Advertisement
Published: March 20th 2008
Edit Blog Post
I can't leave Emilia Romagna without talking about edible life. Nevermind the sights, what you
eat is the
most important thing, and of course, those who share in your meal or had a hand in its creation are revered. People aren't joking when they say they left Italy ten pounds heavier; they are dead serious, but I'll bet they leave satisfied and content. Once at home, they must have visions of dream banquets that just don't manifest quite like they did in Italy.
According to my father, his sister - my zia pia is simply the best cook, like his mother, and it's true! Breakfast was a light affair, little cakes with tea, perhaps an espresso. Lunch was delicious, sometimes pasta con ragu (which is a buttery, creamy, tomato and meat sauce) with salad and wine, maybe other things I've forgotten in the delerium of consumption; fruit afterwards. And dinner was a lengthy undertaking, more pasta, and meat and salad and three kinds of wine, and beer if I wanted it, and a shot of Sambuca perhaps? Pass on the Sambuca. Followed by fruit. I haven't gone into as much detail as I would like, but it has
been a long time now since I have tasted these delights, and it's difficult to record the specifics of tasty and tasty and tasty for lunch, followed by delicious, tasty and delightful for dinner.
The region of Italy in which we were staying, Emilia-Romagna, when I asked what food specialty it is known for, I got pasta as my answer, and they were not kidding. I haven't tasted such heavenly zucca-filled ravioli (that's pumpkin) with its perfect lightness and buttery melt-in-your-mouth magic since. Their pasta is perfect, it's perfect! It's fresh, and thin, and light, and not at all doughy. Despite my aunt's skills in lovingly crafting a rapturous melody of flavour, she insisted we go out to a restaurant one evening. Now, I love going out to dinner, but I saw no reason for doing such a thing in her house. I protest too much, because at the restaurant, I sampled four different kinds of pasta, all excellent. Someone ordered a trice for me, which is three different kinds of pastas, and I got to taste a bit of my cousin's as well. I could go on for days about the pasta.. but really, it's so good
in itself, they don't need to put sauce on it. It's straight pasta, cooked to perfection, served in melted butter.. but the flavour.. wow. Annarita had this artichoke cappelletti, I had the zucca ravioli, a ricotta/spinach cappelletti, and I can't remember the third selection.
We also had a plate of prosciutto crudo di Parma, because it's delicious and decadent and full of flavour. Parma is another region in Italy, close by, famous for its incredible food products. It is the home of Parmigianno Regiano - you know, that amazing cheese, and the prosciutto that I love, and I don't know what else, but apparently, it's because they've got good grass. You see, the climate is special, perfect anyway, and the cows that eat this grass produce special, excellent milk, and from this milk comes the Parmesan cheese - Parmigianno Regiano. I'm sure there is a method to making this cheese, but if the cows are not fed Parma grass, then it is not Parmigiano Regiano. It is an inferior product that strives in vain to live up to the genuine product. And everything you eat here tastes like love!
Now, the wine. It's good; enough about
that, there is excellent wine produced all over the world. I want to tell you about a special wine called Vino Lambrusco. It's red, deep, heady, flavourful wine with bubbles. Weren't expecting that were you.. well I wasn't! It's good though, really good! The bubbles give it this lightness, and you can get it dry, or sweet. I don't profess to know everything about wine.. I have too few legal drinking years under my belt, but this wine's flavour is very good, and the bubbles make it different.
My cousin made us a seafood dinner on our last night in Reggio Emilia. Little baby octopi in a tomato sauce, gnocchi, and a calamari salad that was to die for. Concentric circles of juicy ripe tomatoes, arugula, calamari rings, and cooked potatoes, dressed in olive oil. I keep sneaking more portions on to my plate, and every time someone would offer me some more of the quickly dwindling stock, my fork would already be halfway to the main dish as I had been eyeing it already and watching everyone else too.
In Italy, finish everything that's on your plate, you make people happy. Finish everything that's on your
plate before everyone else, you make people really happy, and then you're given seconds. Also your plate will be refilled time after time for as long as you can eat as long as there is still food. Eating is so great 😊 I took few pictures of the food in Italy, because eating is a serious business and you don't want taking pictures to get in the way of eating. We did take a couple of pictures, because some of the dishes were so beautiful, but honestly, do you want to risk your pasta getting cold?! It's best to eat it steaming hot 😊
I added a few pictures of downtown Reggio Emilia because we went into town to get some English books for me to read at the bookstore, and they have significance, though not to me. Also I didn't have enough photographs of the food.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0437s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb