Liquid Gold and Homemade Pasta

Monday, July 23


Rachel's deep, deep love for balsamic vinegar inspired today's adventure in Modena: a tour of a real Acetaia where traditional balsamic vinegar is made.  Our drive from Cinque Terre back to Treviso (still with the Prices who were coming to spend a few days in the Venice area) took us straight through the food center of Italy - Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and Bologna.  I had contacted a private acetaia a few weeks ago and the couple, Giorgio and Giovanna, were happy to invite us into their home to show us how real balsamic vinegar is made.  Finding the home proved more difficult - as an industrial area has grown up around this large manor house that has been the home of vinegar makers and their barrels for hundreds of years.  But after a man on the street placed a phone call for us, we found the right place only a few minutes late.

Giovanna was a welcoming host and was clearly very proud of her product and the deep-rooted family tradition from which it is created.  Practically all bottles of balsamic vinegar say that they are "di Modena" - but that name is not protected and anyone can (and they do) put it on their bottles.  To be real balsamic vinegar (Traditional Balsamic Vinegar DOP) you must be only from grapes grown in certified vineyards in Modena.  The grapes are then crushed and the juice ("must") is boiled reducing it by 50%.  The liquid is placed in a series of barrels made of different types of wood (juniper, cherry, oak, ash) and continues to concentrate in the attic of their home  for either at least 12 years (or at least 25 years for the "extra old") at which point it must undergo rigorous blind tastings before bottling.  Only then, can it be put in a uniquely shaped bottle and sold as the real deal.  (She cautions against being fooled by other expensive looking bottles - if it isn't in this particular bottle, it is not real. Her advice: if buying industrial, buy cheap.  Also, there is no such thing as white balsamic vinegar!)  Making authentic vinegar is a tradition passed through families and requires patience.   What begins as 150 liters of grape must will yield not even three liters 12 years later. When Giorgio and Giovanna had a daughter Carlotta 26 years ago, as is the tradition of balsamic vinegar makers, they began her dowry - a series of barrels - that has been aging along with Carlotta until it was finally ready for bottling last year.  

After explaining the process to us and letting us smell the different barrels in one series, it was time for the tasting!  Though they make 8 different products, we only tried four or five.  Giovanna poured droplets of the thick black syrup into teaspoons and told us what wood each vinegar we tried came from.  We started with the 12 year old vinegars and before moving to the extra vecchio she had us cleanse our palates with some pieces of bread and wonderful chunks of parmesano regiano - from the nearby sister city of Reggio Emilia.  We ended up buying a bottle each of the Extravecchio gold cap – aged over 25 years, deep brown color, perfect for meats, salads, desserts, or even just as a digestive after a meal.  When we allow ourselves a drop or two of our “liquid gold” – after seeing the process, you understand that it can’t come cheap – I will be reminded of Giorgio and Giovanna and their painstaking attention to detail that created it.

Though this was supposed to be our day focused on food, we only had time to grab a really quick sandwich at a nearby bar before heading to our next stop, Bologna.  Jim scheduled a work meeting for 6 pm that evening so he needed to drop us in the center of Bologna and meet up with us 3 hours later.  For the second time that day (first in Modena) we drove straight into the walled city not understanding that traffic is limited and entering the city is forbidden unless you have the right permit and that we will most certainly be receiving tickets for those infractions when they track us down at home.  (As everything is done by pictures, we could be facing a lot of fines).  Jim got us a good restaurant recommendation from co-workers and I was able to get us an 8:00 pm reservation.

Since Rick Steves totally ignores Bologna in his tour book, we were on our own to fill the time.  Our first stop was the tourist information office on the Plaza Maggiore...well, the gelato shop right next to tourist information came first....and Cora was not happy when her scoop of chocolate gelato hit the ground! (Gretchen, send me that picture!).  At the TI, we picked up a map with a suggested route to follow and off we set through the porticos that Bologna is known for.  Every street is lined with arch covered sidewalks that are the widest of any Italian city.  I just came across this history of the porticos - if you are interested...

The Bolognese had begun to find themselves to be rather well off, and at the same time finding the population of their city to be rapidly rising. Bologna's world famous university, Europe's first, had attracted thousands of immigrants. Thus, in order to create more living space, the people began building extensions to their buildings. With not much room inside the walled city with which to build, these extensions were built out over the sidewalks. And so, porticos were born. The first officially documented portico dates to 1211. Before long (in 1289), they became a mandated feature of the city: if you built a new building, it had to incorporate a portico.

Our stroll took us by the original University building (the oldest university in the western hemisphere), to a church that is really seven churches altogether, inside another church with a statue by a young Michelangelo (though we didn't know which one was his), the two towers (le due torri), and underneath a passageway where there was a very small symmetrical room with a cool acoustic effect: if you put your ear in one of the corners and someone else whispers into the other the sound travles up the arch and down into your corner.  We all enjoyed standing face to the walls and seeing if we could hear each other...we must have looked a little odd. Perhaps the biggest highlight of Bologna was the Neptune statue, with water that shoots out of the breasts of mermaids.  (Please note that if I had suggested this photo, it would have been far too embarrassing to do - so we know that it wasn't my idea!)  

It was time to meet Jim at La Traviata for dinner, recommended for the homemade pasta made fresh daily.  Spaghetti Bolognese is one of my favorite foods and I was so looking forward to ordering the pasta al ragu in the place of its origin.  We were waited on by the pasta maker herself, and she was very particular about what and when we ordered.  She would only take our pasta order to start and would not allow us to order some second courses at the same time. We ordered 7 pasta dishes to pass around the table, and the pasta was fantastic...so fresh and thin and delicious.  The pumpkin ravioli and lasagna were stand outs and when we got her attention again, we ordered a second round of pasta (throwing us off the proper order by not ordering a second course).   The restaurant was very busy that night and the servers in no hurry to get us on our way - the service was even slower than we have become accustomed to.  At 10:30 we decided we really needed to get on the road...with two more hours to drive to Treviso and Jeff and Michelle needing to check into a hotel...and left with just having had the pastas.  That was fine with me...the pasta was great, but to be perfectly honest the ragu in Bologna was not better than the pappardelle bolognese here in Treviso - lucky for me that is much closer to home!