Tasty Bologna

There are many reasons to love Bologna, Italy - Medieval architecture, portico-lined streets, the stunning Neptune Fountain, history, art, music-filled churches. It’s a fascinating city. But Bologna is perhaps best known as “La Grassa” (the fat), a nickname that reflects its abundance of good, make that great, food. On a recent trip I combined exploring the beauty and history of Bologna with indulging in the local food.

Bologna is the birthplace of pasta ripiena (filled pasta) as well as the famous ragù alla  Bolognese, a pasta sauce that begins with a soffritto of celery, carrot and onion and is rich with meat (beef, veal, or pork), a bit of tomato paste, and some wine. It’s the perfect topping for tagliatelle or other wide pasta and is often used in the local lasagna as well. 

What a treat to be able to buy fresh pasta ripiena at a local market.

Bologna and the surrounding areas (think Parma and Modena) are also the center of the universe for prosciutto, other types of salumi, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and the best balsamic vinegars.  The shops are overflowing with these products - I could have used an extra suitcase to bring home all the items I wished to buy. Bologna has its own local wines too. The slightly fizzy red Lambrusco and white Pignoletto go perfectly with the rich and sometimes salty foods served in the area.

Of course, a city with good food must also have great markets, and Bologna is no exception. The small market stands and shops in the old city are centered in the area known as the Quadrilatro, just off Piazza Maggiore. This area is a riot of colors, shapes, sounds, and smells. Vendors along the streets sell fresh veggies, fruit, meats, cheeses, pasta, prepared foods, and an ocean’s worth of fresh fish. A painter would need a whole palette of color to portray everything on display.

There are also flower markets, cafes, bakeries and wine shops nearby. It really is a cook’s dream. For a food-loving tourist, beginning the day with a coffee and pastry, followed by a morning of shopping, leading right up to lunch at one of the many fabulous small restaurants is a great way to spend the better part of a day.  In addition to all the small stands, there is also the Mercato di Mezzo (an indoor food court) and an Eataly. The choices are endless.

The Piazza Maggiore area is perfect for people-watching and sitting for a morning coffee, a light lunch, or an afternoon aperitivo. My travel companion and I had a lovely lunch at Signorvino, which carries Italian wines from all regions.

They served a wonderful plate of mortadella and prosciutto along with some focaccia and a glass of Lambrusco (choose a small or a large pour). There is also a daily pasta special, which on this day was a orecchiette with pesto and burrata. Sit here and enjoy a relaxed lunch with a view of the piazza and the Basilica of San Petronio.

Choosing where to have dinner in Bologna was easy for me - I couldn’t wait to return to a restaurant I had loved on a previous visit, the Osteria Santa Caterina. Known for its wide selection of salumi and cheese (each appetizer plate is named after one of the old city gates) they also serve wonderful local dishes, including pastas, soups, meats and simply the best melanzane parmigiana I’ve ever eaten. They know their wines too, and I absolutely trust their recommendations. It’s a friendly, lively, local spot - just the sort of place I love.  Don’t these photos of their dishes make you hungry?

Tortellini in brodo

Melanzane alla parmigiana

Gramigna alla salsiccia

Another plus is that the Osteria Santa Caterina is near the place that has become my go-to Bologna hotel, the Palazzo Trevi Charming House. It’s in the Porta Saragozza neighborhood, just a short walk to the center of the Medieval heart of Bologna.

This small but picturesque terrace at the Palazzo Trevi encouraged me to do some writing while sipping an afternoon tea.

The rooms are comfortable, some have small terraces or patios, and the breakfast is substantial.  A friendly, family-run small hotel, it is just a bit out of the tourist center in a quiet part of town. Perfect!

Lest you think all I did was eat on my trip, I also found time to visit my favorite spot in Bologna, the Basilica of Santo Stefano. This complex of several small churches, chapels, and a cloister is a must-visit spot for me on any trip to Bologna (for more on this unique and fascinating basilica see The Seven Churches of Santo Stefano, August 14, 2017).  After visiting the basilica, I suggest a stop for a gelato. Just up the street from Piazza Santo Stefano is the Cremeria La Vecchia Stalla - try the fior di latte buffala (buffalo milk) gelato. Trust me on this, it’s the richest, creamiest gelato ever and is absolutely delicious (and a big thanks to my friend Shari for recommending it to me)  I dove into mine so quickly I didn’t even get a photo.

The whimsical interior of Cremeria La Vechia Stalla

One last note - the friend who accompanied me on this visit to Bologna was - gasp - a vegetarian (or nearly so). While she didn’t share my love for plates of salumi or bowls of meat-filled pastas, she had no trouble finding fresh and tasty dishes to enjoy and cheeses to sample. After all, even vegetarians eat pasta, drink wine, and enjoy gelato!                -post by Joanne

Contacts:

Osteria Santa Caterina.  Via Santa Caterina 43, 40123 Bologna

Signorvino Bologna Piazza Maggiore 1, 40124 Bologna

Palazzo Trevi Charming House Via Frassinago 31, 40123 Bologna. website: www.palazzotrevi.it

Scenes from Christmas in Lucca

I love Christmastime in Italy. The streets are filled with lights and decorations, making the already beautiful Medieval architecture even more gorgeous.

Near Piazza San Michele, Lucca

Wreaths and greenery decorate doorways, shops, and streets. Holiday magic is in the air.

Chiasso Barletti is the prettiest little Christmas alley in Lucca,

In Lucca, this year’s decorations have a musical theme, with music symbols and poetic lyrics lighting up the piazzas.

Piazza Anfiteatro with a message in Christmas lights - art is a form of craziness.

San Frediano - a perfect spot for an aperitivo under the lights.

The theater where music performances and operas are held glows bright in a stunning display of golden lights. There is ice skating in Piazza Napoleone and the smell of fresh frates (warm, sugar-coated doughnuts) fill the air. I had to taste one - all in the name of research of course. A perfect wintery treat on a cold, crisp night.

Ice skaters glide while Teatro de Giglio glows

It wouldn’t be an Italian Christmas without a presepe (nativity scene). The one inside the Basilica of San Michele is my favorite this season. It has beautiful and detailed figures representing not just Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus but of a whole village of people. The display includes houses, the village mill, and even a pond along with the manger and animals. Most unusual is that this is not a static display - it is programmed with light that changes from sunrise in the east to daylight followed by sunset in the west and to the night sky, in which a bright star appears. I was just as fascinated as was the little girl next to me watching with her grandfather.

The season continues past Christmas through the New Year celebrations and on to Epiphany in early January. So there is still plenty of time to wander through town enjoying the magic of Christmas in Italy.

-post by Joanne

Festive and Light-Filled Florence, Italy

If you would have told me before this holiday season that Florence, Italy, could be even more beautiful than it usually is, I wouldn’t have believed you. But then I saw Florence in its Christmas glory this month. Lights. Trees. Nativity scenes. Holiday markets. Window displays. It is as if the historic center of the city wraps itself up as a giant Christmas gift for all who walk its streets.

Just as the city enfolded art and scientific innovation into its cultural fabric decades ago, every December Florence drapes its cobblestone streets with a dazzling display of lights (which is completely separate from themed light shows that are displayed on some of the city’s epochal  monuments during December).

Shop owners get in on the action with Christmas window displays or swags of greenery; Christmas markets offer artisanal goods and Nativity scenes pop up around town – the most prominent of which sits outside the Duomo in Piazza del Duomo.

The life-size Nativity outside the Duomo.

Wandering the city at this time of year made me feel like a kid during a recent visit as I gazed up and around, trying to take in as much of the displays as I could. It’s a pretty good way to feel at this time of year.

 – post by Judy 

Even scaffolding is given a holiday touch

The Art of Andrea Roggi

There is so much to love about Lucca, Italy - from the Renaissance walls that encircle like a giant hug, to the Medieval streets and buildings, to the music that so often fills its churches, theaters, and squares. It is, like much of Italy, colorful, warm, inviting, and sensuous. Lucca is also a city filled with art. Not museums full of art, but rather a constantly changing outdoor art gallery. Various exhibitions come, filling piazzas or appearing along the walls, and then after a few months they disappear only to be replaced some time later with a new and different art installation. The displays are beautiful and thought-provoking and, best of all, are accessible to everyone. Locals and tourists alike stop to examine the works, to discuss, to photograph, to admire, or sometimes to shake their heads in a sort of “imagine that” gesture. Children not only gaze at these fantastic pieces, but often they can reach out and touch them. It really is art that lives alongside the city and its people.

A Roggi sculpture streetside in Pietrasanta. I love the movement and joy in this piece.

A smaller tree of lIfe theme brass sculpture in the Roggi Gallery in Pietrasanta

This summer a new exhibit graced Lucca, this time by the artist Andrea Roggi, who was born in Tuscany and continues to live, work, and teach in this area.

I first experienced his work in Pietrasanta, where I found his outdoor sculpture of a family at play enchanting. A stop at his gallery in Pietrasanta provided a chance to see more of his work - in bronze and marble - and to learn that an exhibit of his art was just being installed in Lucca.

The Roggi exhibit in Lucca, titled “Terra Mater Earth and Heaven,” included large brass sculptures, many with a recurring “tree of life” theme. The largest of these tree-like sculptures was placed in the Piazza Anfiteatro. Other sculptures were placed on the Renaissance walls, where they were enjoyed by the many people who walk along the walls every day.

This Roggi sculpture, here against Lucca’s blue sky, is one of my favorites.

The Roggi exhibit comes down … what will come next?

As fall arrived the Roggi exhibit came down to make way for the next event, the huge annual Lucca Comics and Games that took place in late October and early November.

But I will anxiously await the appearance of a new art exhibit sometime next spring or summer.

-post by Joanne

For more information on the art of Andrea Roggi and his galleries in Pietrasanta, Cortona, and San Gimignano go to : www.andrearoggi.it

An Apperitivo at Home in Italy

It’s been a chilly, rainy late fall here in Italy. Between floods in Venice and Matera, days of wind and rain here in Lucca,  falling tree limbs in other parts of Tuscany, and evenings that turn dark by 5 p.m,, we recently were in need of a little lift. While warm evenings spent sipping summery drinks on Italian piazzas are long gone, there was no reason that aperitvo hour couldn’t move indoors and into our homes to provide some relief from the gloomy weather.

With that in mind, and the fact the we had Judy’s birthday to celebrate, I decided to throw an aperitivo gathering in my Lucca apartment. Keep in mind that while my kitchen is large by local standards, it is still a relatively small space. And all the pretty platters and just-right serving pieces I’ve collected over the years remain in boxes stored in New Mexico, so hosting a group for aperitivo required imagination, flexibility, and the relaxation of some of my usual “rules” of entertaining. In this case that meant using disposable plates, plastic silverware, and a host of mismatched wine glasses. Making-do was the name of the game. It also helped greatly that friends chipped in with a couple of dishes, extra glasses, and several bottles of wine.

First, the menu. I wanted food that was filling enough that the evening could go well past dinner hour but that was still in keeping with the small bites and finger foods that are typical of aperitivo. All had to be served buffet style, allowing guests to mix and mingle. Here in Lucca this is known as an apericena - a mix of aperitivo and a light, early dinner (dinner in Italian is cena).

I started building the menu with my go-to party dish, savory clafoutis (a recipe I came across years ago in Fine Cooking magazine). These little cloud-like bites are made with a variety of fillings - just pick the flavors you like best. I chose roasted red peppers and goat cheese for half (the tiny ones pictured below) and mushrooms with ham for the slightly larger ones. Both were flavored with a little fresh thyme,  which is still thriving on my terrace. I love that I can make these in the morning and then pop them in the oven to reheat just before serving and also that the same basic batter combines with so many different filling combinations.

Friends contributed other hearty appetizers - zucchini fritters, little packets of bresaola (a cured beef) wrapped around a filling of softened cream cheese seasoned with some Penzey’s fox point seasoning (an American spin on an Italian appetizer), and some mild red peppers with a tuna filling that were colorful and tasty. Yum!

Tuna filled peppers

Bresaola Packets (front)

Zucchini Fritters

Everything else was purchased - prosciutto, three kinds of cheese (pecorino, brie with a fig topping, and - my personal favorite - caprini - a soft cheese marinated in spices and olive oil), olives, focaccia. I made a seasoned salt as a dip for a mix of raw and blanched veggies. It was served alongside olive oil (the little cups meant for soft-boiled eggs made delightful serving pieces for the salt and oil). And, of course, no Italian aperitivo is complete without some salty potato chips.

The wine flowed, starting with a Prosecco birthday toast and then a variety of whites and reds, mostly local varieties. Who needs matching glasses and fancy dishes when you’ve got good friends, good food, lively conversation, laughter, and a place in Italy? -post by Joanne