Eat, Drink, Repeat

I revisited three restaurants from my Tour d'Italia 2016 trip, Zeb in Florence, Zingaro in Parma, and Punto in Lucca.

Zeb in Florence

A repeat from last year's Florence trip and only because Cousin Vince and I talk about it whenever we hear anyone is going to Florence, Zeb Gastronomia is run by a mother and her son at the base of Piazza Michealangelo on the other side of the Arno.

First up, pasta. Spaghetti with shaved truffles is all about simplicity.  It's all about fragrance and depth of flavors. Pasta noodles are al dente and you’ll be smelling like truffle for the next couple hours.

Tortellini with pumpkin and ricotta in a fonduta of French cheese and garnished with poppy seed. Big stuffed pasta! Flavors were good, with the tang of a stinky French cheese to round out the dish. The dish makes an impact on the plate.. It’s big and contrasting colors of yellow, white and black get people looking and since it tastes great, it’s a winner.

Rabbit stuffed with a GRIP of fennel seed, cheese and herbs (an outstanding dish of rabbit). No bones to mess with, just moist rabbit and stuffings. The outer skin was crisp texture. Flavors were deep and complimentary to the wine. I remember having rabbit in Siena back in 2009 that rivals this dish. Great flavor and I could probably do it with chicken breast, since people think eating Thumper (or Bambi for that matter) are creepy.

Dessert was tiramisu, not overpowering with coffee, liquor or sweetness. I don't know if this would sell well in American restaurants as it lacked the over the top nature of an American style tiramisu (you know, the "welcome to flavor town” American style). That said, I liked it. As the pasta and rabbit were incredibly savory, even a touch of sweetness is welcome at the end of the meal.

I haven't a clue what wines were served, as I knew better from last year that if I asked to take a picture of anything, I'd be scolded. Suffice it to say, the wines paired with each course and white and red were served.

Zeb still gets top marks for great food in a casual environment. Remember, Italians tend to eat at about 1:30, so get to Zeb when it opens as they don’t take reservations.

Zingaro, Parma

A return to the first restaurant I ate in Parma in 2016, Osteria dello Zingaro, and a repeat of what I ate last year, a plate of cured meat, pasta and a trio of horse meat (so I won't take up space with pictures). The meal was wonderful and the owner and his son were just as they were last year, proud of their food and their restaurant.

I could simply re-post the exact same blog post from last year. Everything was exactly the same and I still think the cavallo tartare with picante is a delicious version of steak tartare. However there is one addition, a sausage risotto that was lovely.

Punto, Lucca

I'll say, it was pretty cool to be greeted with a smile, handshake and "welcome back" when I walked into Punto Officina del Gusto after almost one year to the day of my first visit. 

I was so impressed with the food and wine program at Punto last season, I was really looking forward to coming back. Since last year, Punto has opened their apertivo bar next door, however, this dinner was in the main restaurant.

Amuse of radicchio with tartar sauce. I didn't know what to think about this combination as in all my travels, it had never come up before. Perhaps a play on a veggie bowl with a ranch dip or onion dip. Tack it up to whimsy.

Artichoke with quinoa and coffee infused mayonnaise. Last year, I also ordered an artichoke for my first course and loved the result, this year in no different. Wonderful presentation, well prepared and fun. The quinoa add dimension and texture.

Risotto with tangerine, olive oil, Parmigiano and ponzu. Again, I repeated my risotto order from last year with the latest incarnation, tangerine risotto. The innovation here is the use of ponzu, not a typical Italian ingredient. The tangerine is not dominant, like the celery last year, I found the risotto balanced, delicate, and flavorful and a good pairing with the Pinot. Stronger flavors, bacon, beef, even poached fish would overpower the risotto. This risotto is a solo act IF you want subtle flavors, If you'd rather have this risotto in the background, I think it would pair with fish, game, or beef rather well.

Spaghetti with squid ragu and chili. Well constructed, good heat from the chili and the pasta. had good tooth on it. This dish almost seems tame for Punto. I have no complaints and would happily order it again, but perhaps I expected a 'spin' on the dish, an innovation that Punto does so well; taking tradition and offering an update.

Desserts were a lemon cream and meringue on sweet cracker and the cake of the day, beet juiced soaked with cream and chocolate. Both were welcome sweet treats after a savory meal.

I was pleased to return to Zeb, Zingaro and Punto and would happily return to all three again.

