Page 254 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

252  CENTR AL IT AL Y

The Flavours of Central Italy

Emilia-Romagna is Italy’s gourmet capital, and home to
Parmesan, Parma ham and balsamic vinegar. Bologna has
earned the epithet La Grassa (“The Fat”) for rich dishes in which
butter, cheese and velvety sauces feature strongly. The lush
lands and rolling hills of Tuscany, Umbria and Le Marche tend
to offer simpler flavours and more rustic, peasant cuisine.
Top-quality pork from the Cinta Senese pig, beef from the
Chianina cattle of Tuscany, fabulous funghi and Umbrian truffles,
superb wild boar, and saffron-scented fish soups from the coast Italian tomatoes
of Le Marche are all gastronomic delights of Central Italy.

honour of Lucrezia Borgia’s two provinces, and there
golden hair, while tortellini is still a culinary distinction
pasta is said to be modelled between them. While Emilia’s
on the shape of Venus’s navel. gastronomy is liberally laced
The region’s pork butchers with butter, cheese and
are the most famous in Italy, mushrooms, Romagna’s
making excellent sausages, keynotes tend to be olive oil,
salumi and mortadella, and garlic and onions – and fish.
using every part of the animal The Adriatic in this region
including the trotters, which teems with life and is an
are stuffed to form the local especially good catching
speciality zamponi. Emilia and ground for turbot (rombo) –
Tray of perfect, freshly made coastal Romagna were once the “pheasant of the sea”.
tortellini pasta
Nostrano Milano Finocchiona Bococcini
Emilia-Romagna
Not only is this rich, fertile
land the home of many of
Italy’s most classic ingred ients,
but it has also given the
world bolognese sauce (ragù).
The authentic sauce contains
some 20 ingredients and is
usually served with tagliatelle – Porchetta
never spaghetti. Pasta is an art Spianatta romana
form here. Legend has it that Mortadella
tagliatelle was invented in Selection of the finest Italian salumi and other cooked meats

Regional Dishes and Specialities
Tuscan olive oil is outstanding in quality.
It has many uses and is an integral part
of crostini, slices of toasted bread
smeared with olive oil on which
different toppings are spread,
such as chicken livers in crostini alla
Toscana. Salumi producers are a great
feature of the region and prosciutto di
cinghiale (wild boar ham) is a rich, gamey
Crostini alla Toscana delicacy. As well as tagliatelle al ragù in Bologna,
other very popular pastas include tortellini and
tortelloni (the latter being larger than the former), often filled with
cheese, butter and herbs. Panforte is the Italian Christmas speciality –
a delicious confection of fruits, nuts, honey, sugar and spices Cacciucco A fish and seafood
originating in Siena. Try also ricciarelli, diamond-shaped almond soup from Livorno, flavoured
biscuits, and torta di riso – a rich, golden cake made with rice. with herbs and tomatoes and
ladled over garlicky toast.

252-253_EW_Italy.indd 252 26/04/16 5:16 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Feature template “UK” LAYER
(SourceReport v1.1)
Date 3rd August 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm