A foodie tour of Bologna, Italy, where Spaghetti Bolognese doesn’t exist
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A foodie tour of Bologna, Italy, where Spaghetti Bolognese doesn't exist
From a session with a home cook to scouring local markets for fresh produce and street food, one writer delves into the rich culinary offerings of Bologna, and discovers that locals volition only use ragu alla bolognese in lasagne, never spaghetti.
Bologna, Italy, lies in a rich agricultural region that is famed for the quality and variety of its local produce. (Photograph: iStock)
14 Oct 2022 06:23AM (Updated: 14 Oct 2022 06:23AM)
Sitting in the heart of Emilia-Romagna, the beautiful and historic Italian urban center of Bologna has no fewer than three nicknames. La Dotta or The Learned One reflects its proud claim every bit the oldest university boondocks in Europe; La Rossa or The Red One reflects the countless red rooftops of the erstwhile town. But I was hither largely to celebrate its third nickname: La Grassa or The Fat One – thank you to its legendary cuisine.
Bologna lies in a rich agricultural region that is famed for the quality and variety of its local produce. That's a badge of accolade anywhere, but in Italy, it's really maxim something. Balsamic vinegar, Parmesan cheese and mortadella are all carefully crafted locally and obviously feature in many of Bologna'south near famous dishes.
Allow's outset with the nearly famous of them all, the culinary elephant in the room. Two words which should never go together – and if ever mentioned or heard in Bologna, would probably become you marched and dumped outside the urban center's elegant gates: Spaghetti bolognese.
Ragu alla bolognese is a rich, silky and slow-simmered meat sauce that is proudly used in lasagne alla bolognese – only never, ever served with spaghetti. Why would information technology be when the super-thin strands have no surface for information technology to cling to?! The but way to swallow it is with tagliatelle, the ribbons of handmade egg pasta which human action every bit the perfect vehicle for its meaty, deep flavours.
My immersion into Bologna's nearly well-known dish – although non the city'due south most beloved, as that honour clearly belongs to tortellini al brodo – came in a lesson with a fabulous local lady chosen Alessandra. She is a proud cesarina, one of a national network of Italian home cooks who seek to safeguard authentic recipes and share them with curious visitors.
Information technology's a vivid initiative, assuasive travellers to forge 18-carat connections with a city's locals through a winning combination of nutrient and friendship. The network has recently become a prestigious Slow Food Community and Bologna Welcome, the city'south visitor's bureau, are an easy way for guests to sign up and learn the truth behind iconic dishes – earlier taking recipes home to recreate them.
My immersion into Bologna'south food and some of its most famous dishes started past meeting Alessandra underneath Bologna's two most boggling medieval towers, each almost 100 metres high and 900 years erstwhile – and so not exactly difficult to spot.
They wait out over the narrow and atmospheric medieval streets of the old town where we started in Via Pescherie Vecchie, "the street of onetime fishmongers". Today it sits in the heart of the Quadrilatero area, home to the metropolis'south finest food shops and some of the earth's oldest food markets which appointment dorsum to the Heart Ages.
Alessandra'due south mix of pride and excitement was infectious as she wandered betwixt purveyors of produce to make those of us living in vast Asian cities go weak at the knees. Stalls decked in more than kinds of tomato than you can count, huge shiny eggplants, peppers and chilis, radishes and cabbages, multiple types of endives and zucchini, leeks and green beans, all calling out to be smelt, touched and turned into something delicious. Nosotros haven't even mentioned the fruit.
At a deli chosen Ceccarelli, a moustachioed shopkeeper was almost subconscious behind vast mounds of cheese, from Pecorino Romano to Asiego Nero, Formaggio di Capra al Tartufo – or truffled goat's cheese – to Parmigiano Reggiano anile from 12 to 60 months. Above him there were also endless legs of prosciutto, a dizzying option of cured salumi from wild boar salami and bresaola to speck or spicy spianata, even before the olives, oils, vinegars and fresh pastas came into the moving picture.
Gold-hued eggs, local mortadella and ricotta cheese all went into Alessandra's basket, while at Atti Panificio, a nearby baker and pasta maker in business concern since 1868, the popular local flatbreads called piadina joined them.