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Sale Grosso, Bologna

Sale Grosso in Bologna is a Southern Italian styled restaurant in the heart of Bologna and it was one of my favorite places to eat in Bologna.

Cream di Fave with cooked chicory and breadcrumbs with olive oil. Could this be just a big bowl of hummus? Yes. So you better like hummus. I’d say a little less dense than a typical hummus, this creamy bowl of beans is about as filling as it gets. This dish is Puglian and came up on several Lecce menus. If you like hummus, with less garlic and some wilted greens on top, this is your dish.

Orecchiette with broccoli and shrimp. One of the pasta highlights of the trip. Very Puglian in design, not Bolognian. Shrimp was cooked exactly right, plump and fresh. Hints of chili pepper flakes dotted the sauce, not overpowering. No butter, just olive oil and garlic. Post Script: As I'm in Lecce, I’m sticking with my assessment in Bologna that this dish was one of the highlights of the trip. A wonderfully fresh pasta, when most people think to do orecchiette with red sauce or rapini.

Salad with smoked Buffalo Mozzarella and anchovy with paprika. I ordered pasta, but received a salad. While my Italian is horrible, I did order a spaghetti dish, not something I'm going to pronounce poorly. Maybe the waiter sensed I needed more fiber in my Italian diet. What was presented was a welcome surprise. The smell of smoke is what I first noticed coming from the cheese, a smoked mozzarella. Each piece of Mozzarella was topped with anchovies, a combination I've never had. Normally, that many anchovies would be unwelcome; however, when combined with the smoked Mozzarella, they tasted great and didn't repeat on me an hour later. Genius.

For dessert, fresh ricotta with a generous portion of mixed berry coulis. Albeit this is a simple dish, I loved it. Plus, it was pretty on the plate.

I’d say for a fast lunch by Italian standards, less than an hour, the meal was one of the tops of the trip; eating Puglian food in Bologna. Go figure.

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5 Things to know in Italy

Click bait time with a 5 Things headline on Italy. I posted last year about little things many guidebooks don't mention when traveling in Italy. It's not some insiders guide nonsense, just practical stuff one has to deal with while traveling.

Video sign in Italian and the warning in English

1. Recycle Containers when renting an apartment. How many recycle containers does one country need? Plenty. I think the most is 6 containers in Bologna? Or you just dump everything in a street container marked Indifferinziata. If you’re going to get a place on AirBnB, you’re gonna have to deal with waste containers.

2. Smoking is alive and well in Italy my friends. A new generation of smokers is coming. People can’t smoke in restaurants or on trains, but they can smoke right outside the door of the restaurant or the train while the door is open.

3. Graffiti is also alive and well. Regional Trains and buildings, get tagged a lot, the fast trains, not so much. Some of it is actually art, most of it isn’t.

4. Dog Poo. No change. Still plenty of poo on the streets. Lecce does a nice job of street cleaning. Minimal dog poo in Lecce and no less dogs than other Italian towns. Bologna, new to the dog poo rating scale has an issue with the portico system as poo needs to be cleaned by shop owners and rain can’t simply wash things away under a portico. Poo in Bologna is a problem.

5. Restaurant bathrooms (even Michelin rated Restaurants) don't always have toilet seats. But they do have very expensive hand air systems (think Dyson) instead of paper. And one toilet for an entire 30 seat restaurant, so keep an eye on the bathroom if you need to make a go.

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Restaurant Triple Play, Lucca

Osteria via San Giorgio, Lucca

I knew nothing of Osteria via San Giorgio, other than I had walked by it the last two years several times on my daily and nightly walks around town. A “fancy” patio with lights and color, the interior is much more seasoned and typical rustic Italian.The crowd during my visit was 100% Italian, with a large family party celebrating a birthday. It gives me some comfort to know that the place is frequented by locals.

To start, raw artichoke salad. The salad was spot on for flavor, texture and depth. Raw artichoke sliced on a mandolin and hit with a good punch of Parmigiano, olive oil, salt, lemon, some herbs and pepper. Simple and wonderful. Loved the dish and one of the best of the trip, even up against Manzo and Scacco Matto.

Pappardelle with venison, but it wasn't the venison that made the dish, it was a combination of pine nuts and raisins as garnish that added texture and less sweetness than you'd think. The raisins were plump, but not over-sweet or hard nuggets; they added acid and character, rather than detracted. The venison was stewed first and that cooking liquid was used in the dish.

Antica Drogheria Pizzeria, Lucca

Antica Drogheria Pizzeria sees everything from students to families. It has a smart and inexpensive local lunch as well as a take away counter if you're looking for something quick. I sat down to eat the smart lunch.

