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HIDDEN GEMS OF ITALY
By CINDA CHAVICH
(Faenza, Italy) - Anyone familiar with fine Italian food products should be well acquainted with the region of Emilia-Romagna.
It’s home to such classics as Parmigianno-Reggiano cheese, the prosciutto hams of Parma, Modena’s traditional balsamic vinegars, and mortadella, Bologna’s fat pork sausages.
In fact, Bologna, the region’s capital, is nicknamed la grassa (the fat one), in reference to its historically rich cuisine, based on local meats and cheeses. Meaty Bolognese sauce is named for Bologna, and the area is known for all kinds of cured pork products, from salamis to the stuffed pig’s foot called zampone, mortadella and the famous prosciutto di Parma).
It’s the Emilia side, the west side of the region, where all of these fine food traditions are centered. But Emilia is not so well known for its wine, being home to the light spritzy Lambrusco, an off-dry rosÈ that can be the perfect foil for all of that fat, salty charcuterie, but was never considered a serious wine.
But the eastern half of the region, the area known as Romagna, that stretches off to the Adriatic Sea and up into the hills, is the side that a wine lover might explore, a place where Sangiovese di Romagna, Trebbiano, Albana and Pignoletto, a dry white that also appears in sparkling versions, is made.
While it may be an important hub in the foodie universe, Emilia-Romagna is largely uncharted territory when it comes to wine. But there are some hidden gems if you get a car and head into the foothills of the Apennines, mountains that divide the region from neighboring Tuscany. The vineyards between Faenza and Rimini in the heart of Romagna, produce some remarkable, accessible and good value wines.
Dozza is a short 25 km drive from Bologna, at the beginning of the Romagna wine route.
The castle itself is worth a visit for the views across the valley, but inside you’ll find many of the region’s wines offered for tasting, plus information on wine tourism routes through the region.
DOC Romagna is one of the biggest DOC’s in Italy, David Navacchia of Tre Monti Winery and the VP of the consorzio tells me over lunch at La Baita in Brisighella, casual enoteca that specializes in local charcuterie, from mortadella and pancetta, to slow-cooked beef cheeks and thick ribbons of homemade tagliatelle with wild boar ragu.
ìThere are 80 producers, with 65 small to medium producers and 15 co-operatives making more than 20 million bottles,î he says. ìI can’t compete at medium quality and low price, but we are beginning to respect ourselves, and work to create better wines.î
While modern winemaking technology has arrived in the wineries of Romagna, much of that work is in the vineyards that stretch over the hills around Imola and Predappio. Winegrowers are planting new clones and limiting production to improve the quality of the grapes. I taste it in his dry, green apple acidity of the Albana di Romagna, and the soft, silky tannins of the Sangiovese di Romangna superiore reserva, named for his mother Thea.
I am impressed by the Sangiovese Romagnolo – the different clones, soils and harsher climate on this side of the Appennines create a different Sangiovese, every little hilltop between Bertinoro, Brisighella and Modigliana seems to make a slightly different wine.
But the wines of Romagna are a revelation – like the passito Albana, made by drying the grapes before pressing to concentrate sugars and create a dessert wine reminiscent of the carmelized apples in tart tatin, or the . But the food here is also hearty and delicious.
There are several DOC wines in Romagna including Albana, Trebbiano, and Pagadebit (a high producer that always allowed growers to ìpay their debts), but the first DOC wine in the region, and the best, is Sangiovese. It’s the wine that works with Romagna’s rustic cuisine, the country-style soups, wild game and fresh pasta dishes.
It is the latter – the pasta or what Romagnans call the ìminestraî – that is the centre of every meal here. It’s pasta that’s tender, golden yellow, made with eggs, and rolled and formed by hand into tagliatelle noodles and tiny filled tortellini for soup.
When I sit down for lunch with the Turchi family at their charming olive oil mill in the hills outside Cesena, it is over big steaming platters of hand-cut tagliatelle with meaty Bolognese sauce, and thick slabs of rustic bread, toasted on an open fire and slathered with tapenade.
It is harvest time, and the small press has been running all morning, producing a steady stream of golden fruity oil.
Mariangela Turchi is dishing up pasta for the handful of mill workers here, including her husband Pierluca and son Michele, and their free-flowing Sangiovese is the perfect foil to her fine, homestyle cuisine.
