We went on a food tour with Mattia at Delicious Bologna. (We found him through a Viator search but this is his own website). If you ever go to Bologna, spend a half-day with Mattia, you get to sample some of Bologna’s best food and it’s also a good orientation to the city center and the history of Bologna.
We saw hand-made tortellini at a pasta workshop, (San Francisco folks: this is where the owner of Flour + Water trained), walked through the central produce market, snacked on tigelle, sampled the local salumi (including mortadella, a pale imitation of which goes by the name “bologna” in the cold-cuts section) and parmiggiano with aceto balsamico. Finally we had a nice lunch of the most typical Bolognese dishes: tagliatelle al ragù which is not the same as “bolognese sauce”; tortellini in brodo (pictured), and lasagne made with spinach in the dough. Finally some gelato, of course.
We also went to Acetaia Giusti, one of the oldest and most famous producers of balsamic vinegar. It was fascinating to see the way vinegar is made on the free tour, which includes plenty of promotion of why the Giusti family was absolutely essential to the idea of balsamic vinegar. I recognize a lot of the process details from winemaking and barrel-aging of whisky or beer. But there’s an interesting inversion, in the conditions the vinegar is subjected to during. Barrels are left with an opening to the air to allow a little evaporation. They are traditionally stored in the attic, where the temperatures range from 35 in the winter to 110 in the summer, as if the goal is to temperature-cycle as much as possible. This is basically the opposite of how wine is supposed to be aged, quietly resting in the cool basement. It makes sense, since if you mistreat wine you end up with vinegar, so the way to make good vinegar is to apply as the forces of aging vigorously. Anyway the end result is utterly delicious.