Information technology turned out that the flat where our cooking class was to have identify actually belonged to Alessandra's 80-something-year-quondam mother, an elegant, charming and plain-speaking nonna called Rafaelle who quietly surveyed proceedings and occasionally engaged in quality control through a gently raised eyebrow.
Once Prosecco had been poured – at around eleven.15am – Alessandra taught the states how to make pasta from scratch, gently working a sparse layer called Sfoglia that is used in Bologna to brand tortellini and tagliatelle alike. Her peak tip was to make a "volcano" ring of flour with the eggs placed in the middle, earlier gently tipping flour little by little into the centre and slowly mixing it.
This all took place on a vast wooden board, easily larger than the surface surface area of my kitchen floor in Hong Kong, that I institute pretty heavy and cumbersome – until Raffaella, standing at one.5m and in her 9th decade, picked information technology up and carried information technology under one arm in one case nosotros'd finished making our mess cutting the pasta into tagliatelle ribbons and crimper them into little nests.
Equally for that fabulous sauce, every ragu recipe in Bologna is a family unit hugger-mugger, but one common pinnacle tip is that some like to add together a practiced glug of milk towards the end of the cooking, in club to soften the acidity of the tomato sauce.
Nosotros also learnt a elementary, succulent just not very waistline-friendly mix of mortadella, fresh cream and ricotta to back-trail warmed piadina bread, toasted bruschetta with super-vibrant basil and tomato and fifty-fifty a very passable tiramisu to wrap things in fifty-fifty more than decadent fashion. At effectually fourscore euros per person (Southward$125), including a self-crafted luncheon and wines, it represented a brilliant one-half-24-hour interval fashion to go to know Bologna's culinary traditions and its people.
Naturally dining out is another and Bologna is truly the promised state. The city'due south street nutrient and snacks are legendary, starting with breakfast and a care for called Gnocco Fritto, essentially large fried sheets of dough which can be filled with cured meats, cheese and sometimes fruit relish. The whole matter is often and so dunked in your cappuccino. Oh yeah indeed.
Warm and soft rosetta staff of life filled with slices of artisanal mortadella is ubiquitous merely delicious, then there are always lots of those stuffed piadina breads, notably with rocket, cured prosciutto and the tricky-to-pronounce Squacquerone cheese. As for sweets, autonomously from legendary gelati all over boondocks, there'southward also crema fritta, a sort of fried custard with lemon. Unsurprisingly, Bologna isn't big on calorie-counting.
On the wine forepart, Emilia-Romagna may non avowal the famed labels of Tuscany, merely wineries like Umberto Cesari more than hold their ain both domestically and around the world – including in Singapore. Set up in idyllic gently rolling hills, the terroir of Castel San Pietro Terme focuses on local native grapes but likewise increasingly international varieties. Despite being effectually more than half a century, they are driven past a combination of sustainability and innovation.
All that translates into wines y'all'll want to buy at their Cellar Door such as the 100 per cent Sangiovese Resultum, an elegant number that is perfect with red meats, or the silky smooth Solo which combines the best of Merlot and Sangiovese. If the proper noun is unfamiliar, information technology's because they developed the new variety through enquiry with the Academy of Bologna Department of Agrarian Sciences.
As for restaurants, Michelin stars and fifty Best rankings seem irrelevant when you're faced with sensational bowls of freshly made tortellini al brodo in countless local trattorias for around 8 to 10 euros (Due south$xi to S$15) per person. These truthful labours of love – the tortellini are usually tiny and have to be handmade – feature a filling made from pork, mortadella and prosciutto, while the chicken broth, the brodo that they are simmered in, is as much the hero. Just don't confuse them with tortelloni, which are their much bigger brother.
Generally there'southward a noticeable simplicity and symmetry to meals in Bologna, as elsewhere in Italia. Dishes are uncluttered and speak for themselves. A cut of pork or lamb is merely that, maybe with some herbs. Food should e'er exist savoured, never rushed. And arguably the nearly important ingredient is conversation – often most what the next repast will concord in shop. That's my kinda town.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/experiences/food-tour-bologna-italy-284611
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