This past weekend we took a bitter sweet trip to Emilia-Romano, the food capital of Italy. We had planned the trip around the occasion of our first visitors, the Garff family foodies, Walt, Paula and Corey. It turns out they were unable to make it because they of that darn hurricane Sandy who reeked her havoc in a million and one ways.
But the reservations had to be kept so we packed up our brood and headed for the central Italian hills.
First stop:
Modena
The Balsamic capital of the world. I scheduled a free tour of a Traditional Balsamic Vinegar Production at Villa San Donnono. The villa above is the legendary home of the owner, one that looks like it jumped straight out of the Godfather and just so happens to have been the set of two movies.
Sculptures, tall trees and shaped boxwoods were everywhere, all of which I knew I couldn't do justice with my camera so I didn't take many pictures of it.
Here they are in a tiny chamber where wooden barrels of Balsamic Vinegar, aged for 12-25 years, is matured. The smell in here knocked you down...in a good way.
The napkins cover a square opening where water evaporates out of them over the aging process, making the flavor more and more concentrated. The balsamic vinegar we buy in stores isn't aged like this and is made mostly of vinegar with some grape juice and corn syrup added in. This stuff is "Traditional Balsamic Vinegar", made entirely of organic grape juice and aged for 12-25 years.
In the states, a 12 oz bottle costs over $100. But, after being here you understand why. It is very expensive, in time and labor, to make. After the tour of the vinegar production we were given samples. Oh man is there a difference between this stuff and the store bought stuff. I still don't think it's worth it to buy this regularly because even though its good it's just not necessary but we bought a small bottle of it anyway because...well you have to. It's just part of the experience. We plan to bust it out when all of you come into town.
Let me just add as an aside that Joey and I were totally enthralled and on some sort of travelers high during both these tours. The kids were really good...especially on the vinegar tour but they simly don't appreciate it. They keep asking, "When is this going to be over?" or "Can we get some gelato? or, Mom, can I play with your cell phone?" eh??
While we totally get where they are coming from (they are children after all) we can't help but look at each other and wonder..."Why on earth am I paying for you to be here?" and "Please can you find someone to stay with the next time we go on a trip...!?" These are real questions we're asking ourselves. If you have the answer for us or are willing to babysit please fly on over. With all the money we're sinking into travel that is totally lost on them we'll pay for your flight. We love them but surely you can see our predicament;)
Parmesan Cheese tour in Parma
So many things about this process blew me over. But for me the number one thing that I took with me was that these workers and 95% of all Parmesan Cheese producers in the area don't get a single day off the entire year. Because of the process and because most of these places are small family owned companies days off aren't part of the job description. Oh man, my heart breaks for them.
These are two brothers and the girl behind them is a wife to one of them. In this picture is a vat full of "whey". The milk of a cow is poured into this vat along with a barrel full of whey from the day before. It is kept at a certain temperature, and stirred for a few hours. The ball of cheese comes together at the bottom of the vat at which point they lift it out with cheesecloth, cut it in half to make two rounds and place it in the molds.
The molds sit for a number of days to become solid and then are soaked in a salt water bath for a month. That's where Parmesan cheese gets its salty flavor from...sitting in the salt water bath.
The rounds then are set to dry on oak boards for as many as 24 months to fully "ripen". The guide showed us how the cheese gets its color as well as some flavor from sitting on the oak (specifically) boards...the caramel color of the wood seeps into the cheese, the round is flipped and then the color seeps into the other side. The rounds are flipped every month for the entire aging process.
The DOP of Parmesan cheese comes by each factory when the cheese is "ready" and taps them with a hammer to determine if they pass the DOP test or not. If they do then they can be sold as Traditional Parmesan Cheese.
Our tour came with a lunch but when we told our guide that we weren't hungry yet he drove us over to a beautiful castle nearby. This area has nearly 100 castles and this one was is one of the best preserved.
The views were breathtaking.
The tour guides children were out of school for the holiday so they came along with us.
Georgie made a friend in Anna, the 10 year old so we have a few pictures of her in here.
Again, I don't do it justice but I'm in love with patchwork green farm land...
This castle was excellent because we had it nearly to ourselves. There was no furniture so nothing was roped off. The kids could just run around, imagine, pretend and play.
And the frescoes were quite breathtaking
THat about concludes our days in Parma and Modena. I'm not sure that I ever would have discovered the necessity of this adventure if it hadn't been for Walt and Paula. Thanks to them for giving us the idea. We'll be happy to take you back (and plan it better next time) when ever you can make it! Till then!
xoxo
Ash
