade tagliatelle. Some prefer the pasta thin, but not me, I was to discover. Continue reading

I am holed up on the floor of a hot train in between carriages. There isn’t much space but I have managed to sit, curled. I can’t quite feel my legs and I am not all that bothered. I have had a great couple of days on an impromptu trip to the Emilia Romagna seaside town of Rimini, and it is cushioning me on the way home.

I had heard a lot about Rimini, little of it good. That it was a heavily touristed town and quite tacky. It is a beach town and I hate beach holidays too, although I adore the sea. When on holiday, I like to read (in the shade), mooch and wander, and explore the local food and wine scene.

But when I arrived in Bologna, locals started to tell me about the food culture in Rimini, that there were some great restaurants serving local specialities. That the centre of Rimini is an old Roman town. I had no plans for the weekend so I thought, why not? 1.5 hours on the train from Bologna and a €20 return ticket, seemed not too terrifying a gamble.

The sea air, how I miss it. It is different here to my sea air at home, all warm and gentle. Where I grew up, on the Atlantic coast in southern Ireland, the air in winter is like a constant exfoliation. It can be harsh and it is certainly direct. Here it is soft and clear, reflecting the gentle lull of the Adriatic. Continue reading

Pellegrino Artusi, Casa Artusi, The Art of Cooking Well in Forlimpopoli & A Recipe for Perfect Pasta Dough (Photo Illustrated)

Pellegrino Artusi is widely referred to as the father of Italian cuisine. Penning the first pan Italian cookbook, (self) published only 20 years after the unification of Italy in 1891 and in the language of the new unified Italy (which was the dialect of Florence), when he was 71.

Artusi’s cookbook, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, featured over 475 recipes gathered from Italian home cooks on his travels as a business man. 15 editions were published before he died 20 years later, with many further recipes added (finishing with 750).

Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well was predicted to be a commercial failure by Italian publishers at the time, and they refused to publish it, but it was a tremendous success. It has been in print since publication, and is in almost every Italian home. It has been translated into several languages also (it was translated to English in 1997). 200,000 copies were sold in his lifetime and many more in the 103 years since then.

(So, you know, the message being if you believe in something strongly enough, take a risk and make it happen. You never know, do you?)
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I have just come back from a gorgeous day. The sun shone, the sky was bright blue and was a perfect contrast to the rust brown and lighter buildings. I visited a Parmigiano Reggiano dairy and saw the whole process, I had a wonderful lunch (at a last minute destination – I am glad I made that decision!), and then I visited a prosciutto di parma producer. So far, so awesome.

I have been busy eating in Bologna, but I won’t share my list of where to eat here until the end of the trip, as there are many more eating days to go. As mentioned in my last post, you can follow everything as I go on social media which is a more immediate update. Do so by checking in on @eatlikeagirl on twitter and instagram, the Eat Like a Girl page on Facebook, and by following the hashtags#Blogville (twitter) and #InEmiliaRomagna (twitter) in all of those spaces too. I include restaurant names above the picture on instagram, which clicks through to a map too.

My day was split between Parma itself, just outside at the dairy and a few hours within for lunch and a wander. Then I went to Langhirano, home to the Parma ham producer I was visiting, and Torrechiara, which has a gorgeous 15th century castle overlooking. The castle was affected by the recent earthquake but they have done a wonderful job of restoring it. Many rooms are covered in stunning mythological 15th century frescoes, and the views are divine.

I went a bit crazy in the Parmigiano Reggiano dairy shop, but you all knew I would.

A parmigiano reggiano dairy. 1200l of fresh raw & unrefrigerated milk is in each copper and steel tub. Each tub makes 2 wheels of cheese if at capacity.

Cutting the cheese twins into two girl cheeses (if only one cheese is made in a tub it is called a boy) in the parmigiano reggiano dairy

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