Up early this
morning as we have a 7AM pick up for an Italian Food Days tour we had found on line.
We are picked up
by Mercedes minivan and travel about 45 minutes for our first stop of
the day, at a factory that makes Parmesan Riaggiano DOP.
First we have to
gear up in our lovely professional cheese maker gear before we can go
into the factory. This is also where we meet our guide for the day,
there are 2 vans or 13 people on the tour. Our guide is one of the
best guides we have ever had on a tour. He starts off by going through
the whole process of cheese making with us, and then we go into the
factory to see it demonstrated. It is a 5 step process and we see
each step throughout the morning, this is why we have been brought
here so early. There are 12 copper bins where the milk is made into
cheese, each of these bins holds 1100 litres of milk to make 2
wheels of cheese. That's 24 wheels a day, that is it. A lot of it
is done by machine, but there are cheese masters there that are
continually feeling the consistency during some steps. We are also
taken into the storeroom to see all the finished products, wow. Many
of the wheels were waiting to be certified as Parmasan Riaggiano,
this takes a minimum of 13 months of aging, and can go up to 5 years
or more. It was very impressive to see more than 2 million Euros of
cheese all in the warehouse.
Next we are off to
the showroom where we are given some breakfast of champions. They
had 3 different ages of cheese for us to taste. Some different
sandwiches and sweets. We also had Lambrusco, which is what this
area recommends for drinking with meals, it is a light bubbly wine,
in red and white. We had as much cheese as we could handle, then
went into the showroom and bought some cheese to take back to Canada
and for the rest of our trip here.
Next we went over
to visit the dairy cows. All of the milk for the cheese comes from
their farm. There are a lot of regulations to get the Parmesan
Riaggiono DOP stamp on the wheel of cheese and this place really
controls everything from what the cows are fed, to how the cheese is
processed.
Next back to the
factory as the cheese is ready to be removed from the copper vats to
get ready to be put into the wheels.
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| We loved our tour guide Alessandro |
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| Cheese Master checking the consistency by hand, no gloves, and this is HOT! |
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| Soak in salt bath to absorb the salt, no salt is added in the cooking process |
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| Making Ricotta |
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| Have as much to sample as you like |
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| Thanks for producing the milk! |
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| Preparing to split from one to 2 blocks |
From here we move
on to a balsamic vinegar farm in Modena. What I found most
interesting was for the best balsamic vinegar it is only cooked grape
juice that is used. We saw how the best vinegar goes through the
Batteria stages. It starts with all barrels in the Batteria being
filled to 90% full, the Batteria is made up of between 5 and 12
barrels, of different sizes and different types of wood. Each summer
some of the grape juice evaporates from each barrel in the heat, and
each winter they fill from the barrel beside it to bring it back up
to 90% full. This is a minimum 12 year process. They only use the balsamic vinegar finished product from the smallest barrel. We tasted some 25
year old balsamic vinegar which was incredible. One interesting is
that one of the Batteria is given as a dowry when a daughter gets
married. This family has 2 daughter, so they have 2 Batteria ready
for them when they get married. This family has been making balsamic
vinegar for many generations.
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| Example of a 7 barrel batteria, largest to smallest |
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The dowry for the 2 daughters
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Next stop was at a
Prosciutto factory in , a small village in the hills of Bologna.
This is a huge factory, last year they sold 25 million Euros of
product. We saw the whole process from the 1st salt being
put on the pig as it came from the butcher, to the finished product
aging. They had so many different products in addition to
Prosciutto, I can't even name any of them. All cured the same way
but some without bone, some made with the front legs, some with the
hoof still on, pork bellies and many coated with pepper or other
spices.
After the tour of
the factory we were taken up to a tasting room. More wine, and about
10 different meats to taste. Andre really loved this part of the
tour, prosciutto is not my favourite, but I liked the wine.
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| 1st stage salting the meat, part done by machine, but finished manually |
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| Washing the salt off the meat |
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| Tasting time |
Next we are off
for lunch. After all this eating we only have a few minute drive and
it is lunch time. Our tour is the first time he is trying at this
restaurant. Eleonora, a sommelier is joining us to teach us a bit about wine,
and we are taken to a one star michelin restaurant. I can't believe
what we had! The focus was on pasta since we already had so much
meat earlier. The owner/manager would come out before each course
and explain what we were about to eat and how it had been prepared. The sommelier would answer any
question and the wine origin and explain the characteristic of the
wines and the grapes. She did a fantastic job.
We started off
with gnocchi filled with melted Parmesan and topped with shaved
truffles. The potatoes used to make the gnocchi were baked covered
in salt to draw extra moisture out of them so that the gnocchi would
be extra fluffy. Next course was like a spaghetti egg noodle with I
can't remember the name. It was topped with smoked Prosciutto and
chicory. Delicious and a huge portion, this may have been enough for
a meal in itself. All the pastas are made on-site by 2 grandmothers
that come in twice a week just to make the pasta, amazing. Next
course is ravioli filled with an amazing meatless tomato and onion
bolognese sauce and topped with aged Parmesan cheese. To be a
bolognese sauce it must simmer for at least 4 hours. The flavour was
intense and tasted fantastic. Next course was lasagna, which of
course is my favourite. We finish this off with sorbet and gelato.
All through the meal we are served different wines to go with each
courses, 2 whites and 2 reds from the region. An amazing meal. Once
we were done eating, expresso was served followed by a choice of
regional liquor made from walnut, cherry or herbs. We ended up
tasting all 3 in small dosage as these range in alcohol from 30 to
50%.
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| Started - gnocchi filled with melted Parmesan and topped with shaved truffles |
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| Egg noodle ( can't remember the Italian Name) topped with smoked Prosciutto and chicory |
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| Ravioli filled with meatless tomato and onion bolognese sauce and topped with aged Parmesan cheese |
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| 3 after dinner liquors to try, we tried them all! |
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| Our tour group for the day- Lots of fun! |
This was the first
time that the tour had gone to this restaurant. They wanted to try
something different. Usually they either go to a country side
trattoria or winery. We were very happy to go to this place as it was
a great meal, the trattoria where we had our meal was called Amerigo
1934. I. would highly recommend this place as it was up there with
one of the best meals I ever had.
It is a 45 minute
drive from here back to Bologna, most off in the country side with
rolling hills. We are basically in a food coma, we will not need any
supper tonight for sure.
We booked with a
company Italians Days. It was 150 Euros but well worth every Euro of
it Our guide was Alessandro and he was so energetic and passionate
about the places we visited. Very well informed on all aspects of
the production of the places we visited. He was full of information
and answered any questions that we had. He was a fantastic guide. We
would highly recommend this tour.
Marc, Andre and I
decided to walk off some of our meal and headed back into town. We
pretty much retraced our visits from yesterday but at nightime, and added going down
to the university. The university here is the oldest in Europe and
one of the oldest in the world. The library is supposed to be
amazing, but unfortunately we won't get to visit it this time.
It is Saturday
night and the walk into town is fun, many of the streets are closed
off tonight and pedestrian only. Also quite a few musicians out on
the streets which is always fun to stop and listen. Many Italian
families out walking. This seems to be a real past time in Italy,
everyone goes out walking.
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| Streets downtown are closed for walking only on the week-ends |
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| It seemed like the whole city was out for a walk! |
Back at the
apartment and it is now 9:30. Today has done us in, time for another
early night.
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