It’s great to be back in Bologna again, the food capital of Italy. When I was here three years ago, I was quite bummed that I did not get enough of the local cuisine as there was a major conference in town, the city was overflowing with delegates and I couldn’t get into any of the ‘typical cuisine’ restaurants that were within walking distance from my hotel. My meals then were mostly in enotecas (wine bars) or touristy restaurants with mediocre food. This time 'round, it’s a different story. With a car, we headed to
Polpette E Crescentine , outside of the city center. Crescentine are these little pillows of bread heaven. They are soft, warm, fried and absolutely delicious. Reminds me of the Indian Puri. Paired with the famous salumi and cheeses of the Emilia Romagna region, you can’t go wrong. The salumi plate (
Affettati misti con crescentine) we ordered had proscuitto, salame rosse (some kind of cooked ham), salami, mortadella and coppa. The cheese plate (
Formaggi di capra bio con fico caramellato)
had 3 types of cheeses - Caprino Classico Fresco, Taleggio di Capra and Caprino Profumato al Tartufo. But the real star in the cheese plate is the fico caramellato (caramelized figs), which according to the restaurant manager is from a famous person
BABBI, made in the town of Cenese, near to Rimini. I know why that person is so famous, because those figs are really, really good – not overly sweet and with a hint of liqueur. Tuck some creamy fresh cheese into one of those crescentine, accompany it with the fig compote, and you have a little package of amazing goodness. I’d like to meet Babbi one day and get the recipe from him. Oh..dream on! In addition, for starters, we also had an order of Spuma di mortadella, like a mortadella mousse. This restaurant is also famous for their polpette (meatballs) and we had ours fried with potatoes. Perhaps we are already full from all the starters, the polpette seem ordinary in comparison with the starters.
The other remarkable meal in Bologna was in
Anna Maria Trattoria. I noted that recommendation from Saveur issue #110 ‘Ragu and Pasta in Bologna’. Heading towards the university district of the historical Bologna city center, we passed by a room where two women were busy making fresh pasta. The sign on the glass door had some Italian about Anna Maria Trattoria. I’m guessing this must be the school or the extended kitchen prep area. The trattoria is about 200 meters away.
I had to order the classic
Tagliatelle al Ragu and it was super delicious, the best Pasta Bolognese I ever had. The dessert was quite interesting as well – it’s supposed to be a local delicacy but it’s called
Zuppa al’ Inglese, literally translated to mean ‘English soup’. It’s not a soup at all but some kind of rum cake, topped with a beautiful custard sauce and is really delicious.
It’s great to be back in Bologna again, the food capital of Italy. When I was here three years ago, I was quite bummed that I did not get enough of the local cuisine as there was a major conference in town, the city was overflowing with delegates and I couldn’t get into any of the ‘typical cuisine’ restaurants that were within walking distance from my hotel. My meals then were mostly in enotecas (wine bars) or touristy restaurants with mediocre food. This time 'round, it’s a different story. With a car, we headed to Polpette E Crescentine , outside of the city center. Crescentine are these little pillows of bread heaven. They are soft, warm, fried and absolutely delicious. Reminds me of the Indian Puri. Paired with the famous salumi and cheeses of the Emilia Romagna region, you can’t go wrong. The salumi plate (Affettati misti con crescentine) we ordered had proscuitto, salame rosse (some kind of cooked ham), salami, mortadella and coppa. The cheese plate (Formaggi di capra bio con fico caramellato) had 3 types of cheeses - Caprino Classico Fresco, Taleggio di Capra and Caprino Profumato al Tartufo. But the real star in the cheese plate is the fico caramellato (caramelized figs), which according to the restaurant manager is from a famous person BABBI, made in the town of Cenese, near to Rimini. I know why that person is so famous, because those figs are really, really good – not overly sweet and with a hint of liqueur. Tuck some creamy fresh cheese into one of those crescentine, accompany it with the fig compote, and you have a little package of amazing goodness. I’d like to meet Babbi one day and get the recipe from him. Oh..dream on! In addition, for starters, we also had an order of Spuma di mortadella, like a mortadella mousse. This restaurant is also famous for their polpette (meatballs) and we had ours fried with potatoes. Perhaps we are already full from all the starters, the polpette seem ordinary in comparison with the starters.
