Trip and Tour Planning Guide about Food and Wine of Emilia Romagna Italy

This description page of Emilia Romagna, region Of Italy, will guide you in planning your trip to Italy and help you to find useful travel information about the Food & Wine of this Italian Region.

Food (Cibo)

Are you ready for an unforgettable cuisine adventure? Emilia-Romagna is the flagship of Italian cuisine, and the honor roll of foods is led by pasta of spectacular shapes, delicious fillings, and seasoned with delicious sauces.

In a region that breeds culinary legends, cooks consider ragù, made with meat and tomato sauce, personal works of art. There are two types of ragù: the first is made of ground meat; the second is made with a whole piece of meat that is cooked very slowly. Authentic Bolognese sauce contains up to 20 ingredients, including chicken liver, ham, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and red wine.

Recipes, and the names of dishes, vary from town to town. In Piacenza and Parma, you can sample anolini; in Ferrara cappelletti (little hats) and cappellacci filled with squash; in Modena you can savor square ravioli. Re's cappelletti differ from pasta of the same name in Romagna, whose specialties include the rolled tubes called garganelli and slim dumplings called passatelli. Pasticcio is pasta with other ingredients baked in a pie. In Piacenza, tagliatelle is served with a walnut sauce, and the most famous dish is pisaréi e fasó, hand-made gnocchi in a rich bean sauce.

You can enjoy signature dishes, like tagliatelle made with a sauce of chicken livers, beaten eggs, and Parmigiano. Or, try turkey scaloppine with prosciutto and Parmigiano and patate duchessa di Parma (which was originally created for the Duchess of Parma).

Other specialties are gnocco fritto, a country fritter; a flat bread called piadina; torta di riso, a rice tart; and erbazzone, a pie filled with Swiss chard.

Desserts include galletti (cornmeal cookies) and piada dei morti (baked on All S' Day).

Italy’s best-known meat product, prosciutto di parma, is Italy’s antipasto of choice. Ferrara makes salama da sugo from minced pork, liver, and tongue. Local folklore has it that the dish was created by Lucrezia Borgia to revive battle-weary troops.

Ferrara is also known for Jewish dishes such as smoked goose and marzipan desserts. Modena produces ravioli stuffed with minced meats or bollito misto, mixed boiled meats. Bologna’s mortadella is studded with black peppercorns and green pistachios.

Famous products include Parmigiano Reggiano, a grating and table cheese made from ' milk, Prosciutto di Parma, and a number of cured meats like coppa, culatello, salame di Felino, and pancetta.

Balsamic vinegar of Modena has been documented as far back as 1508 when Alfonso'Este, Duke of Modena, had his own vinegar facility. However, the term “balsamic” appeared only in an 18th-century register of the 's private cellar. Balsamic vinegar is made according to strict rules from the must of Trebbiana grapes. Kept in a red oak barrel, the vinegar is systematically poured from one barrel to another in a specific sequence. The most prized vinegars are over fifty years old.

Wine (Vino)

Emilia-Romagna is one the largest wine producing regions in Italy—from the hills at the feet of the Appennini mountains to the plains of the Po River and all along the Adriatic coast—the landscape is dominated by vineyards. The strongly individual characteristics of Emilia-Romagna wines make them northern I's most eccentric. They are different, on the whole, from the wines of their neighbors.

Emilia-Romagna’s ancient wine production tradition was proven in 1878 by the discovery of a large silver goblet dating back to the Roman Empire engraved with the word Gutturnium—the original Latin name for the wine of this region, Gutturnio.

The plain between Piacenza, in the northwest corner of Emilia and Bologna in the east is known as the Val Padana. This area grows over two-thirds of Emilia’s wines, much of it Lambrusco, a slightly fizzy and acidic wine made from the Lambrusco grape variety. Very few consumers abroad have tasted the wine in its authentic dry style. Most exported Lambrusco is sweet. A naturally sparkling red with a characteristic fruity bouquet, it is an excellent accompaniment to the local prosciuttos and salamis.

Also cultivated in this zone are imported vines such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay produced in the hills around Bologna where the climate and terrain are particularly favorable.

In the foothills of the Apennines to the south of the region, white wines are made from Malvasia, Trebbiano, and Ortrugo grapes. Zesty reds are made from Barbera and Bonarda grapes. In the areas of the Colli Piacentini, the Colli Bolognesi, and the Colli di Parma, wines are made from Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot, Barbera, Cabernet, and Merlot.

In Romagna, wines are made primarily from the native Sangiovese, Trebbiano, and Albana grapes. The traditional semisweet and bubbly version of Albana Spumante is a rich and sweet passito made from partly dried grapes. Another Romagna white, the Trebbiano di Romagna, is often light and fresh.

Between Bologna and Rimini, the most commonly grown grape is the red Sangiovese that produces Sangiovese, the king of Romagna wines. This zone also produces the first Italian white wine to obtain the status of D.O.C.: Albana di Romagna. It is grown from an autoctono vine of the same name, and is descended from a wine produced by the ancient Romans.

In Romagna, too, trends favor Sauvignon, Chardonnay, the Pinots, and Cabernet. But many producers are devoting major efforts to developing superior strains of Sangiovese and Albana, while building interest in such rare local wines as the DOC white Pagadebit, red Cagnina, and Bosco Eliceo Fortana.

Today, the tradition of wine and gastronomy enjoy a perfect marriage: good food and good company are the constant daily fare of the inhabitants of Emilia-Romagna.

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