Polenta cake with truffle. As billed, with a strong residual truffle flavor, more like a truffle salsa as the truffles were preserved in some way. Polenta has a good sautéed texture to the outside. Simple appetizer to make and serve for a party.

Beef cheek, with potato. Delicious cut, not overcooked. Had to be a bay leaf base sauce, plenty of that flavor in the meat. Dark brown sauce, simple and delicious preparation.

Pappardelle with a wild boar meat sauce. Thick noodles with good chew, I would have preferred a slightly less watery sauce and allowed the noodles to release a little starch, but the overall profile was good.

Wine was red, local, a hint stinky, and easy to drink and cheap. Have no clue what it was. What did we learn from this wine? Clean your barrels.

Osteria Baralla, Lucca

Osteria Baralla is THE restaurant that is probably a huge tourist spot during the summer, due to its proximity to the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, its large space, and air conditioning. It's big, has a larger menu and a staff that speaks English. Our server didn’t even offer the normal Italian pleasantries in Italian, just jumped right into English.

Breseola of water buffalo over arugula. Perfect start to things. Simple construction, albeit elegant for a plate of cured meat and greens. Garnish your own salad is the way of things in many Italian restaurants, the server offering olive oil and balsamic, along with salt and pepper. Salt and pepper were offered in preground shakers, rather than fresh cracked or course grain salt, like many other places.

Tordolli in meat sauce was a good representation of what many Lucchese restaurants claim as "the best in town". Most restaurants here have this dish, a stuffed pasta with a meat sauce. The issue here was too much residual pasta water on the final plate. I'm looking for a red sauce without water in the final product. A quick toss in the sauce pan should eliminate any water as the pasta will release starch and thicken the resulting meat sauce. Otherwise, a good plate of pasta.

Tripe in red sauce. No nonsense, tender and without excuses. I'm eating stomach lining in red sauce and it was good, not the best I've had, but not rank amateur either. Wine was of the local variety without much consequence.

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Gelato, Gelato, Gelato

Who doesn't like gelato?! I love it, but it's not easy to find high quality gelato in Italy during the winter time. Most of the places that are open, are not good. I’m highlighting three places with a high quality gelato during my recent trip

Gelateria la Crema Matta, Lucca

Matta just opened when I returned to Lucca in February. Went back two days in a row for fiore di latte/chocolate combo, then a triple of hazelnut/pistachio/crema. Nice density and creaminess on par with the Ferrara gelato. The other gelato location open in Lucca during the winter is Grom, which isn’t much of a gelato to write home about.

Rizzati Gelato, Ferrara

Outstanding density. No air, no ice crystals. They have a portable commercial mixer on premises and scoop the gelato directly out of the mixer. I saw the process at Rizzati and the machine and ingredients were the same I used when I made gelato in Florence. I had almond gelato and it was some of the best I've had.

Venchi Gelato, Bologna

Venchi is near the Mercado di Mezzo in Bologna. Pistachio, which is not my normal selection was a winner. The color is actually what attracted me; it was not neon green like so many gelato places, it was slightly brown or olive tinted, which is what happens when you grind whole pistachio. Great scoop.

Much of the inferior gelato I had this trip was light and airy, not dense and rich like the ones I highlighted above. Are the inferior gelato places whipping the gelato to fast? Are they cutting some corner? Who knows. Many of the inferior places are chain stores or getting the gelato from some commissary, rather than making it onsite.

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Fast Meals and Home Meals

A few pictures of travel meals, quick breakfast items, and the use of cold cuts that needed to be cleared out of the refrigerator before leaving the apartment. It's amazing what you can do with three different salumi and dry pasta.

It is now TRADITION since my first visit overseas, to eat exactly one McDonald’s hamburger.  I thoroughly enjoyed it for 1eu while transitioning through Florence.

Florence Train Station...1 McDonald's Hamburger please.

Pathetic Chicken Sandwich. I needed a fix frankly. Something quick, something to remind me of the gas station complex in Ripon off Highway 99 in California. The picture below was from one of the bar places in Lucca on the way to the train station. I wouldn’t do it again, go find Caffe Monica for a take-away.

Caffe Monica in Lucca just inside the gate wins for best sandwiches so far. Bread was outstanding and the meat and cheese quality were high. 2.50eu (look for the darker bread sandwich from the train station)

Truffled Eggs, Truffled mortadella. My mortadella sandwich aka bologna sandwich for my 8+ hour train ride to Puglia was all I needed.