It’s the same at Casa Zanni in Rimini, a family-run osteria, butcher shop and gourmet food store, where the hand-made, grilled piadina (a.k.a. piada) bread arrives warm with today’s fresh white squaquarone cheese, and a bottle of the owner’s own Sangiovese.
Like this delicious flat bread and sweet, young cheese, it was only by traveling the back roads of Romagna that I encountered their aged Formaggio di Fossa, a cheese made from either sheep of cow’s milk, then buried to age for three months in deep stone pits beneath the streets of Sogliano al Rubicone. Pressed under the weight of the column of cheeses piled into the deep,narrow pits, each becomes slightly misshapen and emerges, during the late November Fossa celebrations, aromatic and impressed with the texture of the cloth bags that contain them.
Here in Romagna, these purely local traditions still survive and thrive.
WINE ROUTES IN ROMAGNA
Start your wine route in Dozza at the Enoteca Regionle. Wend your way through the vineyards around Imola to Faenza, to visit the international museum of ceramics. Head through Forli and Castrocaro Terme, to Predappio, then through the Bidente river valley to Meldole and Bertinoro, known for it’s top quality wines. From here, its on to Forlimpopoli and the museum, cooking school and restaurant recently opened to celebrate the great Italian gastronome Pelligrino Artusi. Head on to Cesena, the fruit capital, and then through Longiano and up to the pretty town of Sogliano al Rubicone, where the famous fossa cheese is still buried underground in pits beneath the houses and streets to age, before it’s retrieved during a festival in November. The towns on toward Rimini are dotted with castles. Stop for wine and taste typical local foods at one of the Consorzio Vini di Romagna’s three enotecas: Ca’ de BÈ in Bertinoro; Ca’ de Ven in Ravenna, or Osteria di Piazza Nuova in Bagnacavallo.
For more information: www.consorziovinidiromagna.it
WINERIES TO WATCH:
Tre Monti
Taste: Thea Sangiovese di Romagna
Stefano Ferrucci
Poderi Morini
Nonno Rico Sangiovese di Romagna DOC superiore riserva
Spinetta
Taste: Bacchicus Sangiovese di Romagna Superiore DOC
Societa’Agricola Rani S.S.
Burson Etichetta nera
Colombina di Luciano Garofoli
San Valentino
Taste: Scabi Sangiovese di Romagna Superiore DOC
Valle Delle Lepri Az. Biologica
www.cameracommercioweb.it/valledellelepri
Campo del Sole
EAT:
Don’t miss Casa Zanni in Rimini – a family-owned restaurant, gourmet food store and butcher shop, where you can watch them make piadini and roast their own organic beef over a wood fire, then enjoy both with some local cheese (try the squacarone or fossa) and a great selection of Romagna wines (including their own Casa Zanni Roccamastino DOC Sangiovese di Romagna Superiore). Antonio Zanni founded the comfortable osteria in 1917 in this 17th century olive mill, and his children and grandchildren still run the place in great style. Sit on one of the long wooden benches and share a table with friendly locals, then shop for wonderful local olive oils, fruit preserves and the best torrone in town.
Casa Zanni
Via Casale, 205/213
47826 Villa Verucchio
Rimini
Closed on Tuesdays (except August)
SLEEP:
Make your base, for at least part of your trip, in the countryside, at Locanda della Luna, a lovely inn set in the Turchi family’s 15th century olive oil mill. There are nine charming rooms with private bath, satellite TV, telephone, and internet access, all decorated with contemporary style. There’s also a lovely gourmet shop here, where you can buy the family’s artisan olive oil and olive products, wines, beautiful preserves and honey, all produced on the family farm. They also have a restaurant on the farm, open Thursdays through Sundays for dinner. 70Ä (for two including breakfast).
Locanda Della Luna
via Balignano, 956
Balignano di Longiano FC Italy
tel. +39 0547 665566
©Cinda Chavich 2009
FOOD AND WINE TOURISM: ROMAGNA’S RUSTIC CHARMS
In the Romagna region of Italy, I watched the Turchi family harvesting and pressing their green olives, the fruit crushed between granite millstones to release its amazingly-fragrant juices. While there’s some modern mechanized equipment here today, the family has been pressing oil in this historic mill for 400 years and the chance to spend an afternoon with them was a highlight of a recent visit to the rustic and beautiful region. Next time I visit, I’m planning to stay at the Turchi’s lovely country guest house. Locanda della Luna.
There’s much to explore for food and wine lovers...
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photos by Cinda Chavich