Fusilli with truffle butter, sage and prosciutto. Nearing the end of what's in the refrigerator things get more simple. Version 2.0 was Fusilli with artichokes and sage. I think more representative of what might be seen in a restaurant.

Lots of prosciutto, cheese, and bread for dinner at the apartment in Bologna. Breakfast tended to be eggs, toast, juice, coffee. Although my eggs with truffle butter took top marks in Lucca.

Pizza in Three Cities, Lucca, Bologna, Lecce

Plenty of pizza was consumed for Tour d'Italia 2017, from Lucca to Lecce. Pizza at all the places I'm highlighting are sold by weight (you determine how much pizza you want to buy, they cut it and weigh it) Here's the highlight reel for the trip.

Forno Casale, Lucca
In addition to the bread they make each day (which is the best in Lucca), they do have cookies and pizza. I’d never had the pizza, so it was time for some take away. It was a classic sheet pan pizza I’ve had most of my life in Fresno, cooked by either my mother or grandmother. It was good at room temperature and the next day for breakfast. And it has an eye for the camera. I will stress the real highlight at Forno Casale is the breads. Outstanding and the best in Tuscany.

Pizzartist, Bologna
Stumbled upon through a random walk back to the apartment. Delicious stuff.  Bought three different types, fungi, sausage with rapini, and smoked ham with tomato. All the crusts were great (translation:thin, not doughy, seasoned, crisp), the guys slinging the pie were excited to be there and they happily accept take out. Looked it up after the fact and it's one of the top restaurants in Bologna by TripAdvisor. Happy accident walking past the place.

Pizza al Taglio, Lecce
Night 1: Three different pizza choices, filetto di Manzo with rucola in a stuffed pizza format, mushroom and sausage, and a light creamy Gorgonzola style but real light flavor with mushroom. Paired it with the Rosa Del Golfo Scaliere 2014 Negroamaro; which I ended up drinking for the next couple days and a match made in heaven, easy to drink and eat with the variety of pizza on the table.

Night 2: Truffle cheese was outstanding, two pieces down before I made it home. Stuffed mortadella and provolone was richer than the filetto di Manzo. The salt on the crust really came through on round two and paired better with the wine.

Day 3: Mushrooms and a stinky Italian cheese. Like the rest of the pizza I’ve had here, another winner. No I didn’t get the name of the cheese, but it had truffles in it. Pizza goooood.

Morning After Pizza: For each night of pizza you see, there was a breakfast of pizza the next day. I generally would get ‘planned overs’ with each night of pizza. I have no problem with not having to cook breakfast when high quality cold pizza will do, next to my double shot out of the moka pot. 
 

Bologna’s Battle of the Markets

There are four markets that come up in the guidebooks for Bologna. Naturally, all the guides tell you how great they are and I'm going to tell you where to not waste your time.

Mercato di Mezzo (recommended)
Probably not by accident, the Eataly, Bologna is next door and all access from Eataly directly to the Mercato is closed. The Mercato is a series of independent food stalls serving various Italian items. Cool place to be for apertivo. Plenty of wine selections and food to eat. Lots of action and vibe in the place.

In the area around Mercato di Mezzo, there are plenty of choices for apertivo and a wide variety of things to eat. Yes, there are plenty of places to get mortadella and prosciutto, but there are other casual places serving their take on the apertivo time, both inside and outside on the street.

Typical apertivo style snacks

Fries with Eyes, also known as anchovies were being served as a special at the fish vendor. Along with some apertivo items served on bread, soft cooked pumpkin, wilted greens, and some cheese thing on bread, along with cold lasagna, for 8eu per glass of wine, one could eat their entire meal without technically purchasing food, only drinks.

Tortilloni with pumpkin in a sage butter sauce and topped with parmigiano was another winner and at 8.50eu for the plate

Mercato di Erbe, no pictures, forgot to charge phone (recommended).

Cool hangout for lunch, either sit down or quick take and eat. I had a typical dish of pasta with sausage in a light cream sauce. My friend had fried chicken and fries. Both were great. If anything, getting a quick fix of chicken fingers was the highlight, 10x better than a cotaletta sandwich, those suck. The dessert was a yogurt cream spiked with honey and something else. Thick and rich and slightly sweet, but no way it was all yogurt, it had to have either sour cream/creme fresh/whipping cream in it somehow. 

Mercato di Pizzaolo (not recommended)...is the Ramate, not a market of food stalls. If you need a cheap scarf, hat, bag, etc. come here on a weekend. Otherwise, don't bother.

Mercati della Terra (not recommended in Winter) isn’t that big of a deal in winter. It may be the coolest market in Spring and Summer, but in the Winter, it’s just ok. There is an adjacent open lot with food vendors and beer, which could get lively.

Il Brindisi, Ferrara

Il Brindisi has been in the Gambero Rosso Guide for many years. It's old. Real old. Plenty of dusty stuff all over the walls. Even has a squat for a toilet. Yea, that old.

Il Brindisi seems touristy, from the moment you walk up to the door, with every global guidebook sticker you can think of, some certification on table, and some other certificate on a eisle. But, it’s Sunday in Ferrara, so choices are extremely limited.

Walk in and there are plenty of visual clues telling you about the history of the place (besides the dusty stuff), from pictures to ancient bottles of wine to somehow make you love the place just because it's old. I can almost see my Mom watching Rick Steves on PBS telling me about Il Brindisi in the heart of Ferrara, (dub in Rick’s voice) "legend has it this is the oldest continually operated restaurant in town"...blah blah blah.

I started off with pasta in brodo or broth, a classic and hard to screw up. The dish was warm, filling, and salty. Belly filling. But there isn't that much to it. I've made this dish and had it in other places, it's a classic regional dish served here with irreverence and disrespect. In most cases, the simplest dishes can be the hardest to get right. 

Boring broth with salty pasta lurking underneath the surface

Moving on to the second course, cotechino with mashed potato was exactly as billed, no frills and cooked like it has been for the last 500 years.

500 year old cotechino sausage

My friend ordered the pot roast with mashed potato. This dish could have been cooked by my mother. One doesn’t come 6000 miles to eat a pot roast that can be duplicated by your mother.

Hey look, Mom's Pot Roast 10,000km away from Fresno

The wine? It tasted like the stuff they served at the Fresno Basque Hotel in 1989. The wine was 3eu a glass. If it wasn’t served chilled, it might not have been palatable.

Was it bad food? No. Was it knock your socks off? No. It was home cooked comfort food, nothing more...but it was open on a Sunday and saved me from having to get a sandwich or bad pizza.

Ferrara has three reasons to go back to: 1 Rizzati Gelato. 2. A walk around its ancient wall. 3. Find a better restaurant to eat in (don’t go on a Sunday).

Where to stay in Emilia Romagna, Italy

Is Bologna a jumping off point for Emilia Romagna? Or should you stay in Parma or Modena or even Ferrara?

Bologna is a big city. You can easily fly in from Paris or Frankfurt and be at your apartment/hotel in 20 min. The main train station, Bologna Centrale is part of the downtown and you can be in Parma or Modena within an hour by train. 

Bologna's secret canal network

Bologna has everything, high-end shopping, a nightlife, Michelin restaurants. It also has a lot of students, hordes of tourists, and plenty of trinket dealers. The town is big. You could easily explore a quarter of the town and not get bored. The guidebooks can detail walking tours and sites to see. Bologna is a culinary focal point, so there are plenty of cooking classes and schools you can attend to fill your time.

Parma and Modena by comparison have much less in the way of tourists, students,  or hordes of people. They are quaint towns compared to Bologna. You can walk the entire city center of Parma around the edge in an hour on a fast walk. Modena, is even smaller if you don’t venture out of the old center.

Where should I eat next? 

By train, Parma is an hour to Bologna, Modena is 30 minutes. If you want a Gucci bag, take the train to Bologna and go back to Modena. Modena has very well regarded restaurants, one of the best in the world actually. Parma has a great apertivo culture.

While I’ve never stayed in Ferrara, I visited. It is north of Bologna on the same train line that would take you to Verona/Vicenza/Venice. The city has an intact wall, similar to Lucca, although much larger. The town itself is also bigger than Lucca, but with charming streets. I could see an extended stay in Ferrara if you wanted to get both Emilia Romagna and some day trips in to the Veneto.

It’s a give and take, Bologna or the outlying towns? I think it depends on you and your personality. You want slower, eat lunch within a 10 minute walk, take a nap, don’t wanna fight a busy Main Street or smell the stank of yet another student’s cigarette smoke? Parma/Modena are your places.

If you just want to trophy hunt and say you “saw the sights” stay in Bologna and day trip everywhere. There’s always a train passing through Bologna to take you somewhere else for the day.